FastTrack to Red Hat Linux for Experienced UNIX/LINUX System Administrators— A 4-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Synopsis

This course is designed to give experienced LINUX/UNIX administrators practical experience in the administration, security and performance administration of a LINUX system. Targeted to closely follow the official Red Hat curriculum, this course will enable the student to work towards the Red Hat RHCE qualifications. This instructor led class will have a high, practical content and a fast pace. Delegates should have a strong UNIX/LINUX background

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

• Load the operating system
• Remotely load and automate using kickstart
• Configure network interfaces
• Configure for Network services such as DNS, BIND, NIS etc.
• Configure virtual hosting using the Apache web server
• Share data using the Samba and NFS file sharing systems
• Configure a caching proxy server
• Configure all aspects of user administration
• Handle mail using the sendmail and postfix programs
• Secure systems using authentication/User/Data security
• Handle package management
• Backup/restore and compression
• Configure advanced system logging
• Monitor and tune for system performance and activity
• Troubleshoot and disaster recover systems

Course Objectives

On completion of this course the delegate will have a greater technical awareness of the system, and acquired practical experience of the key administration duties of Red Hat Linux system. They will posses the essential knowledge required to study towards the official Red Hat certification routes.

Suitable for

• Experienced LINUX/UNIX System Administrators who need to acquire knowledge of the key administrative, networking and security tasks required to administer a LINUX system
• Delegates looking to prepare for Red Hat certification status

Prerequisites

• Strong prior knowledge of the LINUX/UNIX operating system. The content of the Administering Red Hat Linux course would be the minimum level of knowledge required for attendance on this 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/Kickstart

• Installation methods available
• The virtual consoles
• Using boot time options
• Firstboot and post installation
• The kickstart process
• Kickstart configuration file
• 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
• Brief introduction to the RedHat Desktop

Basic Administration

• The RedHat Administrative tools available
• User/group and password administration
• The sudo command
• The shells and the user environment
• The Linux boot sequence
• Control services using chkconfig,ntsysv etc.
• System shutdown and reboot management
• Printer Management
• Vixie cron/anacron
• Backup/Restore using tar

Filesystem Configuration

• The Native Linux Filesytems ext2fs and ext3fs
• Disk partitioning: fdisk and parted
• FileSystem administration and Maintenance
• Handling removable media
• Using Disk quotas

LVM and RAID

• Basic LVM design and configuration
• Software RAID using Raidtools
• Implementing RAID0,1 & 5 file systems
• Hot swap replacement
• Simulating RAID disk failure

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

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)

Network Configuration & Services

• Configuring network interfaces
• Controlling network devices:ifup/ifdown/mii-tool/ethtool
• Creating virtual interfaces/Using DHCP
• Routing IP traffic under RedHat Linux
• Network diagnosis tools : tcpdump, netstat etc.
• The xinetd daemon operation & ports/sockets
• Limiting access to services using TCP wrappers

Web Services : Apache,Squid & Email

• The Apache and Tux web servers
• Apache Server configuration files
• Virtual host management : name and IP based access
• The squid web proxy cache server
• Sendmail and Postfix
• Switching to postfix, a sendmail replacement
• Postfix configuration

Sharing File System (NFS & SAMBA)

• NFS operation : daemons, portmapper etc.
• Configuring an NFS server
• Using the automounter to access NFS mounts
• The Samba system
• Samba Daemons and operation
• Samba authentication methods
• Samba client tools
• Using smbmount to access Windows share

The Domain Name System

• The DNS/BIND system under Red Hat Linux
• Master/Slave/Reverse zones
• Name Daemon control utility (rndc)
• Address match lists (acl)
• Sub-domains
• BIND checking utilities

Security and Authentication Services

• Types of attack usually experienced
• System and user security policies
• One way hashes, Public key encryption
• Digital signatures
• The secure shell : Openssh
• Public/Private key Authentication
• System Log files
• Syslogd & klogd configuration
• Advanced syslogd configuration
• Analysing logfiles

Securing Networks : Pluggable Authentication (PAM)

• PAM overview
• Main PAM configuration files
• PAM configuration rules
• Important PAM libraries
• Controlling access by time
• Denying access by user/group

Securing Networks: Firewalls

• Netfilter overview
• Packet filtering using iptables
• Rule targets
• Network address translation
• Source and Destination NAT configuration
• RedHat supplied tools for iptables configuration

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