Linux System Administrator Course

Lesson 1 • Installing Linux on Physical and Virtual Hardware

Guides students through bare-metal and VM-based installation workflows. Connects hardware selection decisions to long-term system stability.

Lesson 2 • Getting Help and Using Documentation

Introduces man pages, info documents, and online resources for self-directed problem solving. Builds the research habit critical for real-world administration.

Lesson 3 • Linux History and Architecture Overview

Covers the kernel, shell, and user-space relationship that defines Linux. Establishes conceptual grounding for every administrative task in the course.

Lesson 1 • Scheduling Automated Tasks

Teaches cron, anacron, and systemd timers for recurring job execution. Connects scripting skills to real operational scheduling requirements.

Lesson 2 • Debugging and Hardening Scripts

Covers set -x tracing, exit codes, and input validation techniques. Produces scripts that fail safely and are maintainable by other administrators.

Lesson 3 • Writing and Structuring Shell Scripts

Introduces script structure, control flow, and error handling in Bash. Scripts written here are reused in automation chapters later in the course.

Lesson 4 • Bash Shell Fundamentals

Covers shell initialization, environment variables, and command history. Establishes the interactive shell skills required before scripting is introduced.

Lesson 1 • Managing Users and Groups

Covers account creation, modification, and deletion using CLI tools. Directly supports the permission and sudo configurations taught in later sections.

Lesson 2 • Access Control Lists and Extended Attributes

Extends standard permissions with ACLs for fine-grained access control. Addresses real-world scenarios where standard Unix permissions are insufficient.

Lesson 3 • Sudo and Privilege Escalation

Configures sudoers rules to delegate root-level tasks without sharing the root password. Reinforces least-privilege principles introduced in the chapter.

Lesson 1 • Logical Volume Management

Introduces PVs, VGs, and LVs for flexible, resizable storage pools. LVM skills enable online volume expansion and snapshot creation covered next.

Lesson 2 • Disk Partitioning with fdisk and gdisk

Covers MBR and GPT partition table creation using interactive CLI tools. Partitioning knowledge is prerequisite for LVM and RAID sections that follow.

Lesson 3 • Disk Quotas and Storage Monitoring

Enforces per-user and per-group disk quotas and monitors utilization trends. Prevents storage exhaustion incidents in shared multi-user environments.

Lesson 4 • Creating and Managing File Systems

Teaches mkfs, mount options, and /etc/fstab for persistent mounts. File system choices made here affect performance and reliability in production.

Lesson 1 • Systemd Service and Resource Control

Manages services with systemctl and enforces resource limits via cgroups and unit file directives. Connects process management to the service layer.

Lesson 2 • Real-Time Monitoring and Performance Tools

Covers top, htop, vmstat, iostat, and sar for live system observation. Monitoring skills here feed directly into the troubleshooting methodology taught later.

Lesson 3 • Signals and Job Control

Teaches sending signals, managing foreground and background jobs, and using screen or tmux. Enables safe process termination and session persistence.

Lesson 4 • Understanding Linux Processes

Explains process lifecycle, states, and the relationship between PIDs and parent processes. Provides the conceptual model needed for all process control tasks.

Lesson 1 • SSH Configuration and Secure Remote Access

Hardens OpenSSH server settings and configures key-based authentication. Secure remote access is foundational for all remote administration tasks ahead.

Lesson 2 • Network Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Applies ping, traceroute, ss, tcpdump, and Wireshark to isolate network faults. Builds a systematic diagnostic methodology applicable to any connectivity issue.

Lesson 3 • Network Interface Configuration

Covers static and dynamic IP assignment using NetworkManager and systemd-networkd. Interface configuration is the prerequisite for all subsequent network topics.

Lesson 4 • Routing and Gateway Management

Teaches static route creation, default gateway configuration, and basic policy routing. Routing knowledge is required for firewall and VPN chapters ahead.

Lesson 1 • SELinux and AppArmor Mandatory Access Control

Enforces mandatory access control policies using SELinux contexts and AppArmor profiles. MAC prevents privilege escalation beyond what standard permissions allow.

Lesson 2 • Firewall Management with firewalld and nftables

Configures zone-based rules with firewalld and low-level nftables for packet filtering. Firewall skills protect services configured throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • System Auditing with auditd

Configures audit rules to log file access, privilege use, and system calls. Audit logs provide the evidence trail required by security compliance frameworks.

Lesson 4 • PAM and Authentication Hardening

Configures PAM modules to enforce password complexity, account lockout, and MFA. Authentication hardening reduces the attack surface at the login layer.

Lesson 1 • Disaster Recovery and System Restore

Practices full system restoration from backups and bare-metal recovery procedures. Recovery drills validate that backup strategies meet real operational requirements.

Lesson 2 • Systemd Journal and Syslog Management

Queries journald and configures rsyslog for persistent, structured log storage. Logging infrastructure built here feeds the monitoring and alerting sections.

Lesson 3 • Log Analysis and Anomaly Detection

Applies grep, awk, and ELK stack basics to extract actionable insights from logs. Anomaly detection skills bridge monitoring data and incident response actions.

Lesson 4 • Infrastructure Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana

Deploys Node Exporter, Prometheus, and Grafana to collect and visualize system metrics. Dashboards built here enable proactive capacity and performance management.