Difference between Linux and Windows Operating System

The prior difference between Linux and Windows operating system is that Linux is totally free of cost whereas windows is marketable operating system and is costly. An operating system is a program intended to control the computer hardware and behave as an intermediary between user and hardware.

The prior difference between Linux and Windows operating system is that Linux is totally free of cost whereas windows is marketable operating system and is costly. An operating system is a program intended to control the computer hardware and behave as an intermediary between user and hardware.

Linux is an open source operating system where users can access the source code and can improve the code using the system. On the other hand, in windows, users can not access source code, and it is a licensed OS.

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	LINUX	WINDOWS
Cost	Free of cost	Expensive
Open source	Yes	No
Customizable	Yes	No
Security	More secure	Vulnerable to viruses and malware attacks.
Booting	Either primary or logical partition.	Only primary partition.
Separation of the directories using	Forward slash	Back slash
File names	Case sensitive	Case insensitive
File system	EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, Reisers FS, XFS and JFS	FAT, FAT32, NTFS and ReFS
Type of kernel used	Monolithic kernel	Microkernel
Efficiency	Effective running efficiency	Lower than Linux

Definition of Linux

Linux is a free and open source operating system based on Unix standards. It provides programming interface as well as user interface compatible with Unix based systems and provides large variety applications. A Linux system also contains many separately developed elements, resulting in Unix system which is fully compatible and free from proprietary code.

The traditional monolithic kernel is employed in Linux kernel for performance purpose, but its modular feature allows most drivers to dynamically loaded and unloaded at runtime. Linux protects processes and is a multiuser system. Interprocess communication is supported by both of mechanisms such as message queue, shared memory and semaphore.

An abstract layer is used in Linux to govern the different file systems, but to users, the file system looks like a hierarchical directory tree. It also supports networked, device-oriented and virtual file systems. Disk storage is accessed through a page cache which is unified with the virtual memory systems. To minimize the duplication of shared data among different processes the memory management system uses page sharing and copy-on-write.

Ubuntu 17.10 is the latest release of linux family operating system. The default user interface of the given version is GNOME, Ubuntu Unity (in older versions).

Definition of Windows

Windows is a licensed operating system in which source code is inaccessible. It is designed for the individuals with the perspective of having no computer programming knowledge and for business and other commercial users. It is very simple and straightforward to use.

Windows is extensible, portable and assists multiple operating environments, symmetric multiprocessing and client-server computing. It offers integrated caching, virtual memory, and preemptive scheduling.

Windows 10 (1709) is the latest release of Microsoft Windows operating system. Its default user interface is Windows shell (Graphical). It uses hybrid kernel in older versions micro kernel is mostly used.

Key Differences Between Linux and Windows Operating System

1. Linux is free and open source operating system whereas Windows is a commercial operating system whose source code is inaccessible.

2. Windows is not customizable as against Linux is customizable and a user can modify the code and can change its the look and feel.

3. Linux provides high security than windows because Linux is open source.

4. Windows must boot from the primary partition. In contrast, there is no such constraint in Linux it can be booted from either primary or logical partition.

5. The separation of the directories is done using a backslash in windows. On the contrary, in Linux, these are separated by using forward slash.

6. In Linux, file names are case sensitive while windows file name are case-insensitive.

7. Linux uses the monolithic kernel which consumes more running space whereas Windows uses the micro kernel which takes less space but system running efficiency is lower than Linux.

Continue reading

Linux Containers – A comparison of LXC and Docker

As industry moves beyond the Virtual Machine consolidation paradigm, several types of containers have come to prominence. Two flavors in particular currently enjoy the lion’s share of deployments on the Linux operating system: Docker and LXC , which pomotes the LXC vs Docker debate.

LXC vs Docker

With the Docker vs LXC discussion, we have to take into account IT operations including dev and test environments. While BSD jails has focused on IT Operations, Docker has focused on development and test organizations. As a result, Docker has established a significant lead in the race to bring containerization to market, with huge install bases and ecosystem partners, as well as advanced tools and facilities custom built for this solution. Why is this? Because Docker has come to market very early with a solution that provides:

◈ A simple way to package and deliver applications and all their dependencies, one that enables seamless application portability and mobility.

◈ Relative ease of use and low administration requirements.

◈ A rich set of tools and utilities.

The Docker Paradigm

Docker benefits:

◈ Reduces a container to a single process which is then easily managed with Docker tools.

◈ Encapsulates application configuration and delivery complexity to dramatically simplify and eliminate the need to repeat these activities manually.

◈ Provides a strongly supportive user community for many aspects of using containers for significant implementations.

◈ Provides a highly efficient compute environment for applications that are stateless and micro-services based, as well as many stateful applications like databases, message bus, etc.

◈ Uses layers and disables storage persistence, which helps make Docker images very lightweight.

