Hands-On Linux Bootcamp: Real World Skills to Get You Hired

Develop Linux and networking expertise to manage, troubleshoot, and secure systems, covering file systems, storage, user management, automation, high availability, and network fundamentals from ip addresses to load balancing.

Master Linux fundamentals as the foundation of reliable systems, using hands-on exploration of commands like journalctl and top to understand how the system works and solve real problems.

Trace Linux from Unix and Minix to an open source, free and modifiable kernel that powers data centers, Android devices, and smart appliances.

Discover how linux powers the world’s top servers and android devices, and why sre engineers rely on linux for reliability, security, customization, and open source.

Trace the GNU project's open source revolution and GPL philosophy, then see how Linux uses a kernel, shell, and userland to enable powerful command line workflows.

Explore the boot sequence from bios wake-up and post to boot loader, kernel, and init, including systemd, runlevels, and how services start and troubleshoot issues.

Explore the init process, PID 1, as the root of the Linux process tree that starts essential services, adopts orphans, and keeps the system stable.

Explore the Linux parent-child relationship, where PID one (init) acts as the root and keeps the system stable by adopting orphans and cleaning zombies.

Demonstrates installing Linux in a virtual machine using VirtualBox, selecting Ubuntu desktop, and configuring memory and CPU for a smooth step-by-step demo.

Install nginx on Ubuntu using apt, then verify its status with systemctl to ensure the service is active and running.

Explore how System V init, the original Linux system manager, uses PID 1 and runlevels via /etc/init.d scripts to start and stop services.

Explore how sysvinit runlevels map to systemd targets like multi-user.target for text mode. See graphical.target for GUI and how systemctl can switch modes and speed boot with parallel services.

Map runlevels to systemd targets to show how parallel startup speeds boot and how units, dependencies, systemctl, and journalctl streamline service management.

Master systemd as a modern Linux system manager to control services with systemctl, using unit files and targets to boot, isolate, and monitor services efficiently.

Master real world Linux skills as you move from processes and logs to practical user management, building a problem solving powerhouse for the SRE world.

Learn how Linux manages users through /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow, including uid, gid, home dir, shell, and sha-512 password hashing, plus password aging and security implications.

Learn how Linux groups simplify permission management by using primary group and secondary groups, assign ownership of new files, and manage groups with group add and group del.

Learn how Linux file permissions govern read, write, and execute access for owners, groups, and others, and apply chmod, setuid, setgid, and sticky bits.

Learn to secure your files by mastering chmod, chown, and chgrp, using numeric and symbolic permissions to set owner, group, and others, with safety best practices.

Master sudo to run commands with root privileges without logging in as root, and understand the sudoers file for secure, auditable access.

Explore how Linux file systems organize data, compare ext4, ZFS, and Btrfs, and learn core concepts like mounting, partitions, and swap space, with tips for choosing the right system.

Mount a new hard drive in Linux, use fdisk and lsblk to create an sdb1 partition, and mount it at /mnt, reflecting that everything in Linux is a file.

Mounts a newly created sdb1 partition to /mnt after formatting it with ext4 using mkfs.ext4, demonstrates mounting and unmounting, and explains making mounts permanent via fstab.

Explain how to permanently mount a partition after reboot using fstab, configure ext4 mounts, and verify automatic mounting at system startup.

Explore the linux filesystem hierarchy and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, mapping root, bin, etc, usr, var, and var/log to their roles.

Explore the Linux filesystem hierarchy and its standard, locate /bin, /etc, /home, /root, and /dev across distros, and learn how consistency and efficient troubleshooting follow from this predictable map.

Explore the virtual /proc filesystem as a live dashboard of processes and cpuinfo. See how /opt isolates manually installed software, and how /tmp holds short-lived files.

Understand how swap space provides memory beyond RAM to prevent crashes during memory-heavy tasks. Learn how to create and enable a swap file and monitor its use with free.

Master Linux storage monitoring with df, du, and quotas via coda, implement log rotate, and set alerts with Nagios or Prometheus to prevent downtime.

Learn to troubleshoot the file system by using df and du to identify space issues, rotate logs, and run fs k to detect and fix errors for reliable storage.

Learn how logical volume management (lvm) uses physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes to create a flexible, resizable storage pool with no downtime.

Learn to build LVM storage with physical volumes, a volume group, and logical volumes formatted as ext4 or ZFS, mounted, and resized via vg extend and lv extend.

Master Linux process management by mapping foreground and background tasks, identifying pids, and adjusting priorities with nice and renice using ps and man references.

Learn to use top and htop for real-time Linux process monitoring, covering system summary, active processes, CPU and memory usage, and basic process management.

Identify running processes with ps and ps aux, then control them with kill using signals such as sighup, sigint, sigquit, sigterm, sigkill, and sigstop to stop or terminate processes.

