Customised Linux Training

Introduction

• Unix and Linux
• Unix system architecture
• Unix philosophy
• What is Linux?
• Using a Linux system
• Linux command line
• Logging out
• Command syntax
• Files
• Creating files with cat
• Displaying files' contents with cat
• Deleting files with rm
• Unix command feedback
• Copying and renaming files with cp and mv
• Filename completion
• Command history

Getting started

• Files and directories
• Examples of absolute paths
• Current directory
• Making and deleting directories
• Relative paths
• Special dot directories
• Hidden files
• Paths to home directories
• Looking for files in the system
• Running programs
• Specifying multiple files
• Finding documentation for programs
• Specifying files with wildcards
• Chaining programs together
• Graphical and text interfaces
• Text editors

Work effectively on the Unix command line

• Shells
• The Bash shell
• Navigating the filesystem
• Command-line arguments
• Syntax of command-line options
• Examples of command-line options
• Where programs are found
• Setting shell variables
• Bash configuration variables
• Using history
• Reusing history items
• Retrieving arguments from the history
• Summary of Bash editing keys
• Combining commands on one line
• Repeating commands with for
• Command substitution
• Finding files with locate
• Finding files more flexibly: find
• find criteria
• find actions: executing programs

Process text streams using text processing filters

• Working with text files
• Lines of text
• Filtering text and piping
• Displaying files with less
• Concatenating files with cat
• Counting words and lines with wc
• Sorting lines of text with sort
• Removing duplicate lines with uniq
• Selecting parts of lines with cut
• Expanding tabs to spaces with expand
• Using fmt to format text files
• Reading the start of a file with head
• Reading the end of a file with tail
• Numbering lines of a file with nl
• Dumping bytes of binary data with od
• Paginating text files with pr
• Dividing files into chunks with split
• Using split to span disks
• tac: backwards cat
• Translating sets of characters with tr
• tr examples
• sed – the stream editor
• Substituting with sed
• Put files side-by-side with paste
• Performing database joins with join

Perform basic file management

• Filesystem objects
• Directory and file names
• File extensions
• Visiting directories with cd
• Going back to previous directories
• Filename completion
• Wildcard patterns
• Copying files with cp
• Examples of cp
• Moving files with mv
• Deleting files with rm
• Deleting files with peculiar names
• Making directories with mkdir
• Removing directories with rmdir
• Identifying types of files
• Changing timestamps with touch

Use unix streams, pipes and redirects

• Standard files
• Standard input
• Standard output
• Standard error
• Pipes
• Connecting programs to files
• Appending to files
• Redirecting multiple files
• Redirection with file descriptors
• Running programs with xargs
• tee

Search text files using regular expressions

• Searching files with grep
• Pattern matching
• Matching repeated patterns
• Matching alternative patterns
• Extended regular expression syntax
• sed
• Further reading

Job control

• Job control
• jobs
• fg
• bg

Advanced shell usage

• More about quoting
• Quoting: single quotes
• Quoting: backslashes
• Quoting: double quotes
• Quoting: combining quoting mechanisms
• Recap: specifying files with wildcards
• Globbing files within directories
• Globbing to match a single character
• Globbing to match certain characters
• Generating filenames: {}
• Shell programming

Filesystem concepts

• Filesystems
• The unified filesystem
• File types
• Inodes and directories

Create and change hard and symbolic links

• Symbolic links
• Examining and creating symbolic links
• Hard links
• Comparing symlinks and hard links
• Examining and creating hard links
• Preserving links
• Finding symbolic links to a file
• Finding hard links to a file

Manage file ownership

• Users and groups
• The superuser: root
• Changing file ownership with chown
• Changing file group ownership with chgrp
• Changing the ownership of a directory and its contents
• Changing ownership and group ownership simultaneously

Use file permissions to control access to files

• Basic concepts: permissions on files
• Basic concepts: permissions on directories
• Basic concepts: permissions for different groups of people
• Examining permissions: ls -l
• Preserving permissions when copying files
• How permissions are applied
• Changing file and directory permissions: chmod
• Specifying permissions for chmod
• Changing the permissions of a directory and its contents
• Special directory permissions: ‘sticky’
• Special directory permissions: setgid
• Special file permissions: setgid
• Special file permissions: setuid
• Permissions as numbers
• Default permissions: umask

Create, monitor, and kill processes

• What is a process?
• Process properties
• Process monitoring: ps
• ps options
• Process monitoring: pstree
• pstree options
• Process monitoring: top
• top command-line options
• top interactive commands
• Signalling processes
• Common signals for interactive use
• Sending signals: kill
• Sending signals to dæmons: pidof

Modify process execution priorities

• Concepts
• nice
• renice

Create partitions and filesystems

• Concepts: disks and partitions
• Disk naming
• Using fdisk
• Making new partitions
• Changing partition types
• Making filesystems with mkfs
• Useful websites

Control filesystem mounting and unmounting

• Mounting filesystems
• Mounting a filesystem: mount
• Mounting other filesystems
• Unmounting a filesystem: umount
• Configuring mount: /etc/fstab
• Sample /etc/fstab
• Filesystem types
• Mount options
• Other columns in /etc/fstab
• Mounting a file

Maintain the integrity of filesystems

• Filesystem concepts
• Potential problems
• Monitoring space: df
• Monitoring inodes: df
• Monitoring disk usage: du
• du options
• Finding and repairing filesystem corruption: fsck
• Running fsck

Find system files and place files in the correct location

• Unix filesystem layout
• The filesystem hierarchy standard
• Shareable and non-shareable data
• Static and dynamic data
• Overview of the FHS
• FHS: installed software
• FHS: other directories under /usr
• FHS: directories under /var
• FHS: other directories
• FHS: other directories
• Finding programs with which
• The type built-in command
• Checking for shell builtins with type
• Updating the locate database
• updatedb.conf
• whatis
• Finding manpages with apropos
• Web resources