◈ Is used very successfully by many groups, particularly Dev and Test, as well as microservices-based production environments.

◈ Supports plug-in architecture for volume, network, and authentication to engage with partner ecosystems.

Docker limitations:

Treats containers differently from a standard host, such as sharing the host’s IP address and providing access to the container via a selectable port. This approach can cause management issues when using traditional applications and management tools that require access to Linux utilities such as cron, ssh, daemons, and logging.

◈ Uses layers and disables storage persistence, which results in reduced disk subsystem performance.

◈ Is not ideal for stateful applications due to limited volume management in case of container failover.

◈ Can require some training for administrators to understand the changes to their operating procedures.

◈ Can require changes to the application being run in the container.

Why has Docker not been adopted for the majority of IT workloads?

Because of the limitations and issues outlined above, the IT industry has searched for another type of containerization technology, one that is more operations and enterprise application friendly. Though LXC is an older containerization technology, it has reemerged as a primary option, initiating the LXC vs docker discussion, because it:

◈ Is essentially a lightweight VM with its own hostname, IP address, file systems, and full OS init.d, and it provides direct SSH access.

◈ Performs nearly as well as bare metal, and better than traditional VMs in almost all use cases, and particularly when the application can take advantage of parallelism.

◈ Can efficiently run one or more multi-process applications.

◈ Is a Linux-native, highly stable, reliable, and efficient container technology that is supported by the OS itself.

An LXC-based container can run almost any Linux-based application without sacrificing performance or operational ease of use. This makes LXC an ideal platform for containerizing performance-sensitive, data-intensive enterprise applications.

The LXC Paradigm

LXC Benefits:

◈ Provides a “normal” OS environment that supports all the features and capabilities that are available in the Linux environment.

◈ Behaves very much like a traditional VM and thus offers a lower barrier to entry for some organizations.

◈ Does not require changes to the application being deployed.

◈ Supports layers and enables Copy-On-Write cloning and snapshots, and is also file-system neutral.

◈ Uses simple, intuitive, and standard IP addresses to access the containers and allows full access to the host file.

◈ Supports static IP addressing, routable IPs, multiple network devices.

◈ Provides full root access.

◈ Allows you to create your own network interfaces.

LXC Limitations:

◈ Does not have a nearly as prolific or responsive user community as Docker does.

◈ Inconsistent feature support across different Linux distributions. LXC is primarily being maintained & developed by Canonical on Ubuntu platform.

Continue reading

Why are Beta Exams Important for the Certification Development?

In the fall of 2018, LPI held beta exam labs for the updated LPIC-1 certification.

Exam development is a complex process, both when it comes to updating existing certifications, and when it comes to developing new ones, such as the DevOps Tools Engineer which we released a year ago.

Updating existing certifications starts with a community consultation that is done through the 'LPI Exam development mailing list', which is an open group that anyone interested in LPI exams and exam development can join. The main outcome of this discussion is the updated set of objectives.

Once the objectives are finalized, our certification development team starts to write exam questions. In order to gather an initial set of psychometric data and to get better insights into the quality of exams, LPI organizes beta exam labs worldwide, where candidates take a paper-based beta version of the exams.

The results and feedback of the beta exams are fed back into LPI's quality assurance process. Together with additional psychometric studies which run in parallel to the beta exams, they help to ensure that the final grades of the beta exams, as well as the final versions of the exams, exactly reflects the skills of the candidate.

Beta exams are always taken in the form of paper-based tests. After the exam, candidates are asked to fill in a survey about the exam and experience, which also helps the process of improving the exams.  As a result, it took close to 10 weeks to collect exams from all over the world, scan them, process the results and feedback, and conduct psychometric analysis.

Let’s talk more about the recent LPIC-1 betas.

LPIC-1 is our most desired certification. The demand for tests was extremely high and we had to reject many requests to seat larger numbers of beta exam takers.

Beta exam labs were held from May 21, 2018, to July 10, 2018, and they were delivered in English and Japanese languages only. These betas were special as they were offered in Japanese language for the first time. Thank you to all the SMEs who contributed to translations and made this possible.

Here’s more data and numbers. 33 beta exam labs for LPIC-1 were held worldwide in 19 countries, 23 events were organized through network of regional partners, and ten were organized through our network of academic and training partners. We covered the following continents and countries:

◈ In Africa, events were held in Kenya, South Africa, Tunisia, and Nigeria.
◈ In Asia, we held exam labs in Japan and Lebanon.
◈ In Europe, events were held in Germany, Netherlands, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the UK.
◈ In Latin America, exams were held in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
◈ In North America, exam labs were held in Ontario, Canada, as well as California, Texas, and Tennessee in the US.

