Course:  LINUX System Administration Lab Crash Course (includes a day of LINUX Networking Fundamentals)

Class Description: This is a practical, fast-paced, hands-on, crash course on the concepts and procedures needed to install, configure, fix and administer a LINUX system. Topics include details of system startup and shutdown, account management, security, creating and using file systems, devices, device files; Also serial port, terminal and printer configurations, software and package management, system backups, configuring automation and network daemons, system error logging, and operating system installation to name a few. Lectures are reinforced by providing the attendees with many hands-on real-life exercises throughout the learning experience, allowing them to gain practical experience with configuring and customizing Red Hat LINUX both as a system administrator and as a power user.

This course also provides the opportunity to advance the novice LINUX user in their understanding of one of the world’s most flexible and customizable operating systems, with the goal that they will become more proficient in working within a LINUX environment. By the end of this course, students will also have gained considerable experience and understanding in what goes on behind the scenes in a UNIX operating system and how to effectively manage and run a LINUX system, both locally and on a network.

Targeted for: Individuals with some experience in BSD or System V UNIX or some variant, who wish to become more proficient in LINUX, and understand the bigger picture, and learning what it is like to maintain a LINUX system in their home or office.

Prerequisites: This is an accelerated curriculum and students are expected to already be familiar with either UNIX or LINUX, and be proficient with the VI Visual Editor prior to to the first day of class. Students not meeting these prerequisites are required to enroll in the one-day fundamentals class held on the Friday before classes begin.

Handouts: Copies of the course outline slides will be provided along with relevant handouts when appropriate.

For more info: Email to courses@qualware.com or jeffg@qualware.com

Content Summary:

Class 1 - Introduction to System Administration and the LINUX File System

UNIX Architecture Overview

Responsibilities of a System Administrator

Quick History of UNIX

Hardware Components, Busses, IRQs

Command Line Syntax and Help Subsystem

Login vs su, Basic Commands and System Shutdown

Understanding the LINUX File System

Disk Terminology and Partitions

System V File System Overview

Introduction to Mounting

Navigating Around the LINUX Directory Structure

Class 2 - File System Details, Processes and System Startup

The LINUX File system Details:

Type of Files, Ordinary, Directories, Links, Special

Superblock, Inodes, Data-blocks

Chmod, Access Permission, SUID, SGID, Sticky bits

Anatomy of the UNIX Process:

Variations on PS command, SysV vs BSD vs LINUX

Forks and Execs, inherited Environment

Signals and Traps, Daemons, Cron and At Jobs

System Startup and Shutdown:

Power-on to Login Sequence

Bootstrap procedure, System Startup Files

Run Levels, Inittab

Serial Port and Terminal Initialization

Logins, Gettys, SAF, Terminals

Class 3 - Startup, User Management and User Environment

Customizing System Startup and Shutdown

Creating and Deleting User Accounts

Controlling Files: Passwd, Shadow, Group

UIDs, GIDs, Privileged Users, Changing UIDs

Security, Restricting User Accounts

Login Shells, Password Aging, Using Groups

User Environments and Dot Files (Profiles)

Devices, Device Drivers

Class 4 - Device Management and Printing

Configuring Printers in LINUX; Using Serial Ports in LINUX

Device Files, Block and Char, Major/Minor; Device Drivers, Device Naming Conventions

More Details on Disk, Partitions and Slices; Mounting File Systems

Using Devices as Devices, Not File Systems

Class 5 - Backup Techniques, Software Packages and System Install

Tape Backup Techniques:

Full dumps, Differentials, Incremental, Partials; Using TAR- Tape Archive Retrieval Subsystem

Using DD, CPIO; Dealing with Compressed Backups

Software Packages:

Installing Software; RPM- Red Hat Package Management

System Error Logging; System Install Lab

Class 6 - LINUX Networking Fundamentals

TCP/IP Fundamentals; IP Addressing Configuration Basics; Ports, Sockets, Inetd, Services

Network Configuration Files; Changing One’s IP Address; Changing One’s Hostname

Configuring Default Gateway; Static Routes

Introduction to LINUX X Window Subsystem and GNOME

Lecturer’s biography: Jeffrey Goldberg of Qualware Instructional Services is a long-time innovative user of UNIX, Web, Database and Internet services. Mr. Goldberg currently develops and teaches courses on UNIX Fundamentals,  Shell and Perl Programming, UNIX System Administration and Security, TCP/IP Network Administration in a Multi-Platform Environment, Advanced Visual Basic Programming incorporating SQL Database Access, Web Technologies such as HTML, XML, Web Site Database Access, VB Script, Java Script Programming, Java and Java Server Pages, Visual ‘C’ and ‘C++’ for Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Boston University. Mr. Goldberg is continually adding new cutting-edge technology to his curriculum, such as his latest course entitled “Dynamic Web Pages on a UNIX Server using  Apache PHP and MySQL” and accepts requests to put together customized on-site corporate training classes. Visit www.consultme.com/training or email totraining@qualware.com for more info on upcoming courses. Besides operating Qualware Instructional Services, Mr. Goldberg is also a principal of Qualware Consulting Group, which designs electronics for fault tolerant networks, specialized network adapter hardware and embedded customized controller cards. Mr. Goldberg has recently formed a new company called  Qualware Internet Services specializing in Internet/Intranet security, application servers, web hosting, DNS, and dynamic web applications.

Copywrite 2003 Qualware Instructional Services and Jeffrey Goldberg.

Course Fee Schedule:

On-line Registration and Payment

2003 course has been cancelled.  Next course scheduled for mid January 2006. Please contact the office at 781-229-1530 Ext 2 for more information.

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