Red Hat Enterprise Linux Systems Administration

			Essential Operations


			COURSE DESCRIPTION

    	This course will teach the commands and methods needed to setup
    	and manage a RHEL5 system.  The course will also use a problem
	solving approach in the lab exercises to teach system administrators
    	advanced topics, for long-term mangement of the system.  

	This course is the equivalent to Red Hat course 131.

    	Systems:  Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version 5 (all update levels)
	

			COURSE OBJECTIVES

    On completion of this course, a systems administrator should be able to
    install, update, and boot the RHEL5 operating system;  set up
    user accounts and directories;  prepare queues for use; perform
    backups for integrity and performance reasons; monitor the system
    for performance and do basic setup of network software and capabilities.


			COURSE TOPICS

		Advanced System Concepts for System Administrators
			Linux history and timelines
                    		Process concepts
                    		Bash Shell command usage and review
                    		Optimizing system help information
		   	System administrator functions 
		    	Using the root account
			root access via sudo
			Using the RHEL5 administrative graphical interfaces
			Manipulating system default environment files
			Installing and using webmin for remote administration

 
		System Installation and Updating
		    	Installation types and methods
                    		Installing the RHEL5 operating system
			Upgrading to a newer release of RHEL5
			Maintaining the system via patches
			Adding additional products to the system (packages)
			General package management
                    		Reconfiguring the Linux kernel 

               	 	Startup and Shutdown
			Components involved in the Linux boot
			Grub loader stages and configuration
			Default bootstrap
		    	Boot to single-user mode
			Linux startup methods, tools, and procedures
			Understanding run levels
			Adding procedures to the startup mechanisms
                    		Shutdown methods and control

		Managing of System Users
                    		UID and GID concepts
                    		Creation of a user account
			Security through password aging
                    		Controlling access by groups
                    		Login sequence
		    	Setting up user environment files
                    		Using and maintaining user login files
			Viewing and controlling running processes
			KDE setup files
			.gnome* files and directories (menus and layouts)

		Managing Printer Queues
                    		Creation of an execution print queue
                    		Commands to manipulate queues
                    		Commands to manipulate jobs in queues

		Managing Disk and Tape Volumes
                   		Commands to manipulate disks/filesystems
				partitioning disk surfaces with fdisk
				creating ext3 file systems (mke2fs)
				manipulating file system structures
				verifying file system structures with fsck
				making file systems available to software (mount)
				Creating and using LVM based file systems
				Commands to manipulate archival volumes:
                      			tar utility
				cpio utility
		      		dump and restore utilities
				Alternative methods of backup (mondo, rsync)

		Monitoring System Activity
                    		Informational Utilities
                    		The vmstat utility
                    		The iostat utility
                    		The sar utility 
		    	The netstat utility
			Maintaining swap and paging space(s)
			Building and using the top facility
			
		Network Setup and Configuration
		    	TCP/IP address selection
		    	Host names and related files
		    	Configuring network devices
		    	Network testing with ping
		    	Network utilities: telnet, rlogin, rcp, rsh, ssh
				
		Maintaining System Integrity
		    	Login and user accounting
		    	Command/process level accounting
		    	Using cron tables
				
		Basic Server Setups (Procedures and Mechanisms)
                   	DNS (client)
			FTP
			Mail
			Web (Apache)
			Samba

		Shell Scripting for Systems Administrators
		    	Bash shell variable definitions and basic techniques
		    	Looping and conditional constructs
		    	Administration scripts:
				Directory content information
				switchdesk replacement
				preformatting man pages
				disk label conversion
				batch job logging
				administrative menus
				find largest file(s)
	        

			COURSE DURATION

    	This course normally requires four (4) days, approximately 60%
   	 lecture, and 40% lab time.


			COURSE PREREQUISITES

    	It is assumed that the participant has successfully completed the
    	Red Hat Linux Essentials course, or has equivalent system time 
	as a user.