— Linux Desktop & Server OS

Catalog description

The course will introduce the Linux Operating System as a Client Operating System with GUI as well as a Server Operating System with or without GUI. The students will be introduced to the CentOS Linux flavor, as it closely resembles the Red Hat Linux distribution, which is the most popular Linux distribution in North American production environments. Alternatively, the instructor may elect to use Novell's SUSE Linux distribution which is also popular in North America. The students will be introduced to the installation of Linux as a Client Operating System and the installation of Linux as a Server Operating System. Both installation options will have a greatly different selection of Operating System elements - i.e. Packages to be installed. The students will then be introduced to the Linux Boot Process and the function of the Bootloader (GRUB). The different Linux Run levels will be discussed and how to configure or change the Default Run level in the /etc/inittab file. The function of the K and S pointers for the start or non-start of different background services will be discussed. The students will then be shown how to manipulate the /etc/fstab file to account for the mounting of different file system. The students will be shown that Linux Operating Systems have a separate partition for Virtual Memory. The students will then be introduced to the Command Line Interface and the most common Linux commands. The vi text editor will be covered in great detail, as it is included on all distributions of Linux and it will be used throughout the course to edit Linux Configuration files. The students will be shown how to set file and folder permissions with the chmod command using Absolute (Numbers) and Symbolic Notations (RWX). The students will configure the Linux Server to share folders via NFS and to create a centralized user and group database with NIS. The Linux Client will mount the shared home directories of the Linux Server via NFS. The Linux Server machine will be configured to host DNS (named) and E-mail (sendmail) services. The students will be shown the sharing of folders and printers of the Linux Server with Microsoft Windows machines through the SAMBA service. Remote Access to the Linux Server and the Linux Client via SSH will be demonstrated. The students will be shown how to host multiple web sites on the Linux Server through the Apache Web Server.