LPI had great support in all the partners who organized events, as well as the candidates who responded and took tests. There are more benefits for the beta exam labs than just developing the quality exam items.   By organizing exam labs worldwide, we get to be in touch with our community and learn more about them with the support of our partners. Thank you, all.

As I’m writing this post, the next beta exam labs are already on the horizon. LPI just started updating the LPIC-3 exams, so candidates can anticipate beta exam labs this year. Interested candidates can follow LPI social media and news on www.lpi.org as we will make sure to announce it there as soon as events are scheduled. Exam takers should start preparing for the betas early enough so they have fair chance to pass the exam and provide helpful feedback. If candidates want to be awarded with LPIC-3 certification, they should make sure they hold LPIC-2 certification. Even though LPI exams can be taken in any order, candidates should make sure they are prepared and make sure they use their time in the best possible way. The updated objectives are available on LPI’s Wiki page, as well as the difference between current and new objectives (once they are outlined). There’s available knowledge content for each of the objectives. Only prepared candidates pass beta exams, and having in mind the cost of regular exams, candidates can get financial advantage by taking beta exams.

To all candidates, good luck with your exams, whether you decide to take beta or regular exams.

Continue reading

Linux Essentials Version 1.6 Update

Besides LPIC-1, the Linux Essential certificate received an update in October 2018, too. It is a minor update which brings the certificate from version 1.5 to version 1.6 and only includes a few changes. In today’s post we take a look at what’s new.

The exam objective 1.1 covers knowledge about the Linux ecosystem. It already mentions several Linux distributions. In the updated exam, SUSE and Raspbian were added. SUSE is a vendor of SUSE Enterprise Linux, and also offers the free openSUSE distribution. Check out openSUSE on wikipedia to learn more about them.

Raspbian is a Debian GNU/Linux derivative which runs on the Raspberry Pi, which also became relevant for objectives 1.1. You’ve most certainly already heard about the Raspberry Pi, which is a super small cheap computer which serves as an excellent tool for experiments and the development of prototypes. If you’re not familiar with the Raspberry Pi yet, watch ‘What is a Raspberry Pi’ on YouTube.

The Raspberry Pi is a great example how Linux runs on numerous devices. The opposite to the small single-board computer are big data centers, today often called ‘clouds’. Here, Linux plays an important role. If you take a look at the big cloud vendors’ offerings for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), they all sell so-called ‘instances’, which are basically virtual machines. When creating a new instance, you can choose between multiple images which contain ready to run Linux distributions, so you can start using your instance right away, without any additional installation.

Objective 1.2 tests knowledge about major open source applications. Here, we added Nextcloud and ownCloud. As Nextcloud is a fork of ownCloud, both projects still have a lot of similarities. In their core, both provide the ability to upload, download and share files. In addition, so-called ‘Apps’ can be installed to add functionality such as contact management, a calendar, todo lists and even kanban boards and an RSS feed reader. Both tools provide a web interface as well as integration for mobile devices. Of course you could get these services from some big cloud providers for free, but with Nextcloud and ownCloud, you can host these services on your own, without ads, with the knowledge of where your data is stored -- and with the fun of running your cloud services on your own!

When talking about recent web applications, JavaScript cannot be avoided. Objective 1.2 was updated to include JavaScript. Originally intended to provide small functions which websites can run in a browser, JavaScript became increasingly important. Today, almost every web application uses a JavaScript framework for its user interface. And even on the server-side, NodeJS lets you write your server components in JavaScript, too. Of course, you don’t have to learn JavaScript to pass Linux Essentials, but you should know how it is used for these tasks.

Similarly, objectives 1.3, which covers open source licenses, was extended with the terms ‘Copyleft’ and ‘Permissive’. Again, there is a lot to know about these terms, but Linux Essentials is about the basic idea. Both terms relate to what you can do with software under a free software license. Most licenses fall into one of these categories. The major difference is that copyleft licenses, such as the GPL, tries to keep all changes to the software under that specific license. Therefore, whenever a GPL program is shared with someone else, its source code, including all modifications, must be shared as well. Permissive licenses, on the other hand, are very liberal and allow using the software in any way you like, even if it is in proprietary software. Details of Free software licenses are complicated, but, once again, focus on the general idea.

Finally, we made two small cleanups: the term 'Open Source Philosophy' was moved from objective 1.1 to 1.3, and, in objective 3.3, we made it explicit that by ‘Awareness of common text editors' we refer to vi and nano.

As you see, the vast majority of the exam was not changed. This means that study materials for version 1.5 are still mostly valid; just make sure you also collect some information on the topics mentioned in this post. As always, make sure to work with the exam objectives to make sure you focus on the specific tasks LPI asks you to know.

Continue reading

LPIC-1: Clouds, Desktops and Some More Changes

Besides the topics discussed in the last posts, LPIC-1 version 5.0 introduces various small changes which we will discuss today.

