Unix/Linux Essentials

Course details

Linux Essentials starts from ground up exploring the capabilities of the Operating System to most of the things a normal everyday user needs. It requires no prior knowledge of the OS. Participants will be able to perform tasks and simple automation which will help them on all of the above jobs.

Learning Unix Shell Scripting along with this course is a very good idea as it gives the participant the power to automate everyday tasks very efficiently.

Who Should Take This Course:

Programmers (C, C++, Java, Python, Perl, Ruby etc) , Automation Experts, System Administrators, Virtualization Administrators (Vmware , Citrix), Database Experts ( Database Developer, DBAs) all need to know Linux / Unix, Testers, Support Personnel (App support).

This is the operating system of choice on mobiles, computers, application and database servers, data centers running in 80% of the world's data centers.

Today, learning basics of Unix / Linux is not a choice anymore, its required on almost all jobs and employers prefer candidates with knowledge of Linux due to its wide penetration and use in all technology platforms.

Course Content:

Day 1: Understanding the UNIX / Linux OS

• Structure and Architecture of UNIX OS
• History of UNlX & various flavors for Unix / Linux
• UNIX Supported Hardware
• 32 & 64 bit architectures
• Why use Unix / Linux.
• How to get Unix at home or on your laptop?

Getting Started with UNIX

• Logging in to the UNIX system
• Familiarization with the GUI & Command line processing
• Basic commands and using command history
• Changing the user password
• Getting on-line help
• Logging out of the system & Shutting down & rebooting the server
• Exercises

About the UNIX File System

• UNIX File System
• UNIX Directory structure, File formats and moving around
• The ., .. & hidden directories
• Virtual memory & Swap
• Unix & Windows Disk Partitioning
• A look at /proc, /dev
• Exercises

Unix Permissions

• Understanding permissions
• Modifying file & directory permissions & security
• Root access and security concerns
• Suid and sgid bits
• Sticky bit
• Su— switching between users
• Exercises

Pipes and Filters

• Command pipelines
• Recording your work in Unix
• Input / Output Redirection
• Pipes and Simple filters
• /dev/null & /dev/zero
• Using pipelines in problem solving—use of sed, awk
• Building complex filter pipelines
• Exercises

Directory and File Permissions

• Understanding Access Permissions
• Types of Access
• Managing Permissions
• The /etc/passwd & /etc/group files

vi Editor — Just the Basics

• Basic vi Editor Concepts
• Basic vi Command Literacy

The Shell Environment

• Shell variables
• Customizing user’s environment
• The search path
• The shell aliases
• Start-up files: /etc/profile, .profile and other login files

Scheduling Jobs

• Batch jobs with at
• Cron and using crontab
• Exercises

Day 2:The Unix Shell

• What is the Shell?
• Different types of shells
• Using wildcards
• Running multiple commands at the same time, command substitution
• Subshells and invoking them
• Running commands from command history
• Shell Startup Files - .profile, .bashrc, .login, .logout
• Working with Shell Variables
• Controlling the user Environment
• Setting up PATH, EDITOR, PRINTER and other environmment variables
• Exercises

Unix Tools

• Aliases & dynamic aliases
• Using diff and find
• tr, calendar, finger, bc, du, df, wc, stty, uniq, sort, write, wall, banner
• Uname and understanding server load parameters
• Finding out which version of unix you are using and your server details using dme 
• Exercises
• Who is logged in and what are they doing - w, who
• Exercises

Unix Links

• What are links & their need
• Hard & Soft Links
• Differences & Usage scenarios
• Exercises

Day 3:vi Editor — Power Features

• Customizing vi
• Advanced Techniques Using vi
• Working with DOS format files
• Working with unix commands in vi
• Printing reports using vi
• Exercises

Archiving, Backup and Restore

• Compressing/Uncompressing
• Files using zip, compress, bzip2 etc
• File Backup/Restore with tar
• Exercises 

Command Input and Output

• UNIX I/O streams
• Standard input, output and error
• I/O redirection to files / devices
• Redirecting to /dev/null
• Exercises

Controlling User Processes

• Programs, processes and daemons
• Parent child relationship
• Displaying Process tree
• Monitoring Processes using top, ps
• Processes types, states & owners
• Killing processes
• Process priorities
• Background Execution
• Unix jobs & Job control
• Communicating with processes using signals
• Exercises

Day 4: Network Services

• Basic Networking Concepts
• Ifconfig & basic networking configuration
• ping, traceroute, hostname
• Remote User Sessions using telnet, ssh
• Remote File Transfer using scp
• Setting up passwordless ssh using keys between machines (ssh-keygen)
• Adding , modifying users

Power Tools

• Using diff and find
• Regular expressions
• Creating constructive filenames using pid or date
• Printing & Sending email from Unix
• Exercises

Writing Basic Shell Scripts

• Shell script basics
• Adding unix commands in a shell script
• Executing a shell script
• Exercises

Unix Security

• Security Concerns
• How to secure your server
• Common Vulnerabilities & Hacks
• Things To Avoid
• Unix In The Data Center

Unix Automation

• A discussion on Unix Automation—What to automate and why?
• A discussion on Monitoring Tools Used
• A discussion on automating roll outs of Unix infrastructure & Applications

Q & A Session