Linux Administration
Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Taking your first steps as a Linux admin
Course Objectives
- Integrate and execute Linux commands to help administer a server
- Create visualizations using the command line
- Learn strategies for understanding how to manage, troubleshoot, and fix Linux systems
The course description should be 1-2 paragraphs that give potential learners a high-level overview of what the course will cover. This should include: an overview of the technology, why this course is needed or what problem it is solving for the learner, what skills the learner will gain, and how the learner will be able to apply what they learn in the real world or on the job. There should be a high-level mention of the exercises the learners will complete during the course, and it should avoid marketing language. It should not pull text directly from another institution’s documentation or promotional copy.
If you've ever wanted to begin the journey towards being a Linux systems administrator, this course is for you. Starting from the basics of the command line, you'll learn some of the useful tools that systems administrators consider must-haves. You'll learn how to manage users, permissions, processes, firewalls (such as UFW), the Linux filesystem structure, and other important concepts.
By the end of this course, you will feel more comfortable with the Linux command line and be able to manage many of the basic aspects of the Linux operating system that are required for the job. You'll also be ready to take the next step with the open-source operating system to begin the next stage of your career.
This live event is for you because...
- You’re a junior admin with no Linux skills
- You work with a company that either uses Linux or is thinking of migrating to Linux
- You want to become at home administering Linux servers
Prerequisites
- A basic understanding of servers.
- Ability to understand the basics of commands (regardless of operating system).
Course Preparation
- It would be helpful to have a machine with Linux installed so you can follow along. It might be best to have it running in as a virtual machine (just in case).
Course Follow-Up
- Linux: From Basics to Guru
- The Linux Command Line, 3rd Edition
- Linux Fundamentals, 3rd Edition
Schedule
The time frames are only estimates and may vary according to how the class is progressing.
Section 1: The tools you'll need to know (20 minutes)
- Presentation: This will serve as an introduction to the tools that are typically required for Linux system administration.
- Discussion: For Linux system administration, it's necessary to know a text editor, such as nano, the command line, and secure shell.
- Exercise: Open the nano text editor, edit a configuration file, save, and close it. Open a terminal and secure shell to a remote server.
Section 2: Introduction to Bash (20 minutes)
- Presentation: What is Bash and how does it affect the Linux terminal and command line. This will also introduce the concept of the $PATH.
- Discussion: What is one of the biggest functional differences between the Windows and Linux command lines?
- Exercise: Run the command to see what directories are in your path and then add a new directory to it.
- Q&A
Section 3: Installing and updating (20 minutes)
- Presentation: This will focus on updating Linux servers.
- Discussion: All servers and desktops should be regularly updated. Here's how to do that with both Ubuntu- and Fedora-based distributions.
- Exercise: Demonstrate your understanding of updating/upgrading both Ubuntu- and Fedora-based distributions.
- Q&A
- Break
Section 4: User management (20 minutes)
- Presentation: This will focus on adding, deleting, and modifying users
- Discussion: User management is a key aspect of administering a multi-user Linux system. Here you'll learn how to add, remove, and modify users. The modifying section will cover adding users to groups, changing a user's password, and expiring passwords to force a user to change it.
- Exercise: Create and delete a user. Add the user to the sudo (or wheel) group. Force a user's password to expire.
- Q&A
Section 5: Process management (20 minutes)
- Presentation: Learn how to monitor, start, stop, and manage running processes and system services using PowerShell cmdlets.
- Key Cmdlets Covered:
- Get-Process and Stop-Process (Managing application processes)
- Get-Service, Start-Service, and Restart-Service (Controlling background services)
- Start-Job and Get-Job (Running asynchronous background tasks)
- Hands-on Lab: Writing a script to automatically detect a frozen process, terminate it, and log the event.
Section 6: Logs (20 minutes)
- Presentation: This will focus on managing logs on Linux
- Discussion: Not only will this discuss what logs are important to keep tabs on, but also how to do so.
- Exercise: Using the less and the tail commands to view logs and also view them in real-time.
- Q&A
Your Instructor
Jack Wallen
Jack Wallen has been a technical writer, covering Linux and open source, for nearly twenty years. With thousands of published articles, he has covered just about every aspect of the open source platform. Jack has also taught at the university level and has led numerous workshops.