LINUX COURCE SYLLABUS

Linux Essential

Introduction
Evolution of Linux

Linux Installation

Installation covers most flavors of Linux distribution such as Red hat Linux and Fedora Linux and
Suse Linux

First Stage: Starting the Installation

First Stage: Boot Media
Accessing the Installer
First Stage: Installation Method
Network Installation Server
Second Stage: Installation Overview
Configuring File Systems
Advanced Partitioning
Package Selection
First Boot: Post-Install Configuration
Starting a Kickstart Installation
Anatomy of a Kickstart File

Linux System Administration - Managing Startup

Command line:
Introduction to Bash Shell
Basic Commands (ls,cd,tail,cat,mkdir)
Commands to work with file(mv,cp,rm)
Text editor (vim)
Stream text editor (grep, sed, and awk)
STDERR,STDOUT,STDIN
Compression Tar,gzip and bzip2
Easily accessible tools in linux.

System Initialization
Boot Sequence Overview
Troubleshooting boot issues
What is GRUB and grub.conf
Starting the Boot Process: GRUB
Kernel Initialization
init Initialization (init 0,1,2,3,4,5)
Run Levels
/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
 /etc/rc.d/rc
System V run levels
/etc/rc.d/rc.local
Controlling Services(service,init.d,chkconfig)

Booting and run levels

The boot process: from BIOS to kernel then to user space
Setting kernel parameters
Run levels and init scripts
Configuring services to run at boot
Securing single-user mode (su login)
Shutting down and rebooting the system

Package Management - Working with packages>

RPM Package Manager
Installing and Removing Software
Updating a Kernel RPM
rpm Queries
rpm Verification
About yum
Using yum
Searching packages/files
Configuring Additional Repositories
Creating a private repository
Red Hat Network
Red Hat Network Server
Entitlements
Red Hat Network Client

Kernel Services - Configuring the kernel

The Linux Kernel
Kernel Images and Variants
Kernel Modules
Kernel Module Utilities
Managing the initrd Image
Accessing Drivers Through /dev
Device Node Examples
Managing /dev With udev
Adding Files Under /dev
Kernel Configuration With /proc
/proc Examples
sysctl : Persistent Kernel Configuration
Exploring Hardware Devices (hwinfo)
Monitoring Processes and Resources(kill,ps,pstree,top)

System Services Linux System Services

Network Time Protocol
System Logging
 syslog Configuration
XOrg: The X11 Server
XOrg Server Configuration
XOrg in runlevel 3
XOrg in runlevel 5
Remote X Sessions
SSH: Secure Shell
VNC: Virtual Network Computing
cron
Controlling Access to cron
System crontab Files
Daily Cron Jobs
The anacron System
CUPS

User Administration
Adding a New User Account
User Private Groups
Modifying / Deleting User Accounts
Group Administration
Password Aging Policies
Switching Accounts
sudo
Network Users
Authentication Configuration
Example: NIS Configuration
Example: LDAP Configuration
SUID and SGID Executables
SGID Directories
The Sticky Bit
Default File Permissions
Access Control Lists (ACLs)
SELinux
SELinux: Targeted Policy
SELinux: Management

File system Management

Adding New File systems to the File system Tree
Device Recognition
Disk Partitioning
Managing Partitions
Making Filesystems
Difference between ext3 and ext4
Filesystem Labels
tune2fs
Mount Points and /etc/fstab
Mounting Filesystems with mount
Unmounting Filesystems
 mount By Example
Handling Swap Files and Partitions
Mounting NFS Filesystems
Automounter
Direct Maps
gnome-mount
Checking available free space and space used by files (df,du)
Checking and correcting the integrity of filesystems (fsck)

File system security

Users and groups
The root user or superuser
Changing file ownership (chown)
Changing file group ownership (chgrp)
Permissions on files
Permissions on directories
How permissions are applied
Changing permissions (chmod)

Filesystem concepts and use

The unified UNIX filesystem
Special file types
Symbolic links (ln -s)
Inodes and directory entries
Hard links
Preserving links while copying and archiving

Processes and jobs

What processes are ?
The properties of a process
Parent processes and child processes
Killing processes and sending signals to a process (kill, killall, xkill)

Advanced File system Management

Configuring the Quota System
Setting Quotas for Users
Reporting Quota Status
What is Software RAID?
Software RAID Configuration
Software RAID Testing and Recovery
What is Logical Volume Manager (LVM)?
Creating Logical Volumes
Resizing Logical Volumes
Logical Volume Manager Snapshots
Using LVM Snapshots
Archiving tools: tar
Archiving Tools: dump/restore
Archiving Tools: rsync:
Linux Network Administration Managing Network

Network Setup and Configuration

Network Interfaces
Driver Selection
Speed and Duplex Settings
IPv4 Addresses
Dynamic IPv4 Configuration
Static IPv4 Configuration
Device Aliases
Routing Table
Default Gateway
Configuring Routes
Verify IP Connectivity
Defining the Local Host Name
Local Resolver
Remote Resolvers
Verify DNS Connectivity
Network Configuration Utilities
Transparent Dynamic Configuration
Implementing IPv6
IPv6: Dynamic Interface Configuration
IPv6: Static Interface Configuration
IPv6: Routing Configuration
New and Modified Utilities

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

Organizing Networked Systems

Host Name Resolution
DNS-Specific Resolvers
Trace a DNS Query with dig
Exploring DNS with host
Service Profile: DNS
Getting Started with BIND
bind-chroot Package
caching-nameserver Package

Network File Sharing Services

NFS server and NFS Client
NFS share for group collaboration

SMB
Samba server and samba client connections
Samba share for group collaboration

Linux Server Administration Managing Servers

Mail server - Sendmail Configuration

Managing sendmail
E-mail aliases
Mail quotas
Virtual mail domains
Configuring internal mail relays
Monitoring SMTP servers
/etc/aliases
sendmail.cw
 DNS - BIND configuration
Configure BIND to function as a caching-only DNS server
Configure a caching-only name server to forward DNS queries
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

Web Proxy - Squid Configuration

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

Web server - Apache Configuration

Apache Overview
Apache Server Configuration
Virtual Hosts
Apache Access Configuration
Deploy a basic CGI application
Configure group-managed content
Configure private directories
Monitoring Apache load and performance
Restricting client user access
Configuring mod_php and PHP support
Setting up client user authentication
Configuring Apache server options
access. log
.htaccess
httpd.conf
htpasswd

Linux Security Administration

 Security tasks
Auditing source code
Securing SSH
Getting security alerts
Open mail relays
Installing Intrusion Detection Systems
Port scanning with nmap
Firewall using IP Tables
Filter and NAT Rules
SMTP Overview and Implementations
Connections and Relays
SMTP AUTH & StartTLS/SSL
Password Security and PAM
Security Considerations
Activating and Interfacing with SELinux
SELinux commands and Roles
Location & Access
Boot level security (GRUB)
Security need for TCP wrappers
/etc/inetd.conf
/etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny
xinetd
Net filter Overview
Rules: General Considerations
Connection Tracking
Network Address Translation (NAT)
IP tables
/proc/sys/net/ipv4

Introduction to Shell Script

Different type of shell
Shell scrtip basics
Executing shell scripts.
Header,comments on script
Redirection
Vairables
Conditions
Loops
Eg: Backup script and scheduling the script

Storage

Configure a system as an iSCSI initiator that persistently mounts an iSCSI target