In this course participants learn to interpret and to influence the functioning and the actual state of a Linux or Unix system.

The participant will learn

• to correctly analyse problem events
• using the tools to determine and solve the cause

The tools discussed are system oriented:

• they help to collect system data
• and let you influence system operations

• Understanding processes:
  • scheduling, priority, daemons and attached processes
  • ps, top, ...
  • cron and at
• Disk space usage:
  • free inodes versus free space; du, df, ...
  • disk quota
  • logical volume managers (LVM)
• Paging space
• Archiving, backup and recovery
  • compression versus archiving
  • tar, zip, cpio, gzip, bzip2, dd
• User and group administration
• Network diagnosis and communication tools:
  • ftp, sftp and Unix "remote" commands: rlogin, rsh, rcp, ssh, scp
  • arp, netstat, ifconfig, ping, dig, nslookup, ...
  • basic TCP/IP configuration
• Security:
  • sudo, restricted shell, ssh, ...
• Terminal manipulation, X-window
• For Power users:
  • tty • non-Unix file formats • task scheduling • ksh vs bash vs zsh

Classroom instruction with demonstrations and practical exercises.

Delivered as a live, interactive training – available in-person or online, or in a hybrid format. Training can be implemented in English, Dutch, or French.

Participants are expected to have followed the Linux / UNIX fundamentals or to have equivalent practical experience.

Helpdesk and support people who have to solve problems or who have to support their Linux (Red Hat, Suse, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, zLinux, ...) or UNIX (AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, BSD, macOS, ...) user community. This course is not meant for those intending to follow an administration course (e.g. Linux system administration), or aiming for an LPI certificate (for which we refer to our LPIC-1 certification track (exam 101)).