Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI)
Course Code: LASA
Duration: 5 days
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Course Overview
This instructor led Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) training course is designed to teach the advanced administration, security, networking and performance tasks required on a Linux Enterprise system.
Targeted to closely follow the official LPI curriculum (generic Linux), this course together with the Linux System Administration course will enable the delegate to work towards achieving the LPIC-2 qualification.
Exercises and examples are used throughout the course to give practical hands-on experience with the techniques covered.
Course Objectives
On completion of this course the delegate will have in-depth technical knowledge of what is required to administer Linux within the Enterprise. They will have gained practical experience of configuring administrative, networking and security aspects of a Linux Enterprise system to an advanced level.
The delegate will possess the essential knowledge required to work towards achieving the Linux Engineer LPIC-2 qualification.
Who will the Course Benefit?
The Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) training course is suitable for Linux System Administrators who need to acquire advanced administration knowledge of the key administrative, networking and security tasks required on Linux within the Enterprise.
An ideal course for delegates who will be working in an environment using several different Linux distributions and therefore knowledge of skills common to all the different Linux distributions is required. For the purpose of practical exercises, SUSE Linux will be used.
Delegates who wish to work towards achieving the Linux Engineer LPIC-2 certification will find this course a good basis for LPIC-2: 201-450 and 202-450 exams.
The appendixes also include other related topics that would be useful reading for delegates preparing for certification.
Note: Should the delegate only require knowledge of Red Hat Linux then they should instead consider attending our range of Red Hat Linux Administration courses.
Skills Gained
The delegate will learn and acquire skills as follows:
- Perform administrative tasks with supplied tools such as YaST
- Advanced network configuration
- Network troubleshooting and analysing packets
- Creating Apache virtual hosts and hosting user web content
- Sharing Windows and Linux resources with SAMBA
- Configuring a DNS server and configuring DNS logging
- Configuring a DHCP server and client
- Sharing Linux network resources with NFS
- Creating Unit Files
- Configuring AutoFS direct and indirect maps
- Configuring a secure FTP server
- Configuring a SQUID proxy server
- Creating Btrfs subvolumes and snapshots
- Backing-up and restoring XFS filesystems
- Managing software RAID
- Configuring LVM and managing Logical Volumes
- Centralised storage with iSCSI
- Monitoring disk status and reliability with SMART
- Configuring an LDAP server and client
- Configuring the firewall using iptables
- Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM)
- Installing and configuring an Intrusion Detection System
- Kernel modification and tuning
- Compiling software from source
- Configuring a Postfix server and email delivery
- Performing system recovery
- System performance monitoring
- Configuring GRUB2
- Installing alternate kernels
- Hardware configuration with hotplug and UDEV
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Training Course
Course Introduction
- Administration and Course Materials
- Course Structure and Agenda
- Delegate and Trainer Introductions
Session 1: ADVANCED NETWORK CONFIGURATION & TROUBLESHOOTING
- Configuring the network card (ip link, ip addr)
- Network scripts
- Configuring routing (ip route)
- Network troubleshooting and related tools (tcpdump, ping, mtr, traceroute, netstat, ss, arp, nmap, nc)
- The radvd Router Advertisement Daemon
- Exercise
Session 2: APACHE, SQUID AND NGINX
- APACHE main configuration files
- APACHE server configuration (main Section entries)
- Starting APACHE
- APACHE access configuration
- Configuring secure APACHE (https)
- Configuring IP address-based virtual hosts
- Configuring name-based virtual hosts
- Configuring Apache for user-based content
- SQUID proxy server
- Configuring client browsers
