Linux Training :Red Hat Enterprise Linux Systems Administration

This course will teach the commands and methods needed to setup and manage a RHEL5 system. The course will also use a problem solving approach in the lab exercises to teach system administrators advanced topics, for long-term mangement of the system.

This course is the equivalent to Red Hat course 131.

Systems: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 (all update levels)

Linux Training Prerequisites

It is assumed that the participant has successfully completed the Red Hat Linux Essentials course, or has equivalent system time as a user.

Linux Training Course duration

This course normally requires four (4) or five (5) days, approximately 60% lecture, and 40% lab time.

Linux Training Course Objectives

On completion of this course, a systems administrator should be able to install, update, and boot the RHEL5 operating system; set up user accounts and directories; prepare queues for use; perform backups for integrity and performance reasons; monitor the system for performance and do basic setup of network software and capabilities.

Linux Training Course outline

Advanced System Concepts for System Administrators

Linux history and timelines
Process concepts
Bash Shell command usage and review
Optimizing system help information
System administrator functions
Using the root account
root access via sudo
Using the RHEL5 administrative graphical interfaces
Manipulating system default environment files
Installing and using webmin for remote administration

System Installation and Updating

Installation types and methods
Installing the RHEL5 operating system
Upgrading to a newer release of RHEL5
Maintaining the system via patches
Adding additional products to the system (packages)
General package management
Reconfiguring the Linux kernel

Startup and Shutdown

Components involved in the Linux boot
Grub loader stages and configuration
Default bootstrap
Boot to single-user mode
Linux startup methods, tools, and procedures
Understanding run levels
Adding procedures to the startup mechanisms
Shutdown methods and control

Managing of System Users

UID and GID concepts
Creation of a user account
Security through password aging
Controlling access by groups
Login sequence
Setting up user environment files
Using and maintaining user login files
Viewing and controlling running processes
KDE setup files
.gnome* files and directories (menus and layouts)

Managing Printer Queues

Creation of an execution print queue
Commands to manipulate queues
Commands to manipulate jobs in queues

Managing Disk and Tape Volumes

Commands to manipulate disks/filesystems
- partitioning disk surfaces with fdisk
- creating ext3 file systems (mke2fs)
- manipulating file system structures
- verifying file system structures with fsck
- making file systems available to software (mount)
Creating and using LVM based file systems
Commands to manipulate archival volumes:
- tar utility
- cpio utility
- dump and restore utilities
- Alternative methods of backup (mondo, rsync)

Monitoring System Activity

Informational Utilities
The vmstat utility
The iostat utility
The sar utility
The netstat utility
Maintaining swap and paging space(s)
Building and using the top facility

Network Setup and Configuration

TCP/IP address selection
Host names and related files
Configuring network devices
Network testing with ping
Network utilities: telnet, rlogin, rcp, rsh, ssh

Maintaining System Integrity

Login and user accounting
Command/process level accounting
Using cron tables

Basic Server Setups (Procedures and Mechanisms)

DNS (client)
FTP
Mail
Web (Apache)
Samba

Shell Scripting for Systems Administrators

Bash shell variable definitions and basic techniques
Looping and conditional constructs
Administration scripts:
- Directory content information
- switchdesk replacement
- preformatting man pages
- disk label conversion
- batch job logging
- administrative menus
- find largest file(s)