Linux Essentials – A Beginners Course

Session 1. Unix/Linux History

• Unix History – Roots & Birth of Unix
• Unix Philosophy
• The Law
• Results of Consent Decree
• AT&T Unix Policy
• Why Unix/Linux Instead of Other OSs?
• What is Linux
• What’s An Operating System?
• The System View of Linux/Unix
• Why Linux?
• Linux Shells – Bourne (sh) & bash Shell (bash)
• Superuser
• Password Security
• Logging In and Out
• What happens when you login? – Linux
• exit or logout
• Linux Processes
• Command Components and Notation
• Example – who Command

Session 2. The BIOS and the UEFI

• UEFI
• GUID Partition Table
• The Boot Process
• The BIOS and the UEFI
• Basic System Configuration
• The UEFI Menu
• The Bootloader
• Startup Menus – Boot Menu
• Linux Bootloaders

Session 3. Getting Started with Linux

• Virtual Consoles
• The shell prompts
• Getting Help
• Linux Commands
• Simple Commands – pwd, date, who,
  id, whoami, who am i, uname, which, tty
• Files & Directories Management
  Commands

Session 4. Users, Groups &
Permissions, Configuring the Bash Shell and Finding & processing Files

• The Linux Security Model           
• Users and Groups – The root user
• Linux File Security – Permission
  Types
• Linux Process Security
• Changing Permissions- Symbolic
  Method & Numeric Method
• Configuring Bash Shell – Variables
  and Aliases
• Other Shell Configuration Methods –
  Environment Variables
• Common Environment Variables
• How the Shell Expands the Command
  line
• Shell Startup Scripts
• /etc/profile
• /etc/profile.d   
• ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bashrc
• ~/.bash_logout
• Archiving Files
• Using file Compression
• The find Command

Session 5. File Management Commands in
Linux.

• File System – Files, Directories and
  File Names
• File Name Rules
• Path Names – Absolute & Relative
  Pathnames
• The inode
• LiNk – ln
• Hard and Soft Links?
• The more Command
• Word Count – wc
• The history Commnad
• The file Command

Session 6. Linux Commands &
Command-Line Tools

• Some Useful Commands
• Converting Tabs into Spaces
• The head and tail commands
• Merging Lines with paste
• Breaking a file into pieces using
  split command
• Translating characters with tr
  command
• Working with duplicate lines with
  uniq and sort
• Extracting text with cut command
• Formatting content with pr command
• Command Line Tools
• Checking Ports with telnet &
  nmap
• Command line E-mail Client
• Methods for using mail
• Reading Mail Messages
• Text and Graphical Browsers
• Elinks Web Browser
• Using lftp to Access URLs
• List of ftp Commands

Session 7. Input Output Redirection and
Process Concept

• Standard Input and Output
• Redirecting Input and Output
• Redirecting and Piping
• Overwriting or Appending
• Redirecting Standard Error and Both
  Standard Output and Error
• Using Pipes To Connect Processes
• Useful Pipe Targets
• What is a process and How Processes
  are created?
• Process Ancestry and Process States
• Viewing process
• Sending Signals to Processes -Terminating
  Processes
• Interactive Process Management Tools
• Altering process scheduling priority
• Running a Process in the Background
• Suspending a Process
• Listing Background and Suspended
  Jobs
• Resuming Suspended Jobs
• Compound Commands

Session 8. Job Scheduling

• Scheduling a Process to Execute
  Later
• Interaction between at.allow &
  at.deny
• Scheduling Periodic Processes
• Using cron
• Crontab File Format
• Controlling access to the crontab
  command

Session 9. Regular Expressions and grep

• Pattern Matching with Regular
  Expressions
• Tools that use Regular Expressions
• The grep Command
• Common options of grep
• Wildcard characters with Examples
• Modifiers with Examples
• Anchors with Example
• regex combinations and Quoting

Session 10. Vi Editor

• Overview of vi and vim
• Starting vi and vim – with different
  options
• Three modes of vi and vim
• Cursor Movement Commands
• Entering and Leaving Insert Mode
• Change, Delete and Yank and Put
• Undoing Changes
• Searching for Text
• Command-Mode Tricks
• Saving and Exiting: ex mode

Session 11 Administration with the
Secure Shell and Secure Copy

• Introduction to SSH
• Configure an SSH Client
• Command-Line Access
• SSH Command-Line Tools
• Graphical Secure Shell Access

Session 12 Linux Network Client Tools

• GUI Web Browser
• Non GUI Web browsers
• The wget Command
• Remote access and file transfer
• ssh – Secure shell and scp : Secure
  copy
• telnet and the ‘r’ services
• The rsync Command
• The lftp Command
• The smbclient Command
• Network Diagnostic Tools

Session 13 Basic Firewall Control

• Basic Firewall Control
• Standard Ports
• The iptables Command
• The Iptables – Getting started
• Start and enable the firewall  Service
• The iptables Service
• Understanding
  /etc/sysconfig/iptables File
• The firewalld Service
• Default Zones
• The firewall-config Tool
• How firewall Works
• Examples of Services
• The firewall-cmd Configuration Tool
• Example – Adjust Firewall Settings