Most noticeably, the new objective ‘Linux as a virtualization guest’, was added to exam 101. This objective covers specialties of running Linux in virtual machines and containers, both on premise and in the cloud. You should understand the general concepts and differences of full virtualization and containerization, and how Linux is installed in such environments. You probably have already worked with a virtual machine while preparing for your LPIC-1 exams. Remember that this objective is not about a specific virtualization product, but about the general concepts.

Besides virtual machines, containerization gained more and more attention in the last couple of years. Docker’s ‘What is a Container’ websites summarizes these differences briefly. Mark Bayazit’s blog, ‘Linux Containers – A comparison of LXC and Docker’, goes into further details and explains what makes application containers, such as Docker, different from other containerization approaches.

Another special aspect of virtual machines are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. These offerings grant access to a virtual machine which is usually automatically installed from an image. Most cloud providers offer free test accounts. If you don’t have access to an IaaS cloud yet, pick one of the big ones and get a free test account. Set up a Linux instance and try to do some of your LPIC-1 preparations in that machine to gain some experience using Linux in the cloud.

Several other objectives were updated in the new version of the exam. I will briefly summarize these changes here as they don’t fundamentally change the architecture of the exams:

◈ Package management now includes zypper (objective 102.5) as well as awareness of apt (objective 102.4) and dnf (objective 102.5).

◈ Objective 103.7 was increased by one weight and now also covers the differences between basic and extended regular expressions, how to handle special characters, character classes, quantifiers and anchors and how to delete, change and substitute text using regular expressions. The RegexOne tutorials are a great place to start learning regular expressions. regex101 offers a more advanced playground for regular expressions. If you want to practice your regex skills, check out Regex Crossword. But be warned, it is addictive.

◈ Regarding storage, objective 104.1 raised Btrfs from awareness level to full coverage of its general usage as well as multi-device filesystems, compression, subvolumes and snapshots. Btrfs is not trivial, so you should spend some time to really understand how it works. A good place to get started is the Oracle Linux Btrfs documentation. You might want to use a virtual machine with a few virtual disks for your experiments. Finally, review Btrfs’ Sysadmin Guide which summarizes a lot of these concepts and the collection of use cases which shows how to use Btrfs for numerous purposes.

◈ Topic 106, User Interfaces and Desktops, was changed to focus on what is relevant when setting up a Desktop on a recent Linux distribution. Nowadays, Xorg usually works out of the box, therefore objective 106.1 was changed to test general concepts of a Linux desktop, including the ability to overwrite specific aspects of the Xorg configuration and manage remote execution of X programs. Objective 106.2 focuses on graphical desktops and remote access protocols and objective 106.3 covers general concepts of accessibility.

Besides the changes discussed in this blog series, a lot of other topics received smaller additions and cleanups. The LPI wiki provides a summary of all changes between version 4.0 and 5.0. This list might be particularly helpful when learning with materials which have not yet been updated to the new version. Pay special attention to topics which have been removed from the objectives, such as quotas and SQL, to changes in weights and to commands and knowledge areas which were removed or added.

When you’re studying for your LPIC-1 exams, make sure to work closely with the latest version of the objectives. Remember that the objectives set the scope of the exam and ultimately define LPI’s expectations on the candidates.

Continue reading

LPIC-1: Systemd Beyond Services

In today’s post, we review some topics related to systemd that go beyond starting and stopping services. These topics were added to LPIC-1 in version 5.0.

Objective 101.3 already covered systemd in version 4.0. The focus of this objective is managing service units. A service unit controls the start and stop of a program. The units are defined in files ending in .service which reside in /usr/lib/systemd/system/, /run/systemd/system/ or /etc/systemd/system/. It is possible to override specific parameters or even whole unit files by creating directories and files in /etc/systemd/system/. Take a look at Justin Ellingwood’s blog post on Understanding Systemd Units and Unit Files to recap the structure of unit files.

When booting, target units specify which service units shall be run. After the system startup, systemctl provides various subcommands to manage units, such as start, stop, status, enable, disable, mask, unmask or edit. Review the manpage systemctl(1) and make sure you’re confident in using systemctl’s most important subcommands.

Over time, systemd became able to take care of an increasing number of crucial aspects of a Linux system. As more and more distributions use systemd for these tasks, the new version of LPIC-1 includes several of them. systemd provides its own logging infrastructure, the systemd journal. Systemd-journald attaches metadata to logging messages, so that it is possible, for example, to filter log messages produced by a specific systemd unit in a specific time frame. The command journalctl provides access to systemd journal. This command is covered in objectives 101.2 and 108.2.

As your system probably already runs systemd, get some confidence in using journalctl. Filter for messages from a specific service and get events from a specific time range. Run systemd-cat and filter the messages it produces. Find out where journald stores the journal, how long messages are retained and how to access them in case of an emergency, such as after booting into a live rescue system.