Set and view disk quotas

• What are quotas?
• Hard and soft limits
• Per-user and per-group quotas
• Block and inode limits
• Displaying quota limits: quota
• Options in /etc/fstab
• Enabling quota: quotaon
• Changing quota limits: setquota
• edquota
• repquota

Boot the system

• Boot loaders
• Lilo
• Sample lilo.conf file
• Selecting what to boot
• Other ways of starting Linux
• Specifying kernel parameters
• Specifying kernel parameters in lilo.conf
• Useful kernel parameters
• Boot messages
• Kernel modules

Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system

• Understanding runlevels
• Typical runlevels
• Single-user mode and sulogin
• Shutting down and restarting the system
• Setting the default runlevel
• Selecting a different runlevel at bootup
• Determining the current runlevel
• Switching runlevel
• Services in each runlevel: the init.d directory
• Symbolic links in rcN.d
• Starting or stopping individual services

Use and manage local system documentation

• Manual pages
• Navigating within manual pages
• Sections of a manual page
• Sections of the manual
• Manual section numbering
• Determining available manpages with whatis
• Printing manual pages
• Searching for manpages with apropos
• Displaying all manpages of a particular name with man -a
• Searching the content of all manpages with man -K
• Finding the right manual page
• Help on shell builtins
• Location of manual pages
• Info pages
• Navigating within info pages
• Documentation in /usr/share/doc/
• Contents of /usr/share/doc
• Interrogating commands for help
• Finding documentation

Find linux documentation on the internet

• The Linux Documentation Project
• HOWTOs
• Obtaining HOWTOs
• Vendor- and application-specific web sites
• Usenet newsgroups
• FAQs
• Local Help

Write system documentation

• Documentation
• A system log
• Making documentation available
• Plain text documentation
• HTML documentation
• Microsoft Word documentation
• LaTeX documentation
• Manual page documentation
• Paper documentation

Provide user support

• Providing user support
• Attitude to providing user support
• User support skills

Manage users and group accounts and related system files

• /etc/passwd
• /etc/group
• Shadow passwords and groups
• passwd
• useradd
• userdel
• usermod
• Locking accounts
• groupadd
• groupmod
• newgrp and gpasswd
• chage
• pwconv and pwunconv

Tune the user environment and system environment variables

• Configuration files
• Shell configuration files
• Changing environment variables
• Changing the prompt
• Shell aliases
• Setting up home directories for new accounts

Configure and use system log files

• syslog
• /etc/syslog.conf
• Sample /etc/syslog.conf
• Reconfiguring syslog
• Examining logs: less and grep
• Examining logs in real time: tail
• Log rotation
• Sample /etc/logrotate.conf

Automate and schedule system administration tasks

• Running commands in the future
• At commands
• Commands run by the At dæmon
• At command specification
• Opening windows from At commands
• At command date & time specification
• Managing At commands
• Simple cron job specification
• More complex cron job specification
• Crontab format
• Crontab date & time specification
• More complex crontab dates & times
• /etc/crontab
• User crontabs
• Cron job output
• At command and cron job permissions

Maintain an effective data backup strategy

• Reasons for backup
• Backup media
• Types of backup
• Backup strategy
• Archiving files with tar
• Creating archives with tar
• Listing the files in tar archives
• Extracting files from tar archives
• Device files for accessing tapes
• Using tar for backups
• Controlling tape drives with mt
• Deciding what to backup
• What not to backup
• Scripting backup
• Other backup software

Configure fundamental system hardware

• Bios: datetime, disks, boot, devices
• Bios: interrupts and dma addresses
• Bios: device settings
• 1024 cylinder limit

Setup scsi and nic devices

• Nic: understand 3 era methodologies: jumper, non-volatile memory, self-configuring
• Nic: verify configs with /proc/interrupts /proc/dma /proc/ioports
• Scsi: types
• Scsi: ids, scsi logical unit numbers, linux device files
• Scsi: termination
• Scsi: controllers on pcs (scsi bios)

Configure modems and sound cards

• Modems: what they are
• Modems: types, ie. winmodems
• Modems: avoiding i/o and interrupt conflicts (sharing not necessary)
• Sound: correctly specify kernel module sound driver
• Sound: settings in /etc/modules.conf

Design hard-disk lay-out

• Issues and considerations
• Disk space
• Type of system / role
• Backup schemes and resources
• Swap space
• Filesystem functions

Install a boot manager

• Functions of lilo: find and load kernel into memory, start the kernel in memory
• How lilo works: bootloader in mbr started by bios, prompt-based kernel selection, map installer
• Lilo command
• /etc/lilo.conf
• Lilo locations

Make and install programs from source

• Find and get sources
• Understand tarballs
• Configure command: functions and use
• Make command: unerstand and use
• Make install

Manage shared libraries

• Understand function of linking: static vs dynamic, shared libs
• Understand and use ldd
• Linking and finding libs via ld_library_path
• Understand and use ldconfig for linking and finding
• System libs ind /etc/ld.so.cache /etc/ld.so.conf

Use debian package management

• Overview
• Debian naming and numbering
• Dpkg
• Apt-get
• Alien
• Dselect

Use red hat package manager (rpm)

• Overview
• Red hat naming and numbering
• Running rpm
• Major operating modes of rpm
• Main options in each rpm mode
• Rpm man page

Manage kernel modules at runtime

• Concepts: monolithic vs. modular
• Module files: /lib/modules/KERNEL-VERSION
• lsmod
• insmod
• rmmod
• modinfo
• modprobe
• Configure and control modules (esp. interrupts and dma) via /etc/modules.conf
• modules.dep
• depmod

