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RedHat has encouraged a larger number of overlapping courses, some of which
contain lighter and more accessible material. They concentrate somewhat on RedHat
specific issues that are not always applicable to other distributions.
In some areas they expect more knowledge than the LPI, so it is worth
at least reviewing RedHat's requirements for purposes of self-evaluation.
The information contained in this appendix was gathered from discussions
with people who had attended the RedHat courses. This is intended purely
for cross-referencing purposes and is possibly outdated. By no means should it be
taken as definitive. Visit http://redhat.com/training/rhce/courses/
for the official guide.
For each objective, the relevant chapter or section from this book
is referenced in parentheses.
These courses are beneath the scope of this book: They cover
LINUX from a user and desktop perspective. Although
they include administrative tasks, they keep away from
technicalities. They often prefer graphical configuration programs to
do administrative tasks. One objective of one of these
courses is configuring Gnome panel applets; another is learning
the
pico text editor.
This certification seems to be for administrators of non-LINUX
systems who want to extend their knowledge. The requirements
below lean toward understanding available LINUX alternatives and
features, rather than expecting the user to actually configure
anything complicated. Note that I abbreviate the RedHat Installation
Guide(s) as RHIG. This refers to the install help in the installation
program itself or, for RedHat 6.2 systems, the HTML installation
guide on the CD. It also refers to the more comprehensive online documentation
at http://www.redhat.com/support/manuals/.
- -
- Finding Web docs. Using HOWTOs to locate supported hardware (Chapter 16).
- -
- Knowledge of supported architectures and SMP support
(Chapter 42).
- -
- Use of
kudzu (I do not cover
kudzu and recommend that you uninstall it).
- -
- Hardware concepts--IRQ, PCI, EISA, AGP,
and I/O ports
(Chapters 3 and 42).
- -
-
isapnp,
pciscan
(Chapter 42).
- -
- Concepts of LINUX support for PCMCIA, PS/2, tapes, scanners,
USB (Chapter 42).
- -
- Concepts of serial, parallel,
SCSI, IDE, CD-ROM and floppy devices,
and their
/dev/ listings (Chapter 18).
- -
-
hdparm (
hdparm(8)).
- -
- Concepts of IDE geometry, BIOS limitations (Chapter 19).
- -
- Disk sector and partition structure. Use of
fdisk,
cfdisk, and
diskdruid (Chapter 19).
- -
- Creation of a partitioning structure (Chapter 19).
- -
- Management of swap, native, and foreign partitions during installation (RHIG).
- -
- Concept of distribution of directories over different partitions (Chapter 19).
- -
- Configuring
lilo on installation (Chapter 31 refers to general use of
lilo).
- -
- BIOS configuration (Chapter 3).
- -
- Conceptual understanding of different disk images. Creating and booting disk images
from their
boot.img,
bootnet.img, or
pcmcia.img (RHIG).
- -
- Use of the installer to create RAID devices (RHIG).
- -
- Package selection (RHIG).
- -
- X video configuration (Chapter 43 and RHIG).
- -
- Using
setup,
mouseconfig,
Xconfigurator,
kbdconfig,
timeconfig,
netconfig,
authconfig,
sndconfig. (These are higher level
interactive utilities than the ones I cover in Chapter 42
and elsewhere. Run each of these commands for a demo.)
- -
- Understanding
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*
(Chapter 25).
- -
- Using
netcfg or
ifconfig
(Chapter 25).
- -
- Using
ifup,
ifdown,
rp3,
usernet, and
usernetctl (Chapter 25).
- -
- Using
pnpdump,
isapnp and editing
/etc/isapnp.conf (Chapter 42).
- -
- Conceptual understanding of
/etc/conf.modules,
esd,
and
kaudioserver (Chapter 42; man pages for same).
- -
- Using
mount, editing
/etc/fstab (Chapter 19).
- -
- Using
lpr,
lpc,
lpq,
lprm,
printtool
and understanding concepts of
/etc/printcap (Chapter 21).
- -
- Virtual consoles concepts: changing in
/etc/inittab (Chapter 32).
- -
- Using
useradd,
userdel,
usermod, and
passwd (Chapter 11).
- -
- Creating accounts manually and with
userconf and with
linuxconf. (The use of graphical tools is discouraged by this book.)
- -
- Understanding concepts of the
/etc/passwd and
/etc/group files and
/etc/skel and contents (Chapter 11).
- -
- Editing
bashrc,
.bashrc,
/etc/profile,
/etc/profile.d (Chapter 20).
- -
- General use of
linuxconf. (The use of graphical tools is discouraged by this book.)
- -
- Using
cron,
anacron, editing
/var/spool/cron/<username>
and
/etc/crontab.
tmpwatch,
logrotate,
and locate cron jobs.
- -
- Using
syslogd,
klogd,
/etc/syslog.conf,
swatch,
logcheck.
- -
- Understanding and using
rpm. Checksums, file listing, forcing,
dependencies, querying, verifying querying tags, provides, and
requires. FTP and HTTP installs,
rpmfind,
gnorpm,
and
kpackage (Chapter 24).
