Course detail

Advanced Topics of Linux Administration

FIT-ILIAcad. year: 2017/2018

Students attending the course obtain hands-on experience with modern Linux systems. The course starts from the process of selecting a Linux distribution suitable for a certain planned scenario of its usage. Students can choose their distribution freely, and they use it during the entire course. Distributions chosen by the students are installed into a virtual environment that is used in the course without a risk of causing potential problems on a standard network. Students obtain deeper knowledge in two main areas, namely, storage subsystems and server-side services, as well as in various subsystems closely related to these main main topics of the course. The part of course devoted to storage includes different views on Linux file systems, logical volume management, and encryption of individual partitions. The course also covers server-side data storage technologies such as software RAID and export of block devices using the iSCSI standard. The part of the course devoted to server-side services concentrates on high-availability and load-balancing clusters and their impact on services provided by a system. Further, the course also contains an introduction to the SELinux security project as well as to network management in Linux.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

4

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will acquire knowledge and hands-on experience of modern technologies for GNU/Linux that are used in complex enterprise environments. Using these technologies, students will be able to design and implement solutions based on GNU/Linux servers for various application scenarios of such servers. The extent of the acquired knowledge corresponds to the level of Red Hat certifications.

Improved knowledge of operating systems and their administration.

Prerequisites

User-level proficiency in GNU/Linux operating system.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Not applicable.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

To successfully pass the course, a student needs to get at least 50 points in total out of which at least 24 points must be obtained from the homeworks and at least 16 points from the final practical test.

Course curriculum

Syllabus of computer exercises:
  1. Introduction to Linux distributions and differences among them.
  2. The SystemD management system.
  3. Storage management using Logical Volume Manager and software RAID.
  4. Single-mount file systems and their benefits: ext*, xfs, btrfs.
  5. Exporting block devices over network using iSCSI.
  6. Cryptography in GNU/Linux and possible attacks.
  7. High availability clusters: infrastructure, fence agents.
  8. High availability clusters: resource management, constraints.
  9. Shared file systems: gfs2.
  10. Load balancing on top of high availability clusters.
  11. Increasing internal security through SELinux.
  12. Network management and firewall configuration in Linux.
  13. Designing solutions for complex Linux usage scenarios.

Syllabus - others, projects and individual work of students:
  1. Preparation of automated installation and configuration for virtual machines.
  2. Installation and configuration of SW RAID and LVM.
  3. Installation and configuration of iSCSI.
  4. Building a high availability cluster.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The course covers advanced topics of administration of Linux/Unix operating systems as well as services typically running on such systems. The course emphasizes practical training of administration skills.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

The knowledge and experience gained by the students is evaluated through 4 homeworks covering the contents of the course (4x 15 points) and further through a final practical test (40 points). The practical test has the form of having to install a system according to some predefined requirements in some given time limit.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Not applicable.

Recommended reading

Not applicable.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme IT-BC-3 Bachelor's

    branch BIT , 2. year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Exercise in computer lab

26 hours, optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

  1. Introduction to Linux distributions and differences among them.
  2. The SystemD management system.
  3. Storage management using Logical Volume Manager and software RAID.
  4. Single-mount file systems and their benefits: ext*, xfs, btrfs.
  5. Exporting block devices over network using iSCSI.
  6. Cryptography in GNU/Linux and possible attacks.
  7. High availability clusters: infrastructure, fence agents.
  8. High availability clusters: resource management, constraints.
  9. Shared file systems: gfs2.
  10. Load balancing on top of high availability clusters.
  11. Increasing internal security through SELinux.
  12. Network management and firewall configuration in Linux.
  13. Designing solutions for complex Linux usage scenarios.

Project

13 hours, optionally

Teacher / Lecturer