Administering Red Hat Linux — A 4-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Synopsis

This highly practical instructor-led course is designed to give delegates practical experience in the administration of a Red Hat Linux system. With a strong emphasis on practical hands-on training, this course will teach the essential administrative tasks required to administer a Red Hat Linux system.

Targeted to closely follow the official Red Hat certification curriculum, this course together with the Using Red Linux course will enable the delegate to work towards achieving the Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) qualification.

Targeted to closely follow the official Red Hat certification curriculum, this course together with the Using Red Linux and the Securing & Networking Red Hat Linux course will enable the delegate to work towards achieving the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) qualification.

The delegate will have knowledge in all, and practise in some, of the following:

• Red Hat Releases
• Installing Red Hat Linux
• Using kickstart to Install Red Hat Linux
• Package Management
• Customising and Using X Windows
• Kernel Recompilation and Installation from RPM
• System Startup/Shutdown and Initialisation
• System Logs and their Management
• Filesystem Configuration
• Controlling Common Hardware
• Printer Configuration
• Account Management and Security
• Backup and Restore
• Process Scheduling and Control
• Configure Basic Networking for Client Access
• Troubleshooting and Disaster Recovery

Course Objectives

On completion of this course the delegate will have gained practical experience of the Linux commands and GUI and posses the technical knowledge required to administer a Red Hat Linux system.

The delegate will also gain the essential knowledge required to study towards the official Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) and the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) certification routes.

Suitable for

• System Administrators and Programmers who need to acquire knowledge of the key tasks required to administer a Red Hat Linux system
• Delegates looking to prepare for Red Hat certification status

Prerequisites

• Knowledge of the Red Hat Linux operating system to the level covered in the Using Red Hat Linux course

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Contents:

Redhat Product Offerings

• The RedHat Enterprise editions
• RedHat desktop releases for the Enterprise
• RedHat additonal applications
• The RedHat Network (rhn)
• The Fedora project
• Architectures and configurations supported
• Basic hardware requirements

Installing Red Hat Linux

• Installation methods available
• Multiboot systems
• The RHEL installer : Anaconda
• The virtual consoles
• Using boot time options
• Performing the installation
• Firstboot and post installation

Installing Red Hat Linux Using Kickstart

• How kickstart works
• Kickstart configuration file sections
• Pre and Post kickstart processing
• The Red Hat kickstart tool
• Kickstart from DHCP
• Other kickstart methods

Investigating the System

• The /proc psuedo filesystem
• Investigating bus/devices:lspci,lsusb etc.
• Graphical tools for investigating hardware
• Serial device management
• Monitoring and managing logfiles
• Using the redhat-config tools
• The /etc/sysconfig directory and main configuration files

User Administration

• User and group administration
• Adding a new user and group
• Password management using passwd,chage etc
• Authentication policies and user private groups
• Switching accounts
• The sudo command
• The shells and the user environment

System Startup/Shutdown and Initialisation

• The boot sequence explained
• The lilo and grub boot managers
• The init program and run levels
• The /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinitrc program
• The system V startup script model
• Control services using chkconfig,ntsysv etc.
• System shutdown and reboot management

Filesystem Configuration

• The Linux file system basics
• The Native Linux Filesytems ext2fs and ext3fs
• Disk partitioning: fdisk and parted
• Creating and maintaining Linux file systems
• Checking and Repairing Filesystems
• Handling removable media
• File system attributes
• Using Disk quotas

LVM, RAID and SWAP management

• The Logical Volume Manager (LVM)
• Basic LVM design and configuration
• Software RAID using Raidtools
• Implementing RAID0,1 & 5 file systems
• Hot swap replacement
• Simulating RAID disk failure
• Swap space management

Printers

• Files Printing under RedHat using cups
• Switching printing services : alternatives
• Administering CUPS using the web browser interface
• Administering CUPS using the Red Hat tools
• Print queue management
• Print commands

Process Scheduling

• Using at to manage one-off jobs
• Using the vixie cron system
• System crontab files
• Monitoring cron access
• Controlling access to cron & at using cron processes
• Using anacron

Backup and Restore

• Backup and Restore
• Backing up to tape devices
• Controlling tape devices
• Using the backup commands
• Using compression
• Remote backup administration

Kernal Recompilation and Installation

• Monolithic and modular kernel design
• Kernel module configuration
• Tuning the kernel : /proc/sys & sysctrl
• Loading a new kernel from an RPM package
• Rebuilding a kernel from source
• Updating the Boot Managers (LILO/GRUB)

Managing System Software

• The Redhat Package Management system
• The YUM and APT package management tools
• Installing and removing software manually
• RPM queries and verifying packages
• Dependency problems and resolution
• Other RPM features
• Updating Enterprise Linux with up2date

Customizing and Using X Windows

• Windowing System available
• The X windowing system managers
• Configuring using redhat-config and Xfree86
• Customising X start-up
• The X window protocol and X security
• xauth and ssh operation
• The font server

Basic Client Networking

• Device recognition and control
• Configuring networking interfaces
• Using multiple and virtual interfaces
• Configuring your system as a NIS/DHCP/DNS client
• Configuring for routing
• Network tools ifup,mii-tool etc.

Troubleshooting

• The rescue environment
• Rescue environment utilities and operation
• The networked rescue environment
• Over riding boot levels from grub/lilo
• Boot floppies
• Common boot problems and their resolution