Hello guys! Before starting the course and jumping into Linux administration, I want you to know 1
what is the course outline so that you have a clear path ahead. 2
This course has not only many hours of HD videos, but also tons of quizzes and practice challenges 3
to help you keep track of your progress. 4
They are broken down into sections so you can easily follow a logical learning process. 5
Along the way, you'll watch me practice everything I teach you and you can also practice yourself simultaneously 6
with me. 7
If you get stuck, don't hesitate to ask in the Q&A section or in the private group I've set up for 8
this course. 9
There are thousands of students just like you, eager to learn and answer our questions. 10
After this introduction section will start with setting up the environment. 11
We'll discuss the Linux distributions and installing virtual box, the latest versions of the most 12
used ones Ubuntu and Centoes. 13
The concepts taught in this course are Linux distribution independent and can be applied to each 14
flavor of Linux. 15
However, we'll use mostly Ubuntu for common examples since it's more user friendly and works well both 16
as a desktop and as a server OS. 17
But when things become different, I'll show you the same concept, tool or command on Centoes as well. 18
The last lecture of this section will be about migrating completely to Linux. 19
It's a step I've done more than 15 years ago and have never regretted it. 20
The next section is about the Linux terminal in-depth; we'll talk about terminals, consoles, shells 21
and commands; what is the structure of a typical Linux command, how to get help using man pages and 22
how to become efficient in the terminal using shortcuts, 23
the tab key or the history feature of the bash shell. At the end, we learn how to run commands as toot. These 24
are all Linux fundamentals and by the end of this section you'll feel more confident warking in the 25
terminal. 26
Next, we'll have a big and important section ahead. 27
It will be about the Linux file system. 28
I'll teach you how the Linux file system is organized, 29
what are the relative and absolute paths, 30
how to combine multiple commands using piping and redirection. 31
And we'll actually discuss and practice the most important Linux commands that are working with files 32
and directories. 33
You'll learn how to create the new files and directories, how to delete, copy or move files and directories, 34
what is an inode and how to work with hard and symbolic links. 35
You learn how to find files using locate and find, to search for text petterns in commands output and in 36
files using grepe or how to archive and compress files and directories. 37
At the end, we'll discuss one of the most used and popular Linux text editors. 38
Wim! Once we get comfortable with working with the Linux file system and the major Linux commands, we'll 39
move to the next section: user account management. 40
You'll learn how users and groups are organized in Linux and how to manage them using specific shell commands, 41
how to create admin users that can run commands as route and how to monitor users logged into the system. 42
Then we'll go to what I consider one of the most important parts of the course, the one considered 43
the foundation of security in Linux, and I mean the section about file permissions; we learn together what 44
file permission 45
represent, how are they displayed both in symbolic and in octal notation, how to change the permissions 46
of files and directories and how to change the file owner and group owner. We'll not just scratch the surface, 47
but we go deep into special permissions, such as said user I.D., set group I.D. or stickybit. 48
There is a lot of practice here. 49
The next section is about Linux processes, you learn how to display the running processes, how to 50
search for a specific process, or how to kill a process. By the end of this section, you'll know what 51
a zombie or a daemon process is and how to make them immune to a closing terminal. 52
In the next section, we'll dive into Linux networking. 53
You'll learn about getting information about the configuration of network interfaces, setting IP addresses, 54
the DNS servers and the default gateway used by the system. 55
I'll show you how to use, troubleshoot and properly secure ssh. 56
It will be the time to introduce some really useful Linux tools like scp and rsyng, the latest 57
being probably my favorite Linux command. 58
At the end, we'll talk about open ports and scanning other hosts and networks. 59
This will be really fun. 60
Next, we'll be talking about software management, how to install, upgrade or remove applications 61
on both Ubuntu and Centoes using the package manager. 62
I'll even show to compile a server from source code so that you can customize your installation. 63
Next, we'll move to system administration and talk about scheduling tasks using Cron and Anacron, mounting 64
disks and managing services using systemd and systems still. 65
The next section is one of my favorites. We'll build a real project from scratch, will start by installing 66
a Linux server in the digital ocean cloud, 67
getting a domain name and installing an authoritative DNS server to host the domain. We will move ahead 68
and install Apache, the most well-known open source web server in the world. 69
Then we'll configure it with virtual hosting and open SSL and digital certificates for encryption. 70
PHP and MySQL server will be the next step, 71
and after securing the MySQL server, I'll show you how to install and secure a web app like WordPress. 72
The next section will be a large and advanced one. 73
We'll dive into bashshell special scripting so that you can automate the common administrative tasks. 74
This is programming and I'll try to make it as easy as possible for you. 75
You'll learn about variable, flow control, command substitution and many more. 76
Take your time and stay on this section as long as you feel the need. 77
And finally, there are some bonus sections on security that I find really useful and interesting as 78
well. 79
We'll discuss the information gathering, reconnaissance and traffic sniffing with a hands on approach. 80
You'll also learn about the standard Linux firewall, which is implemented by IP tables and Netfilter, 81
so that at the end you'll be able to properly secure your Linux machine. 82
Ssh public key authentication is another bonus section that I find really useful in order to secure ssh 83
which is the de facto protocol for remote management. 84
As you can see, there's a large amount of information to discuss 85
and in fact, I've done my best to cover all major Linux topics that an effective Linux administrator 86
must know in order to connect the dots and have a clear picture of the Linux OS.