Linux Administration and Supercharge Your Career

Explore installation options for Santo's, including DVD, net install, minimal, and live images, with download methods and server or GUI configurations for physical, virtual, and cloud deployments.

Install CentOS in VirtualBox using a minimal install; create a VM, attach the ISO, boot, configure language and time, set root password, and access the command line.

Learn the Linux file system hierarchy, from the root to essential directories like /bin, /boot, /dev, /etc, /home, /media, and /var.

Configure networking from the command line using dhcp, edit the interface script, set boot protocol to dhcp, restart the network, and verify connectivity with ip a and ping Google's dns.

Configure a static IP by reserving it with the MAC address or by editing the network configuration to set IP, gateway, and DNS. Restart the network service and verify.

Set a meaningful hostname for your server by editing the hosts file to map the name to the loopback address, keep it under 64 alphanumeric characters, and restart.

Learn to connect remotely to a server with ssh using a password or cryptographic key, and verify the host fingerprint for secure authentication.

Master installing and updating software with yum, including wget, zip, unzip, and nano, using dependency checks, repository searches, and signing key verification.

Install package groups or individuals with yum group install, explore groups such as development tools and security tools, and remove or update groups using yum group remove and yum update.

Create a least-privilege user with a home directory and .ssh, set a strong password, and grant sudo privileges. Disable root SSH login by editing sshd_config and restarting the SSH service.

transfer files to and from a server using sftp, compare command-line options with wget, and use a graphical client like Cyberduck to visualize the transfer progress.

Learn how SELinux provides access control security policies in Linux by tagging files and processes with security contexts, preventing hijacked services and preserving system integrity.

Explore discretionary versus mandatory access control, and learn how SELinux enforces Linux security through type enforcement, targeted, strict, and permissive modes, and security contexts for files and processes.

Learn how Linux policies and booleans govern enforcement, configuring file sharing with SMB while applying the least privilege principle to home directories.

Switch between enforcing and permissive modes with setenforce, and make permanent changes by editing /etc/selinux/config, while inspecting file security contexts and SELinux booleans for services like Samba.

Learn how to disable SELinux safely using setenforce 0 to enter permissive mode. Configure /etc/selinux/config to disable on boot, and remember to re-enable for proper security.

Learn to configure firewalld by managing zones, opening port 80 or http service, and making rules permanent across reboots, then verify and adjust with restart.

Learn to set up and configure an Apache web server, deploy site files, adjust directory index, manage ownership, and verify SELinux contexts for secure hosting.

Set up a Samba share on Linux using smb.conf, create a Samba user, assign permissions to a home folder, and test access from a Windows machine after configuring firewall rules.

Mount a shared smb folder from a Windows PC onto a Linux mount point using samba, with the required username and password, then list the mounted content with ls.

Edit /etc/fstab to auto-mount a smb share at startup by defining the remote path, local mount point, filesystem type, and credentials, then reboot to verify.

Install and configure the desktop environment by downloading about 600 megabytes plus 1.8 gigabytes of software, restart the computer, accept the license, and explore the graphical user interface.

Explore the linux desktop environment from the applications menu, launch tools like calculator, browser, text editor, and Firefox, and manage firewall, network, printers, updates, system monitors, and the terminal.

Enable remote desktop on Linux by installing and configuring a VNC server, opening firewall ports, and setting a password; connect from Windows with a VNC viewer to access the desktop.

Explore troubleshooting slow boots by listing start services with execution times and reading the boot timeline. Save the analysis to a startup log file.

Explore linux log files, from application messages to audit logs and sudo security events; use the audit report tool for statistics on successful and feign indignation.

Master how to check and manage Linux resources with the top command, monitor memory and processes, and use the -u flag to view user activity.

Learn timing concepts and techniques to optimize Linux system performance, focusing on response time, deadlines, regular sampling, and actions per second for safer, reliable operation.

Explore timing techniques in linux by using bash time and shell prompts to measure real time, user time, and system time, and compare performance through simple benchmarks.

Explore timing techniques for linux commands, comparing built-in versus new process approaches, measuring execution time, and analyzing outputs to optimize command performance.

Explore the proc file system, a pseudo file system exposing live process data under /proc, including per-process pid directories and files like state, status, meminfo, and limits.

Explore linux performance tools and rpm vs debian packages, and how matching distribution versions and 64-bit architecture matters. Use system monitors and profiling to identify bottlenecks.

Install Performance Co-Pilot and Tuna to instrument the system and kernel, collect data, and view metrics with PCP tools and APIs.

Learn to use the top command to monitor cpu usage, identify multi-threaded processes, view threads, and interpret cpu percentages and process ids.

Learn to use sar for cpu monitoring, gathering live and historical utilization data (cpu, memory, disk), and analyze intervals to diagnose slowdowns and workload patterns.

Learn practical methods to inspect processor details on Linux, using grep, ls, w, rpm -qf, and lshw, and understand when to use superuser privileges.

Explore how the Linux kernel scheduler assigns CPU time across tasks using scheduling classes, real-time and nice values, and time slices to balance priorities.

learn how to balance throughput and response time by tuning preemption, time slices, and short context switches, keeping processes in RAM and measuring performance with headbench.