Reconfigure, build and install a custom kernel and modules

• Kernel versions: naming and numbering
• Required tools and files
• Kernel source tree, esp. .config and makefile
• Creating a configuration
• Compiling a kernel
• Installing a new kernel
• Configuring a new kernel with lilo

Perform basic file editing operations using vi

• Start vi
• Edit
• Inserts
• Change and replace
• Delete
• Copy and paste
• Find

Manage printers and print queues

• lpd
• lpr
• lpq
• lprm
• lpc

Print files

• Using lpr

Install and configure local and remote printers

• Detailed knoeledge of /etc/printcap
• Filters
• Managing remote printers (inc samba) via /etc/printcap

Customize and use the shell environment

• Overview: what shells are and some history
• Bash
• Environment variables
• Shell variables (vs. environment)
• Aliases
• Functions
• Config files

Customize or write simple scripts

• Concept of shell scripts (esp. vs dos batch)
• She-bang (#!) shell selector
• The script environment
• Paths and permissions (inc suid and sgid)
• Return values
• File tests
• Command substitution
• Mail from scripts
• Key commands:
• Break
• Case
• Continue
• Echo
• Exit
• For
• Function
• Getopts
• If
• Kill
• Read
• Return
• Shift
• Source
• Test
• Until
• While

Install & configure xfree86

• Select xserver
• Install from source
• Install from binaries
• Configure via file xf86config, knowing all sections of the file and via autoconfig tools
• Xfonts
• Xset
• Xfs
• Control x apps via .xresources

Setup xdm

• Config files /etc/x11/xdm directory
• Xaccess
• Xresources
• Xserver
• Xsession
• Xsetup_0
• Xdm-config
• Running xdm automatically
• Basic customisation of xdm
• Use for managing x-terminals / x-stations

Identify and terminate runaway x applications

• Top
• Ps
• Virtual terminals
• Kill

Install & customize a window manager environment

• Understand startup procedure: startx -> xinit (via xinitrc) -> xfree86 -> client apps inc wm
• Know wm config files (not tested)
• Terminal emulators: /etc/lib/x11/app-defaults and .xdefaults
• X libraries (gtk, ldd)
• Remote clients with local display: setup, host:display.screen syntax

Fundamentals of tcp/ip

• Ip addresses and names
• Masks
• Protocols
• Services and port numbers
• Utilities

Tcp ip troubleshooting & configuration

• Know network interfaces
• /etc/hostname
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/nsswitch.conf
• /etc/host.conf
• /etc/resolv.conf
• /etc/networks
• Host command
• Hostname, domainname and dnsdomainname commands
• Ifconfig
• Netstat
• Ping
• Route
• Traceroute
• Dhcp
• Manually configure dhcp
• Dynamic allocation
• Relay dhcp
• Dhcp leases
• Dhcpd

Configure and use ppp

• Concepts: client-server, ports, modems
• Connection steps: serial connect -> account authenticate -> clientppp -> server binary datastream to initiate link, client uses temp ip address to send binary datastream and establish link
• Ppd
• Connect manually
• Know about pap, chap, mschap authentication (setup not required)

Configure and manage inetd and related services

• Concept: superdaemon
• /etc/inetd.conf inc sections
• Tcp wrappers
• Starting and stopping services

Operate and perform basic configuration of sendmail

• Basic internet mail concepts (mta, mua, etc)
• Recognise /ettc/sendmail.cf
• Dsmail directive (to send to smart host)
• Redirect using aliases
• /etc/aliases
• Forwarding to another account
• .forward
• Queuing
• Mailq

Operate and perform basic configuration of apache

• Know config files in /etc/httpd/conf or /usr/local/apache/conf
• Httpd.conf
• Srm.conf
• Access.conf
• Basic directives
• Start and stop

Properly manage the nfs, smb, and nmb daemons

• Nfs concepts
• /etc/exports
• Mount
• Smb.conf
• Use samba as wins client via nmbd
• Run swat
• No need to create custom samba configs

Setup and configure basic dns services

• Understand concept of resolver libraries, inc how they id a host or domain:
• Via /etc/hosts
• Via nis
• Via dns
• Understand dns config files:
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/resolv.conf
• /etc/host.conf (on older linux)
• Use of named for local cacheing only (non-authorative answer)
• Get info about named from /var/log/messages
• Basic use of nslookup and host
• Know distinction between bind v4 and bind v8 (/etc/named.boot vs. /etc/named.conf)

Perform security admin tasks

• Tasks:
• Secure in-bound requests
• Verify packages
• Authenticate
• Manage local security resources
• Tcp wrappers
• Tcpd
• Inetd
• Access control
• Logging
• Finding suid files
• Verifying packages with rpm -v etc
• Sgid effects on directories
• Password management
• Chage
• Ssh

Setup host security

• Shadow passwords
• Minimum inetd
• Syslog
• Forwarding root mail to admins
• Cert and bugtraq

Setup user level security

• Ulimit (setting max use of resources and hence counteract dos)

Kernel Components

• Utilize kernel components that are necessary to specific hardware
• Utilize kernel components that are necessary to specific hardware drivers
• Utilize kernel components that are necessary to specific system resources
• Utilize kernel components that are necessary to specific system requirements
• Implementing different types of kernel images
• Identifying stable and development kernels and patches
• zImage and bzImage

Compiling a kernel

• Properly compile a kernel to include specific features
• Properly compile a kernel to disable specific features
• Implementing updates in a new kernel
• Noting changes in a new kernel
• make
• config
• xconfig
• menuconfig
• oldconfig
• mrproper
• zImage and bzImage
• modules
• modules_install
• mkinitrd (Debian)
• mkinitrd (Red Hat)
• /usr/src/linux/
• /etc/lilo.conf