Session 14 Shell Scripting Part 1

• Scripting Basics
• Creating Shell Scripts
• Generating Output and Handling Input
• bash scripts example
• Exit Status
• Control Structures
• Conditional Execution

Session 15 Shell Scripting Part 2

• Selection Structures: Using if/else
  and case Statement
• Repetition Structures: The for-loop
• for and sequences

Session 16 Securing SSH with Key-Based
Authentication

• Securing SSH with Key-Based
  Authentication
• SSH Configuration Commands
• SSH Client Configuration Files
• Basic Encrypted Communication
• Private Keys and Public Keys
• Set Up a Private/Public Pair Keys

Session 17 Bootloaders and GRUB 2

• GRUB 2, the GRand Unified Bootloader
  V2
• Boot into Different Targets
• Targets and Run Levels
• Kernel Parameters for targets
• Check your current Target
• Booting with Different Targets
• Recovering the Root Password
• Modify the System Bootloader
• Example Entry in
  /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
• The File grub.cfg
• Generating GRUB Conf from
  /etc/default/grub
• Understanding /etc/default/grub
• How to Update GRUB
• The GRUB 2 Command Line
• GRUB 2 Prompt to boot Manually
• Reinstall GRUB 2
• Booting from GRUB 2: Rescue Mode

Session 18 Control by Target and Time
Synchronization

• Control by Target
• Functionality by Target
• Other Services started by graphical.target
• The Innards of systemd Units
• Using systemctl to start and stop a service
• Service Configuration
• Time Synchronization and Time Zone
  Configuration
• Sync the Time with chronyd
• Sync the Time with ntpd
• The ntp Command

Session 19 Storage Management and
Partitions

• Linux Filesystem Administration
• Storage Management and Partitions
• Current System State
• The fdisk Utility – With Examples
• Some of the Partition Types
• The gdisk Utility – with Examples
• The parted Utility – With Examples
• Changing Partition Type
• Graphical Options
• Examples of fdisk and parted

Session 20 Filesystem Formats

• Filesystem Formats
• Standard Formatting Filesystems
• Some Standard Filesystems
• Journaling Filesystems
• Filesystem Format Commands
• Some Journaling Filesystems
• The mkfs Command
• Swap Volumes
• Filesystem Check Commands
• Working with Filesystems

Session 21 Logical Volume Management

• Logical Volume Management (LVM)
• Sequence of steps
• Create a Physical Volume
• Create a Volume Group
• Create a Logical Volume
• Make Use of a Logical Volume
• Physical Volume Management Commands
• Volume Group Commands
• Logical Volume Commands
• Checking Existing LVM
• Remove a Logical Volume
• Resize Logical Volumes

Session 22 Filesystem Management

• Filesystem Management
• The /etc/fstab File
• Why UUID?
• The /etc/fstab Column, Left to Right
• Universally Unique Identifiers in
  /etc/fstab
• Getting UUID
• The mount Command
• Mount, fstab and ACLs
• More Filesystem Mount Options
• Options for mount Command and
  /etc/fstab
• Virtual Filesystems
• Add Your Own Filesystems to
  /etc/fstab
• Removable Media and /etc/fstab
• Unmounting a Removable Media
• Mounting CD through fstab
• Networked Filesystems
• Mounting NFS Directory

Session 23 The Red Hat Package Manager

• The Red Hat Package Manager
• Red Hat Subscription Management
• A RedHat/CentOS RPM Package?
• The RPM Database
• RPM and backup of old Configurations
• A Package Repository and Database
• Install an RPM Package
• The rpm and Dependencies
• More on Install and Upgrade
• Uninstall an RPM Package
• Install RPMs from Remote Systems
• Installation Security
• The /etc/pki/rpm-gpg Directory
• Special RPM Procedures with the
  Kernel
• Kernel Upgrade – Precautions
• Kernel Install – After installation
• Files in the /boot Directory
• Package Queries
• Package Signatures
• The algorithms used to verify
  package integrity
• File Verification with Examples

Session 24 The yum Command in Linux

• Dependencies and the yum Command
• Dependency Hell
• Relief from Dependency Hell
• Basic yum Configuration
• The yum conf Directives
• Files in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d
  Directory
• Configuration Files in the
  /etc/yum.repos.d
• Custom Configuration File
• Create a yum Repo from DVD
• Yum cache Clean up
• Third-party Repositories
• Basic yum Commands
• Installation Mode
• Installation/update with yum
• Security and yum
• Updates and Security Fixes
• Package Groups and yum
• Removing a Group

Session 25 User Account Management

• User Account Management
• Different Kinds of Users
• The Shadow Password Suite
• The /etc/passwd File and its fields
• The /etc/group File and its fields
• The /etc/shadow File and its fields
• The /etc/gshadow File and its fields
• The /etc/login.defs File
• The /etc/login.defs Password
  Parameters
• Add Users Directly
• Add Users to a Group Directly
• Add Users at the Command Line
• The useradd Command Options
• Add or Delete a Group at the Command
  Line
• Delete a User
• Add a User with the Red Hat User
  Manager
• Real and Fake Shells
• Modify an Account
• User Properties -Groups
• More User/Group Management Commands
• The usermod Options
• The groupmod and chage Commands
• The chage Command Options