Justin Ellingwood wrote a great introduction, How To Use Journalctl to View and Manipulate Systemd Logs, which guides you through all these steps. The tutorial also introduces you to timedatectl which is covered in objective 108.1. You should take the chance to also review the concepts and configuration of rsyslog, which replaced syslog in objective 108.2. The rsyslog website contains several guides to get started.

Timer units in systemd have the ability to control service units. They are covered in objective 107.2. Similar to a cron job, a timer unit triggers a service unit at a specific point in time. Timer units, by default, control a service unit with the same name. man-db.timer, for example, starts man-db.service. Take a look at one of the timer units which exist on your systemd and review the systemd.timer(8) manpage for the various ways on how to specify the execution time. As a final exercise, try to create your own systemd service unit and trigger it with a systemd timer.

Socket units, as mentioned in objective 110.2, are another type of unit which controls service units. Similar to inetd, socket units open a socket in a file or at a port, wait for incoming connections and start the service for each connection. You will probably find some socket units which you can analyze on your system. Be aware that socket units can expose these services to remote clients, thereby exposing them to potential attackers.

systemd also handles file system mounts. While mount units can be used to trigger mounts, systemd also uses them to keep track of mounts. It automatically creates units when a new mount appears. Objective 104.3 covers awareness of mount units. You should investigate one of the mount units existing on your system and understand how they interact with mount and /etc/fstab.

Objective 109.2 provides three more examples of how many different problems systemd tries to address. The command hostnamectl is systemd’s way to adjust the hostname of the local computer. The manpage hostnamectl(1) provides an overview of the available subcommands. systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved are daemons that manage network configuration. LPIC-1 only expects you to be aware of them without any details of its configuration. Instead, LPIC-1 focuses on NetworkManager for persistent network configuration, which we review next week.

Continue reading

LPIC-1: Loading Linux

In this blog series we will review the major changes introduced by these updates. Today, we start with an overview of ways to load the Linux kernel.

Objective 101.2 used to cover the traditional BIOS. The new version adds a UEFI, a newer type or computer firmware. In addition, objective 104.1 now includes GPT in addition to MBR partition tables. Although firmware (BIOS vs. UEFI) and partition tables (MBR vs. GPT) are technically different concepts, they are closely related when it comes to starting the Linux kernel.

Read More: LPI updated LPIC-1 to version 5.0 and Linux Essentials to version 1.6

When a computer starts, it has to load an operating system. What sounds trivial involves several components. After the firmware set up the hardware, the bootloader loads the operating system kernel from the hard disk which is then run to start the actual operating system. The exact location of the bootloader and the mechanism to locate and start it differ depending on the firmware and partition table type. For the rest of this post, we assume that the GRUB 2 bootloader is used.

Traditionally, hard disks contain a master boot record partition table (MBR). The MBR reserves some space which contains the bootloader. The BIOS can find this space because it resides at a fixed position on the disk. However, this space is too small for most bootloaders, which is why only an initial part of the bootloader is stored in the MBR. GRUB, for example, stores its so-called boot.img here, which just knows enough to load the rest of the bootloader from another position.

A traditional MBR leaves some space between the end of the MBR and the start of the first partition. On an MBR disk, GRUB uses this space to store its core.img. This code is finally able to access the /boot/ partition, where GRUB loads additional modules, the Linux kernel and the initramfs image.

GUID partition tables, GPT for short, have a different structure which supports more and larger partitions. However, it no longer contains a partition gap, so GRUB cannot use this space to store its core.img. Instead, it expects a small partition with the type BIOS boot partition (EF02). This partition does not contain a file system; it is directly used by grub-install to store core.img. When booting the system using legacy BIOS and GPT, GRUB is loaded from the MBR, loads core.img from the BIOS boot partition and then reads the remaining components from the partition containing /boot/.

UEFI is a type of firmware which can load and execute extensions. The Linux kernel can be compiled to be such an extension, just like the GRUB bootloader. The extensions are stored in the EFI system partition, ESP. This partition is identified by the partition type EFI System (0xEF00) and typically contains a FAT file system. It is explicitly mentioned in objective 102.1.

In Linux, the this partition is usually mounted to /boot/efi/. This partition can contain EFI binaries for multiple operating systems or bootloaders. grub-install can create a directory for GRUB on the ESP. The directory /boot/efi/EFI/linux/ could, for example, contain the file grubx64.efi. If secure boot is used, some additional files are required. These files are executed by the firmware to start GRUB.

UEFI offers an interactive shell which supports navigating through the EFI partition’s file system and executing EFI binaries. To ease the startup, UEFI can store settings of one or more operating systems which can be started directly without using the EFI shell. These settings can be modified from Linux using the command efibootmgr, which is covered in LPIC-2.