- Starting SQUID
- SQUID configuration file (squid.conf)
- SQUID security settings
- NGINX Proxy and Reverse Proxy
- Exercise
Session 3: NFS NETWORK SERVICES
- NFS operation and associated daemons
- Setting up an NFS server (/etc/exports and exportfs)
- Investigating the portmapper
- Setting up an NFS client (mount)
- Mounting NFS filesystems at boot (/etc/fstab)
- Using the automounter to access NFS mounts on demand
- Configuring AutoFS direct and indirect mounts
- Creating AutoFS units
- Exercise
Session 4: SAMBA
- SAMBA configuration file (smb.conf)
- Testing the SAMBA configuration (testparm)
- Configuring SAMBA users
- Mapping Windows and SAMBA users
- Starting SAMBA
- Managing Windows filesystems (smbmount, nmblookup)
- Accessing Windows shares
- Exercise
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Training Course
Session 5: THE DOMAIN NAME SERVER
- DNS operation
- Types of DNS Servers
- Domain Name Space
- Setting up a DNS master and slave server
- Server configuration files (named.conf and databases)
- DNS resource record formats
- Configuring DNS logging
- Configuring DNS security
- Starting and managing the DNS Server (rcnamed, rndc)
- Testing the DNS Server (host, dig, nslookup)
- DNS Client set up (resolv.conf)
- Configuring DNS Clients
- Exercise
Session 6: DHCP
- Configuring DHCP
- dhcpd.conf configuration file
- DNS entries
- Client address entries
- Address leases
- DHCP client configuration
- Exercise
Session 7: FTP
- Configuring a VSFTPD server
- Configuring FTP
- Configuring Pure-FTPd
- Configuring ProFTPd
- Active vs Passive mode
- vsftpd.conf configuration file
- Anonymous access
- Restricting access to the user's login directory
- FTP logfile
- Exercise
Session 8: CENTRALISED STORAGE WITH ISCSI
- Definition and benefits of iSCSI
- Configuring an iSCSI target
- Server target
- Client initiator
- Configuring the target an initiator with the yast tool
- Configuring the target an initiator with files and commands
- Configuring an iSCSI initiator
- Configuring iSCSI via YaST
- Exercise
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Training Course
Session 9: FILESYSTEM TOOLS AND DISK MONITORING
- Converting Ext filesystems to Btrfs
- Checking and repairing Btrfs filesystems
- Creating Btrfs subvolumes and snapshots
- Performing full and incremental backups of XFS filesystems
- Querying the backup repository
- Restoring XFS filesystems
- Alternate backup solutions
- The ZFS filesystem
- Configuring smartd
- Disk monitoring with smartctl
- Exercise
Session 10: RAID
- RAID overview
- Raw devices and partitions
- Creating a RAID device (fdisk, mdadm)
- Managing a RAID device (mdadm, /proc/mdstat)
- Creating and mount a file system on a RAID device
- Hot swapping failed drives
- Exercise
Session 11: LOGICAL VOLUME MANAGEMENT (LVM)
- LVM Overview
- Configuring LVM (pvcreate, vgcreate, vgextend, lvcreate etc.)
- Displaying information about the LVM environment (pvdisplay, pvs, vgdisplay, vgs, lvdisplay, lvs)
- Creating striped logical volumes
- Resizing Logical Volumes (lvextend, resize2fs, resize_reiserfs, xfs_growfs)
- Logical Volume Snapshots (lvcreate, lvdisplay)
- Device Mapper
- Configuring the lvm.conf file
- Exercise
Session 12: LDAP
- Structure of an LDAP Tree
- Configuring the LDAP server (slapd.conf)
- Testing the LDAP server (ldapsearch)
- Adding information into LDAP (lpdapadd)
- Configuring the LDAP Clients (nsswitch.conf, ldap.conf)
- Testing the Client connection to the Server (getent)
- Exercise
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Training Course
Session 13: COMPILING SOFTWARE FROM SOURCE
- Installing programs from source (tar, tarball)
- Compiling Open Source Software (configure, make)
- Installing the compiled software (make install)
- Managing shared libraries (ldd)
- Compiling from SRC (source) RPM packages (rpmbuild, rpm)
- Exercise
Session 14: SYSTEM MONITORING & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
- System performance monitoring
- Collecting system performance information (sar)
- Monitoring memory usage (free)
- Measuring virtual memory (vmstat)
- Measuring I/O performance (iostat)
- Performance Guidelines
- Performance monitoring tools
- Capacity planning
- Exercise
Session 15: FIREWALL CONFIGURATION
- Basic packets and routing
- Netfilter (iptables)
- Packet filtering (iptables, chains, rule targets, connection tracking)