Patching a kernel

• Properly patch a kernel
• Patch a kernel to implement kernel updates
• Patch a kernel to implement bug fixes
• Patch a kernel to add support for new hardware
• Properly remove kernel patches from existing production kernels
• patch
• Makefile
• gzip
• bzip

Customizing a kernel

• Customize a kernel by compiling
• Customize a kernel by patching
• Customize a kernel by editing configuration files
• Assess requirements for a kernel compile versus a kernel patch
• Build and configure kernel modules
• patch
• make
• /usr/src/linux
• /proc/sys/kernel
• modprobe
• /etc/conf.modules and /etc/modules.conf
• insmod
• lsmod
• kmod
• kerneld

Customizing system startup and boot processes

• System startup scripts
• Customize standard system boot processes
• Customize standard system run levels
• Interacting with run levels
• Creating custom initrd images
• /etc/init.d
• /etc/inittab
• /etc/rc.d
• mkinitrd (Debian)
• mkinitrd (Red Hat)

System recovery

• Manipulate a Linux system during the boot process
• Manipulate a Linux system in recovery mode
• The init utility
• The init=kernel option
• LILO
• init
• inittab
• mount
• fsck

Operating the Linux filesystem

• Properly navigate the standard Linux filesystem
• Properly configure the standard Linux filesystem
• Configuring various filesystem types
• Mounting various filesystem types
• Manipulating filesystems to adjust for disk space requirements
• Manipulating filesystems to adjust for device additions
• /etc/fstab
• mount
• umount
• /etc/mtab
• sync
• swapon and swapoff
• /proc/mounts

Maintaining a Linux filesystem

• Maintain a Linux filesystem using system utilities
• Manipulating a standard ext2 filesystem
• fsck (fsck.ext2)
• badblocks
• Mke2fs
• Dumpe2fs
• Debuge2fs
• Tune2fs

Creating and configuring filesystem options

• Configure automount filesystems
• Configuring Automount for network filesystems
• Configuring Automount for device filesystems
• Creating non ext2 filesystems
• Creating filesystems for CD-ROMs
• /etc/auto.master
• /etc/auto
• mkisofs
• dd
• mke2fs

Configure and implement software RAID

• RAID concepts
• Software RAID vs. Hardware RAID
• Configuring RAID 0
• Configuring RAID 1
• Configuring RAID 5
• mkraid
• /etc/raidtab

Adding new hardware

• Configure internal devices
• Configure external devices
• Configure internal new hard disks (internel)
• Configure internal new hard disks (scsi)
• Configure dumb terminal devices
• Configure serial UPS devices
• Configure multi-port serial cards
• Configure LCD panels
• XFree86
• modprobe
• lsmod
• lsdev
• lspci
• setserial
• usbview
• /proc/bus/usb

Software and kernel configuration

• Configure kernel options to support various hardware devices
• Configure kernel options to support UDMA66 drives
• Configure kernel options to support IDE CD burners
• Using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to manage hard disk drives and partitions
• Software tools to interact with hard disk settings
• hdparm
• tune2fs
• /proc/interrupts
• sysctl

Configuring PCMCIA devices

• Configure a Linux installation to include PCMCIA support
• Configuring PCMCIA ethernet adapters to autodetect when inserted
• /etc/pcmcia/
• *.opts
• cardctl
• cardmgr

Configuring a samba server

• Set up a Samba server for different clients
• smbd
• Setting up a login script for Samba clients
• Setting up an nmbd WINS server
• Changing the workgroup in which a server participates
• Defining a shared directory in smb.conf
• Defining a shared printer in smb.conf
• Using nmblookup to test WINS server functionality
• Using smbmount to mount an SMB share on a Linux client
• smbstatus
• smbtestparm
• smbpasswd
• lmhosts

Configuring an NFS server

• Create an exports file and specify filesystems to be exported
• /etc/exports
• exportfs
• Editing exports file entries to restrict access to certain hosts
• Specify mount options in the exports file
• showmount
• Configure user ID mapping
• Mount an NFS filesystem on a client
• Subnets or netgroups
• Using mount options to specify soft or hard and background retries
• Signal handling
• Locking
• Block size
• Configure tcpwrappers to further secure NFS
• nfsstat

System logging

• Configuring syslogd to act as a central network log server
• Configuring syslogd to send log output to a central log server
• Logging remote connections
• Using using grep and other text utils to automate log analysis
• syslog.conf
• sysklogd
• /etc/hosts

Packaging software

• Packaging software
• Building Debian packages
• /debian/rules
• Rebuilding a DEB
• Building Red Hat packages
• Rebuilding RPMs
• rpm
• SPEC file format

Backup operations

• Creating an offsite backup storage plan

Automating tasks using scripts

• Write simple perl scripts
• Simple perl scripts using perl modules
• Install perl modules from CPAN
• perl -MCPAN -e shell
• Using sed in scripts
• Using awk in scripts
• Using scripts to check for process execution
• Checking processes and generating email alerts on death
• Generating pager alerts when processes die
• Schedule scripts to parse logs for alerts and email admins
• crontab
• Schedule scripts to synchronize files across machines using rsync
• Schedule scripts to monitor files for changes and generate email alerts
• Schedule scripts to notify admins when specified users log in or out

Creating recovery disks

• A standard bootdisk for system entrance
• A recovery disk for system repair
• /usr/sbin/rdev
• /bin/cat
• /bin/mount and the -o loop option
• Any standard editor
• /sbin/lilo
• /bin/dd
• /sbin/mke2fs
• /etc/fstab and /etc/inittab
• /usr/sbin/chroot
• Location and contents of the LDP Bootdisk-HOWTO