The installation of a bootloader depends on on the firmware used. For a legacy BIOS, either an MBR partition table or a GPT which contains a GRUB partition is required. In both cases, the boot.img part of GRUB is installed at a fixed position on the hard disk. core.img is either loaded from the partition gap after the MBR or from the GRUB partition on a GPT disk. Wikipedia illustrates this quite nicely. UEFI instead starts the GRUB EFI binary, along with additional extensions required to support secure boot, from the ESP. In any case, GRUB is now able to access the /boot/ partition to load additional GRUB modules, the Linux kernel and initramfs.

As all of these concepts are relevant for LPIC-1, you should try to manually configure all these three scenarios by using fdisk or gdisk and grub-install. Refer to your distribution’s documentation for the exact steps, packages you need to install and how to generate a GRUB configuration file. Consider using a virtual machine to have some hard disks for your experiments.

Once the Linux kernel and the initramfs are started, an init system such as systemd takes over. Next week we will review some advanced concepts of systemd which were added to the new version of LPIC-1.

Continue reading

Recent Technical Innovation Requires New Exams: LPIC-1 version 5.0

Since October 2018, the latest versions of the LPIC-1 exams are available. Many people see the exams 101 and 102, which are required to obtain the ‘LPIC-1: Linux Administrator’ certification, as an ideal starting point to launch a career in open source. Higher-level certifications, such as LPIC-2 and LPIC-3, are useful to reach senior levels in IT administration and to increase potential earnings.

Certification holders show employers that they have dealt with Linux professionally and have a profound knowledge of the matter. Therefore, it is essential that we frequently adapt the exams to changing demands of the job market.

To identify these demands, experts discuss topics that could be relevant for a new exam version every three years. During this process, deprecated topics are removed from the exams. The basis for this discussion is the exam development mailing list, used by experts throughout the world to exchange ideas and discuss the requirements of their respective markets.

One of the new topics in LPIC-1 is, for instance, systemd and related services. systemd was already a topic of version 4.0 of LPIC-1, but version 5.0 introduced a few more aspects, such as systemd mount units, timers and the command timedatectl. As UEFI and GUID partition tables are used more frequently, they were included in the new exams. Topics dealing with networks, graphical user interfaces and desktops were completely revised. Meanwhile, topics such as SQL and disk quotas were removed. These are just some noticeable examples; many other changes were made, too.

To ensure that candidates preparing to take an exam are not surprised by topics they weren’t expecting, the LPI offers a 6-months transition period during which either the new or the old versions of the exams can be taken.

As an LPI book author, I base the update of my books on the wiki of the Linux Professional Institute. I also recommend this website to my students, because it is easier to search through it using Strg+F than to thumb through a book. You find information on the latest exam topics as well as a compilation of the topics which were changed in the new exam version.

I often notice a certain fear of new exams among my students. I can assure you that these fears are completely unfounded for any candidate working closely with the LPI objectives.

To ensure acquired certifications are always up-to-date, the status of a certification is set to ‘inactive’ after five years. It is, however, possible to get a higher level certification before the end of the period and thus keep the status of the certification active.

If you plan to take a new LPIC-1 exam in the next couple of months, I recommend you read this blog regularly, since we plan to publish further posts about the changes in the new version.

Continue reading

Linux Essentials Objectives (New Version 1.6)

Objectives

Topic 1: The Linux Community and a Career in Open Source

1.1 Linux Evolution and Popular Operating Systems (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Knowledge of Linux development and major distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Distributions
◈ Embedded Systems
◈ Linux in the Cloud

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Debian, Ubuntu (LTS)
◈ CentOS, openSUSE, Red Hat, SUSE
◈ Linux Mint, Scientific Linux
◈ Raspberry Pi, Raspbian
◈ Android

1.2 Major Open Source Applications (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Awareness of major applications as well as their uses and development.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Desktop applications
◈ Server applications
◈ Development languages
◈ Package management tools and repositories

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, GIMP
◈ Nextcloud, ownCloud
◈ Apache HTTPD, NGINX, MariaDB, MySQL, NFS, Samba
◈ C, Java, JavaScript, Perl, shell, Python, PHP
◈ dpkg, apt-get, rpm, yum

1.3 Open Source Software and Licensing (weight: 1)

Weight: 1

Description: Open communities and licensing Open Source Software for business.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Open source philosophy
◈ Open source licensing
◈ Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI)

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Copyleft, Permissive
◈ GPL, BSD, Creative Commons
◈ Free Software, Open Source Software, FOSS, FLOSS
◈ Open source business models

1.4 ICT Skills and Working in Linux (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Basic Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills and working in Linux.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Desktop skills
◈ Getting to the command line
◈ Industry uses of Linux, cloud computing and virtualization

