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.

Create a Google Cloud VM by navigating to console, select Compute Engine, and configure a single-core VM with centaurus seven, static external IP, and 10 GB storage with firewall rules.

Learn to securely ssh into a VM, configure sshd, enable password authentication, manage users, install nano, and restart sshd for remote Linux server administration.

Discover how to check your Linux kernel version with uname -a, explore uname --help for options, and view the machine name, logged-in users, and system uptime with time.

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.

Check if a package is installed with yum list installed, verify the exact name, and use a star wildcard to show related packages.

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 to remove or uninstall a package on a Linux system using yum remove, confirm the action, and verify removal by listing installed packages.

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.

Learn how Linux file permissions control who can read, write, or execute files, using owner, group, and others, with symbolic and octal representations and recursive chmod examples.

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.

Learn to move and rename files in Linux with the mv command, specifying source and destination paths and handling spaces. Verify results with ls and confirm when prompted.

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.

Learn to search by file size with the find command, choosing kilobytes or megabytes, using exact or greater-than queries, and display results with ls -lh.

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 for files by extension with the find command, using -type f and -name or -iname, and exclude specific extensions with -not, including case-insensitive matching.

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 to locate a specific application's process on a Linux system by listing processes and filtering with grep, identifying the target service like Apache or tpd.

Learn to terminate a running linux process using sudo kill -9, identify the process ID with ps or pgrep, and apply the command to a single target.

Learn how to start and restart Linux services using sudo service [name] restart for Apache, a web server running as a service. Check status with sudo service [name] status.

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.

Explore the LAMP stack on Linux, installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP to host dynamic websites and web apps using open source software.

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.

Install php on your system, confirm the installation with prompts, then restart the Apache web server using sudo to enable php support.

Install phpMyAdmin, a graphical interface for database management, using yum, and configure its settings. Restart the service and access it in your browser to manage databases with root credentials.

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.

Learn how to monitor web traffic live by using tail -f on the access log to observe real-time requests from different IPs.

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.

Add multiple domains to a Linux server by pointing to the server IP, creating or using a directory, editing the config file with sudo and nano, and restarting the service.

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.

Configure sftp by editing /etc/ssh/sshd_config to enable password authentication, then restart sshd to allow logins from any client.

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