3-in-1 Linux Power bundle: ChatGPT, Apache & Shell Scripting

Explore what a web server is, how the HTTP protocol delivers static and dynamic content. Review Apache, Nginx, and IIS, and note their usage statistics.

Install and verify the Apache httpd web server on CentOS 7.4 using yum, then start and enable the service. Check its status and confirm accessibility with the server IP.

Learn to configure Apache to start automatically on boot by enabling the httpd service with systemctl and confirming the status shows enabled.

Configure the Apache web server firewall on CentOS 7 to allow http and https traffic from anywhere, then verify access by loading the server's public IP in a browser.

Learn how to locate the Apache installation by listing httpd options, and inspect the httpd directory for modules, configuration files, templates, the 404 not found message, and the man page.

Explore the Apache directory structure and locate the httpd binary, inspect the loaded and compiled modules, verify the configuration with httpd -t, and understand the symlinks for logs and modules.

Explore the Apache main configuration file httpd.conf and its directives, including server root, listening port, document root, directory rules, and logging. Learn to edit and restart httpd to apply changes.

Learn to create your first website on the Apache web server by setting up the courses valley dot net site, configuring a virtual host, and validating with an index.html file.

Set up a port-based virtual host in Apache by creating a document root, configuring port 8080, and enabling firewall access, then test the configuration.

Configure Apache alias to map a URL path to a different directory, enabling the alias module and testing with httpd commands to verify syntax and access an image resource.

Analyze the Apache access log to read client IP, date/time, request, status, size, referral, and user agent, including 404 and 400 events.

Configure custom logs for apache virtual hosts by saving each website's access and error logs to separate files, define log formats (combined vs common), and verify with httpd commands.

Secure an Apache server by hiding version information and tokens, disable directory listing, and turn off etags; verify changes with curl and restart the service.

Learn to mitigate DDoS with mod_evasive by configuring rate limits, blocking offending IPs for a 10-minute period, and adding mailx alerts, with optional Cloudflare as a first line of defense.

Adjust httpd.conf to boost performance by tuning timeout and keepalive settings. Learn recommended values for heavy vs normal loads, including max keepalive requests, and how to apply them to httpd.conf.

Learn to adjust httpd.conf to improve web server performance by disabling extend status and hostname lookups. The lesson covers editing, saving, validating with httpd -t, and restarting the httpd service.

Analyze apache access log to identify top connecting IPs and their request patterns, assess potential ddos indicators, and block suspicious IPs via firewall to protect the web server.

Explore essential linux commands like ls, cd, touch, cp, mv, rm, nano, vi, cat, and echo to manage files and directories, practice creating, copying, renaming, editing, and printing content.

Create your first shell script by writing a text file of commands to automate tasks. Use nano to create the file, echo hello world, save, and run it with bash.

Learn to use grip (grep), awk, and sed for efficient text processing, including pattern searching, column extraction, and global substitution in text files.

Explore how local and global variables behave in shell functions, showing that global variables are accessible everywhere while local variables stay inside the function. Learn to write efficient, error-free scripts.

Learn practical linux shell script debugging using bash -x, set -x, set +x, and trap to catch signals like SIGINT and SIGTERM, enabling precise tracing and controlled debug flow.

Explore error handling in shell scripts by checking command exit status. Use $? and conditional prints, and control flow with set -e and set +e.

Explore cron jobs and the at command for automating scheduled tasks. Learn how to set up a daily backup at 12 a.m. and a one-time run for a script.

Learn to schedule tasks with the at and cron utilities, including creating and managing cron jobs, crontab, at, and anacron, plus handling permissions and system downtime.

Learn to write a shell script that adds or deletes Linux users using read prompts, an operation variable, and an if-else statement, with sudo adduser and sudo deluser commands.