- -
- Building
.src.rpm files. Customizing
and rebuilding packages. (See the RPM-HOWTO.)
- -
-
/usr/sbin/up2date. (The use of package is discouraged by this book.)
- -
- Finding documentation (Chapter 16).
- -
- Laptops, PCMCIA,
cardmanager, and
apm. (See the RHIG, PCMCIA-HOWTO and Laptop-HOWTO.)
- -
- Multiboot systems, boot options, and alternative
boot image configuration (Chapter 31).
- -
- Network installations using
netboot.img (RHIG).
- -
- Serial console installation (RHIG?).
- -
- Kickstart concepts.
- -
-
/proc file system concepts and purpose of various
subdirectories (see Section 42.4 and the index entries for
/proc/).
Tuning parameters with
/etc/sysctl.conf (see
sysctl.conf(5)).
- -
- Disk quotas.
quota,
quotaon,
quotaoff,
edquota,
repquota,
quotawarn,
quotastats.
(Quotas are not covered but are easily learned form the
Quota mini-HOWTO.)
- -
- System startup scripts' initialization sequences.
inittab,
switching run levels. Conceptual understanding of various
/etc/rc.d/
files. SysV scripts,
chkconfig,
ntsysv,
tksysv,
ksysv (Chapter 32).
- -
- Configuring software RAID. Using
raidtools to activate and test
RAID devices (see the RAID-HOWTO).
- -
- Modules Management.
modprobe,
depmod,
lsmod,
insmod,
rmmod commands.
kernelcfg. Editing of
/etc/conf.modules,
aliasing and
optioning modules (Chapter 42).
- -
- Concepts of kernel source,
.rpm versions, kernel versioning system.
Configuring, compiling and installing kernels (Chapter 42).
- -
- TCP/IP concepts.
inetd. Port concepts and service-port
mappings (Chapters 25 and 26).
- -
-
apache, config files, virtual hosts (Chapter 36).
- -
-
sendmail, config files,
mailconf,
m4 macro
concepts (Chapter 30).
- -
- POP and IMAP concepts (Chapters 29 and 30).
- -
-
named configuration (Chapter 40).
- -
- FTP configuration. (I did not cover FTP because of the huge number of
FTP services available. It is recommended that you try the
vsftpd package.)
- -
- configuration,
/etc/rc.d/init.d/netfs (Chapter 28).
- -
-
smbd, file-sharing and print-sharing concepts. Security concepts
config file overview. Use of
testparam,
smbclient,
nmblookup,
smbmount, Windows authentication
concepts (Chapter 39).
- -
-
dhcpd and BOOTP, config files and concepts. Configuration with
netcfg,
netconfig or
linuxconf. using
pump (see the DHCP mini-HOWTO).
- -
- Understanding
squid caching and forwarding concepts.
(The squid configuration file
/etc/squid/squid.conf
provides ample documentation for actually setting up
squid.)
- -
- Overview of
lpd,
mars-nwe, time services, and news
services (Chapter 21).
- -
- X client server architecture (Section 43.1).
- -
- Use of
Xconfigurator,
xf86config,
XF86Setup,
and concepts of
/etc/X11/XF86Config (Section 43.6.3).
- -
- Knowledge of various window managers, editing
/etc/sysconfig/desktop. Understanding of
concepts of different user interfaces: Gnome, KDE.
Use of
switchdesk (Section 43.3.4).
- -
-
init run level 5 concepts,
xdm,
kdm,
gdm,
prefdm
alternatives (Section 43.9).
- -
-
xinit,
xinitrc concepts. User config
files
.xsession and
.Xclients (see
xinit(1),
xdm(1),
startx(1), and read the
scripts under
/etc/X11/xinit/ and
/etc/X11/xdm).
- -
- Use of
xhost (Section 43.3.5). Security issues.
DISPLAY environment variable. Remote
displays (Section 43.3.2).
- -
-
xfs concepts (Section 43.12).
- -
- Use of
tcp_wrappers (Chapter 29). User and host based access
restrictions. PAM access. Port restriction with
ipchains (see the Firewall-HOWTO).
- -
- PAM concepts. Editing of
/etc/pam.d,
/etc/security
config files. PAM documentation (see
/usr/share/doc/pam-0.72/txts/pam.txt).
- -
- NIS concepts and config files.
ypbind,
yppasswd
ypserv,
yppasswdd,
makedbm,
yppush (see the NIS-HOWTO).
- -
- LDAP concepts. OpenLDAP package,
slapd,
ldapd,
slurpd, and config files. PAM integration.
- -
-
inetd concepts. Editing of
/etc/inetd.conf,
interface to
tcp_wrappers. Editing of
/etc/hosts.allow and
/etc/hosts.deny.
portmap,
tcpdchk,
tcpdmatch,
twist (see the LDAP-HOWTO).
- -
-
ssh client server and security concepts (Chapters 12
and 44).
- -
- Static and dynamic routing with concepts.
/etc/sysconfig/static-routes.
Use of
linuxconf
and
netcfg to edit routes.