- Saving and restoring firewall settings
- Network address translation (NAT)
- Exercise
Session 16: SYSTEM SECURITY
- Reporting security alerts
- Applying security related patches
- Installing and configuring an Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
- Installing and configuring fail2ban
- Exercise
Linux Advanced System Administration (LPI) Training Course
Session 17: PLUGGABLE AUTHENTICATION MODULES (PAM)
- Main PAM configuration files (/etc/pam.d directory)
- Configuration file formats
- Controlling user access using the configuration files
- Configuring pam_listfile
- Controlling time-based access with PAM
- Controlling limits with PAM
- Exercise
Session 18: POSTFIX
- Configuring a Postfix server
- Postfix TLS configuration
- Configuring Dovecot
- Managing email delivery
- Filtering emails
- Exercise
Session 19: THE LINUX KERNEL
- Kernel naming conventions
- Monolithic and Modular kernel design
- Listing modules (lsmod, modinfo)
- Kernel module configuration
- Kernel tuning (/proc sysctl.conf, sysctl)
- The GRUB2 Bootloader
- Installing An Alternate Kernel
- Exercise
Session 20: HARDWARE CONFIGURATION
- Hotplug system
- Devices and Interfaces
- sysfs filesystem and persistent names
- Device initialisation and interface configuration
- Hotplug and Coldplug
- UDEV system
- Exercise
Addendum: Reference Materials (provided within the course handbook for additional reading)
APPENDIX A - CONFIGURING APACHE FOR PHP AND TOMCAT
- Configuring Apache Web Server to support PHP and Tomcat
APPENDIX B - BASIC OPENVPN
- Accessing a private network with OpenVPN
APPENDIX C - RAIDTOOLS
- Old style raidtools package
APPENDIX D - ALTERNATE BOOT LOADERS
- An overview of SYSLINUX and ISOLINUX
- Booting with PXELINUX
APPENDIX E - DRACUT
- Managing the Linux boot process with dracut
APPENDIX F - APPARMOR
- Enabling and disabling AppArmor
- AppArmor monitoring tools
- Building and modifying AppArmor profiles
- Logging AppArmor
- AppArmor Options
- Exercise
- Course technical content is subject to change without notice.
- Course content is structured as sessions, this does not strictly map to course timings. Concepts, content and practicals often span sessions.
Examinations
This course together with the Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA), Linux Introduction and Linux Shell Programming or the combined 5 days Linux Fundamentals course will aid the delegate in their preparation for the following exam:
- Linux Engineer LPIC-2: 201-450 and 202-450.
Attending this course will help the delegate gain many of the skills and product knowledge requirements as outlined in the exam objectives. Studying this course and its associated reference materials can form part of the preparation to achieve certification. Experience, practice, self-study and aptitude are also key requirements for exam success.
Before taking any exam, ensure you have the recommended experience. The LPI website lists all exam requirements and these are updated regularly.
Exams are not included as part of the course.
Requirements
Experience of administering Linux in an Enterprise environment to the level covered in the Linux System Administration (LPI & CompTIA) course.
Knowledge of Linux Shell Programming to the level covered on the Linux Shell Programming course would also be beneficial.
Pre-Requisite Courses
Follow-On Courses
Course Reviews
Very helpful for networking engineers working in the network function virtualisation world, the course was suited to my level and I have learnt plenty of useful things during the week.
Samuel - TAC Network Specialist - Communications
Very good course, comprehensive and well structured. Well taught - the trainer obviously is very well versed in all content. Thanks Joe
Joe - IT
Extremely happy with the course. The material are all well presented and tutor is just great, very knowledgeable and no questions left unanswered.
Zak - System Administrator - Professional Services
Excellent course, very knowledgeable and helpful tutor.
Jamie - Systems Admin - Government
Course material useful, instructor very approachable & excellent at explaining rather complex topics, breaking them down into appropriate manageable chunks.
Ryan - technical consultant - Charity
Very good course and a nice even pace.
Paul - Communications
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