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Using a browser, privacy concerns, configuration options, searching the web and saving content
◈ Terminal and console
◈ Password issues
◈ Privacy issues and tools
◈ Use of common open source applications in presentations and projects

Topic 2: Finding Your Way on a Linux System

2.1 Command Line Basics (weight: 3)

Weight: 3

Description: Basics of using the Linux command line.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Basic shell
◈ Command line syntax
◈ Variables
◈ Quoting

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Bash
◈ echo
◈ history
◈ PATH environment variable
◈ export
◈ type

2.2 Using the Command Line to Get Help (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Running help commands and navigation of the various help systems.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Man pages
◈ Info pages

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ man
◈ info
◈ /usr/share/doc/
◈ locate

2.3 Using Directories and Listing Files (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Navigation of home and system directories and listing files in various locations.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files, directories
◈ Hidden files and directories
◈ Home directories
◈ Absolute and relative paths

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Common options for ls
◈ Recursive listings
◈ cd
◈ . and ..
◈ home and ~

2.4 Creating, Moving and Deleting Files (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Create, move and delete files and directories under the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files and directories
◈ Case sensitivity
◈ Simple globbing

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ mv, cp, rm, touch
◈ mkdir, rmdir

Topic 3: The Power of the Command Line

3.1 Archiving Files on the Command Line (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Archiving files in the user home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Files, directories
◈ Archives, compression

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ tar
◈ Common tar options
◈ gzip, bzip2, xz
◈ zip, unzip

3.2 Searching and Extracting Data from Files (weight: 3)

Weight: 3

Description: Search and extract data from files in the home directory.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Command line pipes
◈ I/O redirection
◈ Basic Regular Expressions using ., [ ], *, and ?

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ grep
◈ less
◈ cat, head, tail
◈ sort
◈ cut
◈ wc

3.3 Turning Commands into a Script (weight: 4)

Weight: 4

Description: Turning repetitive commands into simple scripts.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Basic shell scripting
◈ Awareness of common text editors (vi and nano)

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ #! (shebang)
◈ /bin/bash
◈ Variables
◈ Arguments
◈ for loops
◈ echo
◈ Exit status

Topic 4: The Linux Operating System

4.1 Choosing an Operating System (weight: 1)

Weight: 1

Description: Knowledge of major operating systems and Linux distributions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Differences between Windows, OS X and Linux
◈ Distribution life cycle management

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ GUI versus command line, desktop configuration
◈ Maintenance cycles, beta and stable

4.2 Understanding Computer Hardware (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Familiarity with the components that go into building desktop and server computers.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Hardware

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Motherboards, processors, power supplies, optical drives, peripherals
◈ Hard drives, solid state disks and partitions, /dev/sd*
◈ Drivers

4.3 Where Data is Stored (weight: 3)

Weight: 3

Description: Where various types of information are stored on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Programs and configuration
◈ Processes
◈ Memory addresses
◈ System messaging
◈ Logging

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ ps, top, free
◈ syslog, dmesg
◈ /etc/, /var/log/
◈ /boot/, /proc/, /dev/, /sys/

4.4 Your Computer on the Network (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Querying vital networking configuration and determining the basic requirements for a computer on a Local Area Network (LAN).

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Internet, network, routers
◈ Querying DNS client configuration
◈ Querying network configuration

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ route, ip route show
◈ ifconfig, ip addr show
◈ netstat, ss
◈ /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts
◈ IPv4, IPv6
◈ ping
◈ host

Topic 5: Security and File Permissions

5.1 Basic Security and Identifying User Types (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Various types of users on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Root and standard users
◈ System users

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group
◈ id, last, who, w
◈ sudo, su

5.2 Creating Users and Groups (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Creating users and groups on a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ User and group commands
◈ User IDs

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, /etc/skel/
◈ useradd, groupadd
◈ passwd

5.3 Managing File Permissions and Ownership (weight: 2)

Weight: 2

Description: Understanding and manipulating file permissions and ownership settings.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ File and directory permissions and ownership

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ ls -l, ls -a
◈ chmod, chown

5.4 Special Directories and Files (weight: 1)

Weight: 1

Description: Special directories and files on a Linux system including special permissions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Using temporary files and directories
◈ Symbolic links

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /tmp/, /var/tmp/ and Sticky Bit
◈ ls -d
◈ ln -s

Continue reading

LPIC-1 Exam 101 Objectives (New Version 5.0)

Topic 101: System Architecture

101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to determine and configure fundamental system hardware.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Enable and disable integrated peripherals.
◈ Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devices.
◈ Determine hardware resources for devices.
◈ Tools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.).
◈ Tools and utilities to manipulate USB devices.
◈ Conceptual understanding of sysfs, udev and dbus.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /sys/
◈ /proc/
◈ /dev/
◈ modprobe
◈ lsmod
◈ lspci
◈ lsusb