(Use of graphical tools is discouraged by this book.)
- -
- Forwarding concepts. Concepts of forwarding other
protocols: X.25, frame-relay, ISDN,
and PPP. (By ``concepts of'' I take it to mean
that mere knowledge of these features is sufficient. See also Chapter 41.)
- -
-
ipchains and ruleset concepts. Adding, deleting,
listing, flushing rules. Forwarding, masquerading.
Protocol-specific kernel modules (see the Firewall-HOWTO).
- -
- High availability concepts. Concepts of
lvs,
pulse,
nanny, config files, and
web-based configuration. Piranha, failover concepts. (A conceptual understanding again.)
- -
- High performance clustering concepts. Parallel virtual
machine for computational research (conceptual understanding only).
- -
- Troublshooting:
Networking (Chapter 25), X (Chapter 43), booting
(Chapter 31), DNS (Chapters 27 and 40),
authentication (Chapter 11),
file system corruption (Section 19.5).
- -
-
mkbootdisk and rescue floppy
concepts. Use of the rescue disk environment and available commands (see
mkbootdisk(8)).
RH220 is the networking module. It covers services sparsely,
possibly intending that the student learn only the bare bones
of what is necessary to configure a service.
A treatment of
bind, analogous to Topic 1.13,
Obj 5 of LPI (page ![[*]](crossref.png)
). Expects
exhaustive understanding of the Domain Name System, an
understanding of
SOA,
NS,
A,
CNAME,
PTR,
MX and
HINFO
records, ability to create master domain servers from scratch,
caching-only servers, and round-robin load sharing configuration
(Chapter 40).
Overview of SMB services and concepts. Configuring Samba
for file and print sharing. Using Samba client tools.
Using
linuxconf and
swat.
Editing
/etc/smb.conf.
Understanding types of shares. Support Wins. Setting authentication
method. Using client utilities (Chapter 39).
Conceptual understanding of NIS. NIS master
and slave configure.
Use of client utilities. LDAP concepts. OpenLDAP package,
slapd,
ldapd,
slurpd, and config files (see the NIS-HOWTO).
Understanding of mail spooling and transfer. Understanding the
purpose of all
sendmail config files. Editing config file
for simple client (i.e., forwarding) configuration. Editing
/etc/sendmail.mc,
/etc/mail/virtusertable,
/etc/mail/access. Restricting relays. Viewing log files.
Creating simple
.procmail folder and email redirectors.
(Chapter 30. Also see The Sendmail FAQ <http://www.sendmail.org/faq/>
as well as
procmail(1),
procmailrc(6), and
procmailex(5).)
Configuring virtual hosts. Adding MIME types. Manipulating
directory access and directory aliasing. Allowing restricting
of CGI access. Setting up user and password databases.
Understanding important modules (Chapter 36).
Setting up a basic
pppd server. Adding dial-in user accounts.
Restricting users. Understanding
dhcpd and BOOTP config files and
concepts. Configuring with
netcfg,
netconfig, or
linuxconf. Using
pump. Editing
/etc/dhcpd.conf. (Chapter 41. See also the DHCP-HOWTO.)
RH250 is the security module. It goes through basic administration
from a security perspective.
Understanding security requirements. Basic terminology:
hacker, cracker, denial of service,
virus, trojan horse, worm. Physical
security and security policies (Chapter 44).
Understanding user accounts concepts, restricting access based on
groups. Editing
pam config files.
/etc/nologin;
editing
/etc/security/ files.
Using console group,
cug;
configuring and using
clobberd and
sudo.
Checking logins in log files. Using
last
(Chapters 11 and 44).
Exhaustive treatment of groups and permissions.
chattr and
lsattr commands.
Use of
find to locate permission problems.
Use of
tmpwatch. Installation of
tripwire.
Managment of NFS exports for access control (Chapters
14, 28, and 44).
Encryption terms: Public/Private Key,
GPG, one-way hash, MD5.
xhost,
xauth.
ssh concepts and features.
Password-cracking concepts (Section 11.3 and
Chapter 12).
Use PAM to set resource limits (Section 11.7.5).
Monitor process memory
usage and CPU consumption;
top,
gtop,
kpm,
xosview,
xload,
xsysinfo.
last,
ac,
accton,
lastcomm (Chapter 9).
Monitor logs with
swatch (see
swatch(5) and
swatch(8)).
ipchains and ruleset concepts. Adding, deleting, listing,
flushing rules. Forwarding, many-to-one and one-to-one
masquerading. Kernels options for firewall support. Static and
dynamic routing with concepts (see the Firewall-HOWTO).
/etc/sysconfig/static-routes.
Use of
linuxconf and
netcfg to edit routes.
tcp_wrappers (Chapter 29).
Concepts of
nessus, SAINT,
SARA, SATAN. Concepts of
identd.
Use of
sniffit,
tcpdump,
traceroute,
ping -f,
ethereal,
iptraf,
mk-ftp-stats,
lurkftp,
mrtg,
netwatch,
webalizer,
trafshow. (These tools may be researched on the web.)
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