SUSE Linux System Administration

Course Description

In this four-day hands-on course students learn how to install and perform tasks needed to effectively administer a SUSE Linux system.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Successfully install Linux
• Administer the Linux file system
• Add, modify, and delete users and groups
• Configure user shell environments
• Protect files and directories from unauthorized access
• Configure network settings
• Adminster processes and services
• Back up and restore files
• Manage software installation and updates
• Configure remote access
• Start up and shutdown any Linux computer

Course Benefits

Students will increase their productivity by learning the tools and techniques needed to efficiently and effective administer a SUSE Linux system.

Who Should Attend

This course is valuable for all computer professionals involved with SUSE Linux and especially for those who are acquiring system administration responsibilities on a SUSE Linux system.

Prerequisite

To ensure your success, we recommend you first take either our Introduction To UNIX course or our Introduction To Linux course, or have the equivalent knowledge. Familiarity with Web browsers, the vi editor, and Linux command line interface is assumed.

Method Of Instruction

Lecture, demonstrations, twelve short interactive quizzes, questions and answers, and numerous hands-on exercises.

Hands-on Exercises

Throughout this course, students perform a series of extensive hands-on exercises including:

• Installing SuSE Linux
• USB Exercise
• /proc Exercise
• Kernel Tuning
• Disable and Enable Ping
• Working With Kernel Modules
• System Configuration Tools
• Boot Options
• GRUB Boot Loader
• /etc/inittab
• Compiling The Kernel
• File Security
• Managing Users Using The GUI
• sudo
• Adding A Repository
• rsync
• tar Exercise
• cpio
• Creating CD Images
• Adding Swap Space
• Logical Volume Management
• Configuring Network Connectivity
• cron Exercise
• System cron Exercise
• Processes Exercise
• Setting Limits
• ssh Exercise
• VNC Server
• Configuring xinetd
• Fun With X
• Using X As A Kiosk
• System Logging Using syslog-ng
• Process Accounting
• Capstone Exercise

Course Outline

Chapter 1: Installation

• Minimum Hardware Requirements
• Installation Considerations
• Hardware Compatibility
• Multiple Operating Systems
• Master Boot Record
• Partition Scheme
• The Root Partition
• Why Have Other Partitions
• File System
• File System vs Disk Partition
• Journaling File System
• Network Information
• Installation Sources
• Obtain Linux
• Installation Options
• The Installation Process

Chapter 2: YaST

• What Is YaST
• What Is AutoYaST
• Start YaST
• More About YaST
• YaST Control Center
• Configure A Printer
• Create A CD/DVD

Chapter 3: Devices And Kernel Configuration

• hwinfo
• File Types
• The Linux File System
• The /proc Directory
• The /dev Directory
• Commands To List Devices
• Set Serial Ports
• Commands To List Kernel Modules
• Commands To Modify The Kernel
• Tune The Kernel
• The sysctl Command

Chapter 4: System Configuration

• The /etc Directory
• Basics Of Networks
• Assign An IP Address
• Configuring The Network Card
• Edit System Configuration Files
• GUI System Configuration Commands
• Time and Date Properties Tool
• Set The Hardware Clock
• Synchronize Time

Chapter 5: The Boot Process

• What Happens When Powering Up
• The chkconfig Command
• init
• System Shutdown
• Improper Shutdown
• System Fails To Boot
• Troubleshooting Common Boot Problems

Chapter 6: Users, Groups, and Permissions

• Why Have Permissions
• Basic File Permissions
• Permission Modes
• The chmod Command
• The umask Command
• Directory Permissions
• The chgrp Command

Chapter 7: Advanced Topics in Users, Groups and Permissions

• User and Group Identities
• The /etc/passwd File
• The /etc/shadow File
• Change User Password Expiry Information
• Add, Modify, Delete Users
• Add, Modify, Delete A Group
• User Manager GUI Tool
• Change The Password
• The root User
• sudo
• Special Permissions
• SUID and SGID

Chapter 8: Managing Software

• Red Hat Package Manager
• yum
• rug
• zypper
• Add Software With YaST
• Update Software With YaST
• Refresh A Repository Using YaST
• Backing Up

Chapter 9: Advanced Disk Setup

• The mount Command
• The umount Command
• The lsof Command
• The /etc/fstab File
• YaST Expert Partitioner
• The parted Command
• fdisk
• Make A File System
• Mount A Partition
• Logical Volume Management
• RAID

Chapter 10: Networking

• Configure The Network Card With YaST
• Network Settings
• Set A Static IP Address
• Configure An IP Alias
• Domain Name Service
• The host Command
• Components Of DNS
• NFS
• Server Message Block
• Samba
• Connecting As A Samba Client

Chapter 11: Investigating and Managing Processes

• What Is A Process
• What Is A Daemon
• Process Status
• The pstree Command
• The top Command
• System Uptime
• crontab
• The at And batch Commands
• The watch Command
• The time Command
• The nice Command
• The renice Command
• Background & Foreground
• The jobs Command
• The kill Command
• The nohup Command

Chapter 12: Remote Connectivity

• OpenSSH
• Virtual Network Computing
• The xinetd Daemon
• TCP Wrapper
• The X Window System

Chapter 13: Troubleshooting

• Log Files
• logrotate
• logwatch
• logger
• Commands To Monitor Login Activity
• System Monitoring Utilities
• Network Problems