Master systemd service management with systemctl—start, stop, enable, disable—and inspect status and logs via journalctl. Explore strace and lsof to debug processes by tracing system calls and listing open files.

Master shell scripting to automate tasks and power CI/CD pipelines for SRE and DevOps. Learn what shell scripts are, why they matter, and how to write and comment them.

Master shell scripting in bash to automate repetitive Linux tasks, write your first script, and leverage variables, conditionals, and loops for speed and consistency in SRE and DevOps.

Learn how shell variables store and reuse data in scripts, use names, assign values, and print with echo, and see variables hold strings, numbers, or command output.

Master conditionals in shell scripts by using if statements to compare a variable to 18, branch with else, and display results with echo for real-world decision making.

Master if statements and logic in shell scripts by evaluating true or false conditions. Run commands or create files based on results, with practical file checks.

Master nested conditionals and case statements in shell scripting by using if tests for file and directory existence, numeric and string comparisons, and related flags like -d and -e.

Learn how loops in shell scripts automate repetitive tasks, time savers that turn a single instruction into an efficient, autopilot workflow for files, servers, and notifications.

Explore the for loop in shell scripting to automate repetitive tasks by iterating over lists of items, such as files, and running the same commands for each item.

Explore while loops and how they run code while a condition stays true, contrasting with for loops, and learn to prevent infinite loops with practical examples like server checks.

Explore the while loop with a practical bash example using a counter, condition, and nested if, pinging a server and redirecting output to /dev/null, breaking on zero exit status.

Explore while loops by monitoring a server with ping until it responds, using sleep and stdout redirection. Learn when to use while versus for loops and tune conditions.

Learn how shell scripting automates repetitive tasks, including backups, log rotation, and system monitoring, using bash scripts, tar archives, and cron scheduling.

Master Linux cron automation by scheduling daily tasks with crontab, configuring minutes, hours, dates, and commands to run scripts like backups at 2 a.m.

Discover how cron, a background time-based scheduler, uses per-user crontab files and the cron.d system to run scheduled tasks like daily backups, weekly log rotation, and hourly checks.

Learn to extract tar.gz archives with tar using the x, v, z, and f options, and use the at command to schedule one-time tasks on a Linux server.

Explore system performance tuning as maintenance for SRE professionals, identifying CPU bottlenecks, disk IO, CPU throttling, and network latency with tools, techniques, and strategies to optimize and keep systems reliable.

Learn performance tuning fundamentals for reliable, scalable systems by monitoring CPU utilization, memory, disk IO, and system limits, then optimize for resource efficiency and stability.

Learn to monitor system performance using top and free to track real-time CPU and memory, assess load averages, and spot bottlenecks or a memory leak.

Learn how ulimit enforces per-user resource guards, including open file descriptors, threads, memory, cpu time, and core dump sizes, and tune these limits to prevent overload and improve system stability.

Learn to configure ulimit permanently by editing /etc/security/limits.conf, defining soft and hard limits per user or globally, using star wildcards, with examples and PAM context.

Learn to tune the Linux kernel with sysctl, boosting performance and security for SREs. View current values and apply changes via /etc/sysctl.conf to enable ip forwarding.

Master system monitoring with sa and vmstat to analyze historical cpu, memory, io, and process trends for real-time troubleshooting on the fly and overall system performance.

Decode cryptic logs and trace errors to their source to improve system performance. Anticipate problems before they arise, becoming a troubleshooting rockstar.

Build troubleshooting and log management skills for SRE with practical Linux logging. Explore /var/log, journalctl, and key logs like auth and kernel to diagnose issues, monitor proactively, and reduce MTTR.

Learn real-time log monitoring with tail -f on /var/log/syslog to watch updates and troubleshoot services, then use grep to filter for errors by timestamps to pinpoint root causes.

Journalctl, the systemd log viewer, lets you read, filter by service and time, view real-time logs, and inspect the previous boot to diagnose issues.

Learn how logrotate automates log rotation, compression, and deletion to keep logs under control, prevent disk bloat, and tailor retention and schedules for production servers.

Rotate logs frequently to keep them manageable, compress rotated files, tailor retention to compliance needs, and monitor logrotate status to ensure reliable, space-efficient Linux logging.

Learn to troubleshoot common system issues as an SRE by using a methodical approach with dmesg, journalctl, df, and fsck to diagnose boot faults, disk space, and crashes.

Master linux network troubleshooting with ping, traceroute, and netstat to diagnose connectivity, routing issues, and open ports across the network path.

Explore how syscalls enable programs to request services from the Linux kernel, acting as a bridge between userspace and kernel space for file, network, and process operations.

Diagnose a slow web server by reviewing nginx logs for errors and misconfigurations, then assess CPU/memory with top and free, disk space with df, and network activity with netstat.

Celebrate your progress mastering Linux basics, then dive into networking fundamentals—servers, firewall, and load balancer—to connect the world and advance your IT career.