Identifying boot stages

• The 4 stages of boot-up
• Boot loader start and hand off to kernel
• Kernel loading
• Hardware initializiation and setup
• Daemon initialization and setup

Troubleshooting LILO

• Determine specific stage failures and corrective techniques
• Meaning of L, LI, , LILO, and scrolling 010101 errrors
• Different LILO install locations
• /boot/boot.b
• Significance of /boot/boot

General troubleshooting

• Screen output during bootup
• Utilize kernel boot messages to diagnose kernel errors
• Identify and correct common hardware issues
• Determine if the problem is hardware or software
• dmesg
• Kernel syslog entries in system logs
• System and daemon log files in /var/log/
• /sbin/lspci
• /usr/bin/lsdev
• /sbin/lsmod
• /sbin/modprobe
• /sbin/insmod
• /bin/uname
• Location of system kernel and attending modules
• /boot
• /lib/modules
• The /proc filesystem
• strace
• strings
• ltrace
• lsof

Troubleshooting system resources

• Identify, diagnose and repair local system environment
• /etc/profile and /etc/profile.d/
• Core system variables
• /etc/bashrc and other appropriate global shell configuration files
• /etc/init.d/
• /etc/rc.*
• /bin/ln
• /bin/rm
• Editor of choice
• /etc/ld.so.conf
• /sbin/ldconfig
• /sbin/sysctl and /etc/sysctl.conf

Troubleshooting environment configurations

• Common local system and user environment configuration issues
• Common repair techniques
• /etc/inittab
• /sbin/init
• /etc/passwd
• /etc/shadow
• /etc/group
• /etc/profile
• /etc/rc.local or /etc/rc.boot
• /usr/sbin/cron
• /usr/bin/crontab
• /var/spool/cron/crontabs/
• /etc/SHELL_NAME
• /etc/login.defs
• /etc/syslog.conf

Basic networking configuration

• Configure a network device to connect to a local network
• Configure a network device to connect to a wide-area network
• Communicate between subnets within a single network
• Configure dialup access using mgetty
• Configure dialup acccess using a modem
• Configure dialup acccess using ISDN
• Configure authentication protocols (PAP)
• Configure authentication protocols (CHAP)
• Configure TCP/IP logging
• /sbin/route
• /sbin/ifconfig
• /sbin/arp
• /usr/sbin/arpwatch
• /etc/

Advanced Network Configuration and Troubleshooting

• Configure a network device to implement authentication
• Configuring a multi- homed network device
• Configuring a virtual private network
• Resolving networking and communication problems
• /sbin/route
• /sbin/route
• /sbin/ifconfig
• /bin/netstat
• /bin/ping
• /sbin/arp
• /usr/sbin/tcpdump
• /usr/sbin/lsof
• /usr/bin/nc

Configuring mailing lists

• Majordomo
• Majordomo2
• Monitor majordomo problems by viewing majordomo logs

Using Sendmail

• Managing sendmail
• Email aliases
• Mail quotas
• Virtual mail domains
• Configuring internal mail relays
• Monitoring SMTP servers
• /etc/aliases
• sendmail.cw
• virtusertable
• genericstable

Managing Mail Traffic

• Implementing client mail management software to filter mail
• Implementing client mail management software to sort mail
• Implementing client mail management software to monitor incoming user mail
• procmail
• .procmailrc
• Using server-side procmail
• Using server-side procmail

Serving news

• Install the inn news server
• Configure the inn news server
• Customizing newsgroup feeds
• Monitoring served newsgroups
• The innd news daemon

Basic BIND 8 configuration

• Configure BIND to function as a caching-only DNS server
• Convert a BIND 4.9 named.boot file to the BIND 8.x named.conf
• Format, and reload the DNS by using kill or ndc
• Configuring DNS logging
• Configuring BIND options
• Configuring directory location for zone files
• /etc/named.conf
• /usr/sbin/ndc
• /usr/sbin/named-bootconf
• kill

Create and maintain DNS zones

• Create a zone file for a forward zone
• Create a zone file for a reverse zone
• Create a zone file for a root level server
• Setting appropriate values for the SOA resource record
• Setting appropriate values for the NS records
• Setting appropriate values for the MX records
• Adding hosts with A resource records
• Adding hosts with A resource records and CNAME records
• Adding the zone to the /etc/named.conf file using the zone statement
• Adding hosts to reverse zones with PTR records
• Adding the zone to the /etc/named.conf file using the zone statement
• Delegate a zone to another DNS server
• The /var/named zone file
• Syntax resource record formats
• dig
• nslookup
• host

Securing a DNS server

• Configure BIND to run as a non-root user
• Configure BIND to run in a chroot jail
• Configuring DNSSEC statements
• Configure a split DNS configuration using the forwarders statement
• Specifying a non-standard version number string in response to queries
• SysV init files
• /etc/named.conf
• /etc/passwd
• dnskeygen

Implementing a web server

• Install and configure an Apache web server
• Monitoring Apache load and performance
• Restricting client user access
• Configuring mod_perl
• Configuring mod_php and PHP support
• Setting up client user authentication
• Configuring Apache server options
• Maximum requests
• Minimum and maximim servers
• Minimum and maximim clients
• access.log
• .htaccess
• httpd.conf
• mod_auth
• htpasswd
• htgroup

Maintaining a web server

• Configure Apache to use virtual hosts
• Creating an SSL certification for Apache using OpenSSL
• Defining SSL definitions in configuration files using OpenSSL
• Customizing file access by implementing redirect statements in Apache's configuration files
• httpd.conf

