This course covers the basics of Linux system administration over 15-20 hours, teaching students how to use the command line, configure networks and disks, manage users and software, monitor performance, backup systems, and troubleshoot issues. The course outline details lessons on topics like file systems, shells, vi editor, processes, packages, networking, and booting to provide students with foundational skills for administering Linux systems. The goal is for students to learn how to use and manage key components of Linux from the command line as a system administrator.

1. LINUX SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION
Course Duration: 15-20 hrs
Course Overview: This course covers Linux basics, as well as system administration topics
on Linux. Students will learn how to attach and configure a workstation on an existing
network.
Prerequisites:
• Experience using a computer, i.e., Windows or a Mac.
• Programming experience would be helpful. (The specific programming language is
not a big deal, as long as they understand how one thinks when writing a program.
Who Should Attend: People with little or no Linux experience, but who want to begin to learn
about system administration on Linux
Goal/Objectives: Students will learn the Unix/Linux command line, the basics of shell
programming, and the basics of Linux system administration
COURSE OUTLINE
Basics
Introduction • Logging in and out
• Class Logistics • Typing and correcting mistakes •
• Typographic conventions Changing your password
GNU/Linux • An overview of the Gnome Desktop •
• Free software licenses An introduction to the Nautilus file
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar • manager
Summary • Command-line structure
• Some simple commands
OS Installation • Displaying the contents of a file in a
• Hardware requirements terminal
• Installer options • Lab
• Disk partitioning
Finding the answer
• Network configuration
• General hints
• Package selection
• The help system
• Kickstart
• The manual pages
• Lab
• GNU Info
• Summary
• Lab

2. File manipulation Some useful tools, part I
• An Overview of the UNIX filesystem • • grep
Directories • Regular expressions
• Listing files • diff
• Renaming and Copying Files • sort
• Removing Files • uniq
• The file command • Lab
• Creating and removing directories • Some useful tools, part II •
Links cat
• chown and chgrp (optional) • head and tail
• Lab • wc
File and directory permissions • tee
• Introduction • sleep
• Looking at File Permissions • Lab
• Changing Permissions Some useful tools, part
• Lab • cat
The vi editor • head and tail
• Introduction • Lab
• Getting in and out Some useful tools, part
• vi modes • wc
• Moving around • tee
• Adding text • sleep
• Deleting text • Lab
• More
• Lab Basic bash programming, part I •
Variables
The shell
• Shell Scripts
• What is a shell • Quoting
• Metacharacters • Lab
• Redirecting I/O
• Pipes Basic bash programming, part II •
• History and command line editing Exit status and {tt $?
(ksh and bash) • Expressions
• History and command line editing • if
(tcsh) • case
• Shell startup and customization • Lab
(bash) Basic bash programming, part III •
• Shell startup and customization for
(tcsh) • while
• Aliases (optional) • Debugging Shell Scripts •
• Shell startup and customization Functions
(ksh)
• Function arguments
• Lab
• Lab

3. Processes Useful tools
• Process information • lsof and fuser
• Job control • renice
• nohup • rsync
• nice • cron
• Looking at processes • Log files and their rotation •
• Killing processes The /proc filesystem
• Lab • sysctl
User Information • Summary
• Adding and deleting users • Lab
• /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Performance monitoring
• Groups • Introduction
• Password aging • sar
• PAM • free
• nsswitch.conf • vmstat
• LDAP authentication • iostat
• su and the root account • netstat
• Troubleshooting hints • top
• Summary • Graphical tools
• Lab • Troubleshooting
Packages • Summary
• RPM overview • Lab
• Working with rpm Booting, part 1
• Staying up-to-date • The hardware boot process •
• RedHat GUI grub
• RPM alternatives • Booting single user •
• Summary Initial ramdisks
• Lab • init and startup scripts •
File and filesystem tools Boot floppies/CDs
• Special files and devices • Shutting down the system •
• Partitions Troubleshooting
• Summary
• Mounting filesystems
• Inodes • Lab
• The structure of a directory Filesystems
• Tools • Journaling overview •
• File attributes Common filesystems •
• Adding a disk Software RAID
• Dealing with filesystem problems • • Loop device
Summary • Summary
• Lab • Lab

4. Backups Networking, part 2
• Compression • Static network configuration •
• Incremental backups mii-tool and ethtool
• tar • neat
• dump and restore • Virtual network interfaces •
• rsync Network performance tuning •
• Summary Summary
• Lab • Lab
Networking, part 1
• Network configuration
• DNS lookups
• inetd
• xinetd
• NIS
• NIS+
• ssh
• NFS
• Automounter
• Network monitoring and testing tools •
Troubleshooting
• Summary
Lab