Guide to Linux Self Managed Server Administration

Learn what Linux is as an operating system, how the kernel mediates hardware and software, and explore distributions from CentOS to Ubuntu to tailor a powerful self-managed server.

Explore how linux servers operate and why CentOS, a free, community‑driven distro based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, delivers stability, security, and flexible networking.

Explore virtualization by installing CentOS in a virtual machine on a Windows host using VirtualBox, and understand how virtual hardware and resources from physical machines enable independent systems.

Download VirtualBox for Windows from the official site, run the installer with default options, and complete installation. Launch VirtualBox to see the CentOS VM from a previous setup.

Download the CentOS iso from CentOS.org and install CentOS 7 in VirtualBox by creating a new VM, choosing storage, and selecting the GNOME desktop.

Explore cloud computing basics with Google Cloud Platform, learn about virtual machines and third-party data center hosting, and understand how Google's infrastructure powers cloud services.

Create a Google Cloud account using a Gmail or Google login, sign in, and set a payment method to access a $200 credit for 12 months.

Discover how to list files and directories from the command line using pwd to show the current directory and ls with -l, -s, and -lh for details and sizes.

Learn to browse the Linux file system in the terminal with pwd and cd, using .. to move up one or two levels toward the home directory.

Learn to run the previous command by typing exclamation twice, view command history with up and down arrows, and clear history from the command line.

Learn to switch between a regular user and the root user to edit the hosts file with elevated permissions, using nano and avoiding permission errors.

Learn to edit text with the nano command line editor, create and save files with ctrl+o and ctrl+x, and read files using cat, navigating directories with cd and ls.

Learn how Linux repositories function as a package database and how to search and install software using yum or apt as root.

Use yum to search for the PSP package and identify the PSP 7.0 version. Install the package with yum install, and confirm the installation completed.

Learn how to add the IUS community project repository to a CentOS system using a bash script, verify the new repo, and install packages not in the default repository.

Learn how to change file and directory ownership in Linux using chown, setting owner and group, verifying with ls -l, and performing recursive changes with sudo and -R.

Create directories in the current directory with mkdir, using -m 640 for user permissions and -p to avoid errors, then verify with ls and -v.

Delete file or directory using the rm command, including interactive mode and recursive deletion, and verify with ls. Create files with touch and directories with mkdir.

Practice copying files with cp, including single file and recursive copies, comparing source and destination with ls, and handling overwrite prompts when transferring multiple items.

Search by name with the find command, using -type f or -type d and -name or -iname for case-insensitive matching, then verify results with ls in the current directory.

Discover how to search for files by extension in Linux using the find command, filtering by type file, performing case-insensitive matches with -iname, and locating results in the current directory.

Identify file permissions, noting example file has read access for user, group, and others and convert it to octal 444. Use find in directory to locate files with that permission.

Explore Linux self managed server administration by learning how to start with empty files and directories using a simple, practical approach.

Learn to search plain text inside files with grep, enabling case-insensitive matches with -i, display line numbers with -n, and search across a directory and multiple files.

Save command output to a file with right arrow redirection, then read it with cat. Learn to display and save results via piping.

Learn to monitor Linux processes using top, read load averages, and interpret running, sleeping, and zombie states along with memory and CPU usage.

Execute the ps command to fetch the inter-process list, creating a non real-time snapshot that shows similar information to the top command.

Learn how to stop a service on a Linux self-managed server and verify its status as inactive, indicating the service is no longer running.

Execute a restart command to stop and reestablish a service on a Linux self-managed server. Press enter to confirm the service becomes active, illustrating practical restart procedures for server administration.

Install Apache using yum, start the service, check its status, and enable it to start on boot with systemctl for a self-managed server.

Install mariadb-server on a Linux server, start the mariadb service, secure the installation with mysql_secure_installation, set the root password, disable remote root login, remove test access, and enable at startup.

Monitor your apache web traffic by reading the access log to see who visits, when, and from which ip, then use that data to block suspicious addresses with firewall rules.

Configure virtual hosting to run multiple websites on a single server, using name-based, IP-based, and port-based approaches that share or assign distinct IPs and directories.

Register a domain and point its DNS A record to your server IP, then configure Apache with a name-based virtual host and set the document root to /var/www/domain.

Create a subdomain in the dns manager, point it to the parent ip with ttl one hour, then configure a virtual host under /var/www and verify in the browser.

Explore SFTP, a secure file transfer protocol, and how it transfers and manages files on a remote machine.

Create an sftp user and set a password using sudo passwd to enable login, with notes on mailbox existence when re-creating a user.

Learn how to grant a user access to a directory by checking current ownership with ls, then recursively change ownership with sudo chown -R nextcourse:nextcourse /var/www/nextcourse, and verify with ls.

learn how to use the sftp client FileZilla to transfer files between local and remote servers, including setup, connecting, and drag-and-drop transfers.