Implementing a proxy server

• Install a proxy server using Squid
• Configure a proxy server using Squid
• Implementing access policies
• Setting up authentication
• Utilizing memory usage
• squid.conf
• acl
• http_access

DHCP configuration

• What is DHCP?
• Static hosts
• Dynamic hosts
• dhcpd.conf
• dhcpd.leases

NIS configuration

• What is NIS?
• Setting up a client
• Setting up a server
• nsswitch.conf
• YP utilities
• /etc/nis/

LDAP configuration

• Configuring an LDAP server
• LDIF files
• User configuration
• slapd and slapd.conf

PAM authentication

• Configuring PAM
• NIS and LDAP
• pam.conf and /etc/pam.d

Configuring a router

• IP chains
• Packet filtering rules
• Network address translation (NAT)
• IP tables
• /proc/sys/net/ipv4
• routed

Securing FTP servers

• Setting up FTP
• Configuring FTP access restrictions
• Anonymous FTP
• Anonymous uploads
• chroot

Secure shell (OpenSSH)

• How SSH works
• sshd
• Generating keys
• Port forwarding
• X forwarding

TCP wrappers

• Security need for TCP wrappers
• tcpd
• /etc/inetd.conf
• /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny
• xinetd

Security tasks

• Install and configure Kerberos
• Auditing source code
• Getting security alerts
• Open mail relays
• Installing intrusion detection systems
• Port scanning with nmap

Troubleshooting network issues

• ifconfig
• route
• netstat
• /etc/network and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
• System log files
• ping
• /etc/resolv.conf
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny
• /etc/hostname and /etc/HOSTNAME
• traceroute
• nslookup and dig
• dmesg

Apache Basics

• What is apache?
• Installation on Linux
• How apache listens
• Configuration file(s)
• Key configuration directives
• Serverroot, documentroot
• Serveradmin
• Bindaddress, and port
• Listen
• User and group
• Apache processes
• Logging
• Customizable logging
• Customlog examples
• Example configuration
• Two sites and more ...
• Virtual hosting options
• Name-based hosting
• Block directives
• Directorymatch, et al.
• Access control
• Authorisation files
• Other useful directives
• Exercises
• Solutions

Apache CGI Programming

• Basic CGI
• Enabling CGIs
• Addhandler
• How do CGIs work
• URL-encoding
• CGI language
• A simple CGI
• Using user information
• CGIs and redirection
• What else?
• Useful CGIs
• Basic CGIs - round up
• Exercises

Apache with mod_perl

• What is mod_perl?
• How mod_perl works
• Installing mod_perl
• Make magic
• Turning it on
• Coding for mod_perl
• More gotchas
• Easy way out - perlrun
• Exercises

Apache with mod_ssl

• mod_ssl
• Security and mod_ssl
• Encryption
• Identification
• Building openssl
• Building mod_ssl
• Building apache
• Exercises

Apache other modules

• mod_speling
• Case under mod_speling
• Compiling with mod_speling
• Notes on usage
• mod_rewrite
• Using mod_rewrite
• What's getting rewritten?
• Rewriting proper
• More rewriting
• Rewriting conditionals
• Exercises
• Solutions

Apache use & programming

• Basic CGI
• Get & post
• URL-encoding
• CGI language
• A simple CGI
• CGIs and redirection
• What else?
• Useful CGIs
• Basic CGIs - round up
• What is mod_perl?
• How mod_perl works
• Installing mod_perl
• Coding for mod_perl
• More gotchas
• Easy way out - perlrun
• mod_ssl
• Security and mod_ssl
• Encryption
• Identification
• Building openssl
• Building mod_ssl
• Building apache
• Exercises
• Solutions

Key Configuration Files

• /etc/passwd
• Editing /etc/passwd
• Other changes to /etc/passwd
• /etc/group
• Editing /etc/group
• Important note
• Shadow passwords
• /etc/shadow
• Scheduling jobs (cron)
• /etc/crontab
• run-parts
• logrotate
• Module configuration
• Modules configuration - `options'
• Mounting filesystems
• Runlevels
• Single user mode
• Multi user mode
• Starting up and shutting down
• Changing runlevel
• Initscripts
• rcn.d
• Initscripts - an example
• Restarting services
• Exercises
• Solutions

Concurrent Versions System

• Introduction to CVS
• Creating a repository
• Setting up your repository
• Checking out a working directory
• Making changes to files
• Merging your changes
• Merging: an example
• Committing changes
• Examining logged changes
• Adding and deleting files
• Example: adding a file to a project
• Deleting files
• Renaming files
• Writing good log entries
• Handling conflicts
• Identifying conflicts:
• Resolving conflicts
• Resolving conflicts
• Understanding conflicts
• Locking

Dial Up and Remote Access

• Dial-in/out
• The basics
• Authentication
• Setting-up dial-out
• One dial-out setup
• Dial-in setup
• Other options
• Preferred installation architectures
• sendmail configuration for non dial-on-demand

Email

• How email works
• Where does an email go?
• Overview
• Email protocols
• Where the protocols go
• Basic installation
• Sendmail behaviour
• Linuxconf & sendmail
• Configuration files (sendmail.cf)
• Configuration files (sendmail.cw and /etc/mail/)
• Monitoring sendmail
• Example of mailq
• Talking smtp
• Talking pop
• Managing users under sendmail
• /etc/aliases
• Aliases - other uses
• Sendmail exercises

Basic Filesystem

• Filesystem overview
• Files
• Directories
• Directory hierarchy
• Pathnames
• Current directory
• Dot (.) and dotdot(..)
• Moving and copying files
• Removing files
• Operations on directories
• Inodes
• Links
• Hard links
• Soft links
• Access control and uid
• Categories of access control
• Access control - example
• Changing access permission: chmod
• Chmod symbolically
• Chmod numerically
• Umask
• Special files - /dev
• Special files - /proc
• Filesystem structure
• /etc/fstab - example
• Mounting additional volumes
• Mounting shared filesystems
• Summary
• Filesystem exercises
• Filesystem solutions

