Red Hat Linux System Administration Course

Course Description

This course is designed for delegates who are responsible for system administration duties on a Red Hat Linux system. This course enables delegates to install, customise and administer the Red Hat Linux operating system in a multi-user environment.
For students studying towards Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification this course along with RH253GB (Red Hat Linux Networking and Security Administration) provide the core knowledge for exam RH302GB (Red Hat Certified Engineer).

Course pre-requisites:

Delegates should be familiar with basic information technology. They should be able to login to a Linux system, set a user password, execute basic Linux or UNIX commands, manage files and directories, use the vi editor, use and customise the GNOME interface, use basic and power user utilities and understand basic user network utilities. This knowledge can be gained by attending course RH033GB (Introduction to Red Hat Linux I, II).

Covered on the Red Hat Linux System Administration

Hardware Configuration and Installation

1. Supported Hardware
2. Hardware Considerations
3. X86 System Buses
4. X86 Peripheral Buses
5. X86 Network Interfaces
6. Hardware Abstraction
7. Device Files and Drivers
8. Red Hat Linux Device Aliases
9. Device Configuration
10. Additional PCI Utilities
11. RAM Size and Recognition
12. Block Devices and File Systems
13. File System Schemes
14. The Red Hat Installer
15. Installer Features
16. Red Hat Linux Installation
17. Partitioning Hard Drives
18. Red Hat Linux on FAT: Partitionless Installation
19. Software RAID
20. Network Configuration
21. Package Selection
22. Validating the Installation
23. Post-Install Configuration
24. System Configuration

Linux File Systems

1. Disk Structure
2. Disk Partitioning
3. The fdisk Command
4. Creating File Systems
5. Ext2 File System Attributes
6. Mounting File Systems
7. Mount Options
8. Important NFS mount Options
9. The /etc/fstab File
10. Unmounting File Systems
11. Auto-mounting
12. Dealing with Floppy Diskettes
13. File System Maintenance
14. Determining Disk Usage

System Initialization and Services

1. Boot Sequence
2. BIOS Initialization
3. LILO - Linux Boot Loader
4. Kernel Initialization
5. Init Intialisation - /etc/rc.sysinit
6. Run Levels
7. The /etc/rc.local File
8. Controlling Scripts
9. Daemon Processes
10. System Shutdown
11. System Reboot

User Administration

1. User Policy Considerations
2. The /etc/passwd File
3. Adding a New User Account
4. Modifying/Deleting Accounts
5. Password Aging Policies
6. Group Administration
7. Switching Accounts
8. File Ownership
9. File Permissions
10. SUID/SGID Executables
11. The Sticky Bit
12. Access Modes
13. Default File Permissions
14. User Private Groups
15. User's Environment

Network Configuration

1. Device Recognition
2. Network Interfaces
3. Address Resolution Protocol
4. The ifconfig Command
5. The ifup/ifdown Commands
6. Interface Configuration Files
7. Multiple NICs
8. Binding Multiple IP Addresses
9. DHCP/BOOTP
10. Configuration Utilities
11. Allowing User Control of Network Interfaces
12. Basic IP Routes
13. The Default Route
14. IP Forwarding
15. Global Network Parameters
16. Name Resolution
17. DNS Client Configuration
18. DNS Troubleshooting
19. PPP Client Configuration
20. Network Diagnostics

System Administration Tools

1. Printer Administration
2. Using printtool
3. LPRng Configuration Files
4. LPRng Utilities
5. Task Automation
6. Using at
7. Controlling Access to at
8. Using cron
9. The crontab File Format
10. System crontab Files
11. Controlling Access to cron
12. Using anacron
13. The anacrontab File
14. Using tmpwatch
15. System Log Configuration
16. System Logging
17. Maintaining Logs
18. Finding Files
19. Managing whatis
20. System Monitoring
21. Back to Tape
22. Controlling Tape Drives
23. Backup/Archive Utilities
24. Using tar
25. Using dump/restore
26. Using cpio
27. Other Backup Software
28. Remote Backups
29. RPM Package Manager
30. RPM Queries
31. RPM Options
32. RPM - Installing and Upgrading
33. Removing Packages with RPM
34. The rpmfind Command
35. The strace Command
36. Posting Information For Users
37. Sending Messages to Users
38. Sources of Help

Alternative Installation Methods

1. Laptops
2. Multiboot Systems
3. LILO Components
4. The LILO Map Installer
5. The LILO Boot Prompt
6. Serial Console Installation
7. Expert Mode
8. Driver Disks
9. Using kickstart to Automate Installation

Kernel Services and Recompilation

1. Kernel Concepts
2. Kernel Modules and kmod
3. Kernel Compilation: Preliminaries
4. Kernel Compilation: Configuration
5. Kernel Compilation: Compilation and Installation
6. Kernel Compilation: Post-Installation
7. Installing Kernel Errata RPMs
8. Software RAID Configuration
9. The Linux Quota System
10. The /proc File System
11. /proc/sys Configuration with sysct1

The X Windows System

1. The X Windows System
2. The X Protocol
3. Network Transparent
4. X Security
5. X Modularity
6. Window Managers
7. Display Managers
8. Xfree86 Startup
9. Extensibility
10. X Server Configuration
11. X Server Version 3
12. X Server Version 4
13. The X Font Server

Troubleshooting

1. Things to Check: X
2. Things to Check: Services
3. Things to Check: Networking
4. Things to Check: Booting
5. Recovery Run-Levels
6. File System Corruption
7. Boot Floppies
8. Rescue Environment Utilities