More on the Filesystem

• Inodes in depth
• Links
• Hard links
• Soft links
• Non-native filesystems
• Disk checking and recovery (fsck)
• Check a linux ext2 filesystem (e2fsck)
• Disk free space (df)
• Disk usage (du)
• Disk partitioning concepts
• A partitioned disk
• Making and changing partitions
• How many partitions?
• What size partitions?
• BIOS problems with lilo and partitions
• Disk partitioning tools
• Using fdisk
• The fdisk interface
• Interactive commands in fdisk
• Making linux filesystems (mke2fs)
• Block devices
• Character devices
• More filesystem exercises
• More filesytem solutions

Shared File Systems

• NFS (network file system)
• Exporting file systems
• Viewing exports
• Importing file systems
• Samba installation
• Samba basics
• Access to files and printers
• Testing samba
• Smbclient
• Samba configuration file
• Testing samba
• Exercises
• Solutions

Init Scripts

• Runlevels
• Single user mode
• Multi user mode
• Starting up and shutting down
• Initscripts
• /etc/rc.d/rcn.d
• Initscripts - an example
• Restarting services
• Init script exercises

Job Control Tools

• Introduction
• Background jobs
• Kill
• The nice command
• Hang up (nohup)
• Execute programs at specified times (at)
• Options and commands related to at
• Running commands regularly (crontab)
• Summary
• Job control exercises
• Job control solutions

Linux Kernel and Tracing

• Kernel overview
• Memory management
• Scheduling
• Module principles
• Module commands
• Module loading/unloading
• Module dependencies
• Module dependencies 2
• Autoloading of modules
• Module unloading
• New/updated modules
• Kernel recompiling
• Boot disks
• Getting and configuring a kernel
• Kernel sources
• Applying kernel patches
• Configuration
• Make menuconfig
• Network device selection - an example
• Configuration issues
• Build process
• Building a kernel
• Module building
• Installing a new kernel
• Setting up to boot the new kernel
• Tracing executables
• ltrace
• Exercises

Linux Fundamentals: An Overview

• Generic features of unix
• Linux --- the kernel of a system
• Fundamental characteristics of linux
• Multiuser multitasking and time-sharing
• Protected memory mode
• Multiple filesystem types
• The many faces of a gnu/linux system
• The filesystem
• Filenames
• Filename extensions and file types
• Hidden filenames
• The shell (bash)
• Key features of the bash shell
• Interacting with a linux `terminal'
• Software tools: the unix philosophy
• Tasks/processes
• Process communication
• Re-directing I/O to and from files
• Pipes & tools
• Linux as a programming environment
• Networking
• TCP/IP
• Documentation
• Using the man pages (on-line manual)
• Overview exercises
• Overview solutions

Printing Services

• Linux printing
• Printing documents
• Main printing tools
• Using lpr
• Using lpq
• Using lprm
• Samba printing
• Printing to a windows printer via samba

The Red Hat Package Management System (rpm)

• Package management (rpm)
• Distributed rpms
• Binary rpms
• Source rpms
• Building rpms
• Rpm naming conventions
• Creating a .spec file
• Details of a .spec file
• Group hierarchy
• %build
• %install
• %files
• Building a package (rpm -b)
• Pre and post install
• Note on testing

Samba

• Samba installation
• Samba basics
• Access to files and printers
• Testing samba
• Smbclient
• Samba configuration file
• Testing samba
• Swat -- samba web administration tool
• Installing swat
• Options for swat
• Global settings in swat
• Share settings in swat
• Printer configuration under swat
• Viewing samba status with swat
• View samba configuration in swat
• Samba exercises

Basic Shell

• Introduction
• Getting around the command line
• History
• Plumbing
• Output redirection
• Input redirection
• Combining redirection
• Pipelines
• Background processes
• Background processes and nohup
• Command grouping and sub-shells
• Process management
• Signals
• Background processes: top
• Filename generation
• Quoting mechanisms
• Shell built-in commands
• Basic shell exercises
• Basic shell solutions

Shell Programming

• Introduction
• Writing and running shell scripts
• Subshell or subroutine?
• Processing commands
• Command substitution
• Shell variables and variable substitution
• Shell environment variables
• Set
• Quoting
• .profile file
• Arguments
• Shell parameters
• Blank interpretation
• Comments
• Read
• Shift
• Exit status or return code
• Test
• File status tests
• Relational tests
• For loop
• If
• True and false
• While and until
• Break and continue
• Case
• Simple conditionals
• Here documents
• Use of commands
• Find
• Evaluate expressions (expr)
• Summary
• Shell programming exercises
• Shell programming solutions

Special Topics: Boot Manager, Installing Apps, System Info from /proc

• The linux bootloader (lilo)
• Lilo configuration
• Understanding lilo.conf
• Red hat package management tool (rpm)
• Install, upgrade and uninstall with rpm
• Query options for rpm
• Verify options for rpm
• Output from the rpm verification option
• Building and installing applications
• Autoconf
• Using ./configure
• Options to configure
• Location of install
• Installation requirements
• Compilation roundup
• The /proc filesytem
• Process specific subdirectories
• Process status
• Process memory usage (statm)
• Kernel data
• Interrupts in use
• IDE devices (/proc/ide)
• Networking (/proc/net)
• Networking 2 (/proc/net)
• Scsi info (/proc/scsi)
• Parallel port (/proc/parport)
• Kernel parameters (/proc/sys)
• File system data (/proc/fs)
• Example: increase maximum filehandles
• General kernel parameters (/proc/sys/kernel)
• Virtual memory subsystem (/proc/sys/vm)
• Device specific parameters (/proc/sys/dev)
• Remote procedure calls (/proc/sys/sunrpc)
• Networking (/proc/sys/net)
• Ipv4 settings (/proc/sys/net/ipv4)
• Special topics exercises
• Special topics solutions

Squid Basics

• Squid is
• Squid also supports
• What to cache and for how long?
• Getting and installing squid
• Squid directory structure
• Basic configuration (caching proxy only)
• Running squid
• Basic client (browser) configuration
• Basics access control
• More advanced access control
• Destination address based acls
• Cache hierarchy concepts
• Parents and siblings
• Integration with other software
• Log analysis and stats
• Tools
• Analysis
• Squid exercises

System Daemons

• Daemons
• Stand alone vs on demand
• Stand alone daemons
• On-demand daemons
• Cron jobs
• /etc/crontab
• Run-parts
• Crond
• Details on inetd
• Configuration of inetd
• Tcp wrappers (/usr/sbin/tcpd)
• Tcp wrapper validation
• System logging daemon
• Syslog.conf
• System log rotation
• Sshd
• Ssh principles
• Ssh configuration
• Xntpd
• Time daemon config (/etc/ntp.conf)
• Client/server configuration of xntpd
• Example of /etc/ntp.conf
• Xntpdc
• Name resolution
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/resolv.conf
• Dns
• Dns configuration file (/etc/named.conf)
• Zone files
• Name entries
• Dig
• Dig (other servers)
• Exercises
• Solutions

Basic TCP/IP

• Introduction to IP concepts - components
• History
• Packets
• Addresses
• Transferring data
• Hosts & interfaces
• Routing
• Ports
• Well known ports
• Name resolution
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/resolv.conf
• Dns
• Dns - boot file (/etc/named.boot)
• Zone files
• Dns summary
• Ip-related tools and utilities
• Ping
• Ifconfig
• Traceroute
• Netstat
• Remote login
• Telnet
• Telnet command mode
• Ssh
• File transfer
• Ftp
• Setting up an interface
• Exercises

Fundamentals of TCP/IP

• Fundamentals of TCP/IP networking
• History
• Recap of basic IP concepts - components
• IP versions
• Packets
• Addresses
• Netmasks and subnetting
• Netmasks with /xx
• Transferring data
• Hosts & interfaces
• Routing
• Ports
• Exercises
• Solutions

Practical TCP/IP

• Ping protocols
• Network statistics (netstat) in practice
• Network traffic (tcpdump) in practice
• tcpdump options
• tcpdump examples
• Firewalling
• Basic theory
• ipchains details
• ipchains options
• Options for rules
• ipchains - examples
• Removing rules
• Implementing ipchains
• Save and restore
• ipchains setup script
• Real world ipchains
• Interface configuration and management
• Point-and-click interface administration
• /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
• ifcfg-ethx
• Altering an interface
• Adding an interface
• The `proper' way
• Drivers
• The secure shell in practice (ssh)
• Secure copying in practice (scp)
• Summary
• Exercises
• Solutions

Basic Tools

• Introduction
• Using tools
• The on-line manual (man)
• Finding files the long way (find)
• Locate files (locate)
• View and concatenate files (cat)
• View large files & output (less)
• Viewing parts of files (head and tail)
• Listing file information (ls)
• File classification (file)
• Count words, lines, characters (wc)
• Differences between files (diff)
• Compare binary files (cmp)
• Regular expression searches (grep)
• Grep examples
• Sort and merge files (sort)
• Sort examples
• Display unique lines (uniq)
• Split files (split)
• Splitting files by context (csplit)
• Compression utilities (gzip)
• Store and retrieve archives (tar)
• Translating characters (tr)
• Examples of tr usage
• Execute programs at specified times (at)
• Options and commands related to at
• Running commands regularly (crontab)
• Evaluate expressions (expr)
• Linux printing
• Printing documents
• Main printing tools
• Using lpr
• Using lpq
• Using lprm
• Basic tools exercises
• Basic tools solutions

More Tools

• Introduction
• Displaying system processes (top)
• Options and interactive commands for top
• Reporting process status (ps)
• Options for reporting process status (ps)
• Finding files using specified criteria (find)
• Criteria used in find expressions
• Examples of using (find)
• Reporting virtual memory statistics (vmstat)
• Output from vmstat
• Free
• Ldd
• Uptime
• Xargs
• Options to xargs
• Positioning filenames with xargs
• Cpio
• Gzip
• Unzipping
• Tar
• Raw devices and tar
• Exercises
• Solutions

Introduction To Editing with vi

• Text editors under linux
• Vi and your terminal
• Vi screen layout
• Opening files with vi
• Vi modes
• Saving, changing file and quitting
• Moving around in command mode
• Numeric prefixes
• Further movement
• Movement by lines - examples
• Inserting text
• Multiple insertion
• Deleting text
• Changing text
• Copy and paste
• Finding your place
• Miscellaneous commands
• Search and replace
• Regular expressions
• Regular expression conventions
• Regular expression examples
• Regular expression replacement
• Vi exercises
• Vi solutions

Basic X-windows

• What x-windows is
• X needs window managers
• Window managers are applications
• Desktop environments
• Starting x
• Stopping x
• Running shells (xterms) under x
• Running applications from an xterm
• Running applications from a window manager
• Configuring x
• Basic x hardware configuration
• Basic x software configuration
• Networked x - the client-server relationship
• Principles of running remote x apps
• How to run remote x apps
• Authentication
• Better authentication
• Basic x exercises