101.2 Boot the system

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to guide the system through the booting process.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Provide common commands to the boot loader and options to the kernel at boot time.
◈ Demonstrate knowledge of the boot sequence from BIOS/UEFI to boot completion.
◈ Understanding of SysVinit and systemd.
◈ Awareness of Upstart.
◈ Check boot events in the log files.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ dmesg
◈ journalctl
◈ BIOS
◈ UEFI
◈ bootloader
◈ kernel
◈ initramfs
◈ init
◈ SysVinit
◈ systemd

101.3 Change runlevels / boot targets and shutdown or reboot system

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to manage the SysVinit runlevel or systemd boot target of the system. This objective includes changing to single user mode, shutdown or rebooting the system. Candidates should be able to alert users before switching runlevels / boot targets and properly terminate processes. This objective also includes setting the default SysVinit runlevel or systemd boot target. It also includes awareness of Upstart as an alternative to SysVinit or systemd.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Set the default runlevel or boot target.
◈ Change between runlevels / boot targets including single user mode.
◈ Shutdown and reboot from the command line.
◈ Alert users before switching runlevels / boot targets or other major system events.
◈ Properly terminate processes.
◈ Awareness of acpid.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /etc/inittab
◈ shutdown
◈ init
◈ /etc/init.d/
◈ telinit
◈ systemd
◈ systemctl
◈ /etc/systemd/
◈ /usr/lib/systemd/
◈ wall

Topic 102: Linux Installation and Package Management

102.1 Design hard disk layout

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Allocate filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks.
◈ Tailor the design to the intended use of the system.
◈ Ensure the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements for booting.
◈ Knowledge of basic features of LVM.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ / (root) filesystem
◈ /var filesystem
◈ /home filesystem
◈ /boot filesystem
◈ EFI System Partition (ESP)
◈ swap space
◈ mount points
◈ partitions

102.2 Install a boot manager

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to select, install and configure a boot manager.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options.
◈ Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUB Legacy.
◈ Perform basic configuration changes for GRUB 2.
◈ Interact with the boot loader.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ menu.lst, grub.cfg and grub.conf
◈ grub-install
◈ grub-mkconfig
◈ MBR

102.3 Manage shared libraries

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should be able to determine the shared libraries that executable programs depend on and install them when necessary.

◈ Identify shared libraries.
◈ Identify the typical locations of system libraries.
◈ Load shared libraries.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ ldd
◈ ldconfig
◈ /etc/ld.so.conf
◈ LD_LIBRARY_PATH

102.4 Use Debian package management

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using the Debian package tools.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary packages.
◈ Find packages containing specific files or libraries which may or may not be installed.
◈ Obtain package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity and installation status (whether or not the package is installed).
◈ Awareness of apt.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ /etc/apt/sources.list
◈ dpkg
◈ dpkg-reconfigure
◈ apt-get
◈ apt-cache

102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using RPM, YUM and Zypper.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Install, re-install, upgrade and remove packages using RPM, YUM and Zypper.
◈ Obtain information on RPM packages such as version, status, dependencies, integrity and signatures.
◈ Determine what files a package provides, as well as find which package a specific file comes from.
◈ Awareness of dnf.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ rpm
◈ rpm2cpio
◈ /etc/yum.conf
◈ /etc/yum.repos.d/
◈ yum
◈ zypper

102.6 Linux as a virtualization guest

Weight: 1

Description: Candidates should understand the implications of virtualization and cloud computing on a Linux guest system.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Understand the general concept of virtual machines and containers
◈ Understand common elements virtual machines in an IaaS cloud, such as computing instances, block storage and networking
◈ Understand unique properties of a Linux system which have to changed when a system is cloned or used as a template
◈ Understand how system images are used to deploy virtual machines, cloud instances and containers
◈ Understand Linux extensions which integrate Linux with a virtualization product
◈ Awareness of cloud-init

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ Virtual machine
◈ Linux container
◈ Application container
◈ Guest drivers
◈ SSH host keys
◈ D-Bus machine id

Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands

103.1 Work on the command line

Weight: 4

Description: Candidates should be able to interact with shells and commands using the command line. The objective assumes the Bash shell.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Use single shell commands and one line command sequences to perform basic tasks on the command line.
◈ Use and modify the shell environment including defining, referencing and exporting environment variables.
◈ Use and edit command history.
◈ Invoke commands inside and outside the defined path.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ bash
◈ echo
◈ env
◈ export
◈ pwd
◈ set
◈ unset
◈ type
◈ which
◈ man
◈ uname
◈ history
◈ .bash_history
◈ Quoting

103.2 Process text streams using filters

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should should be able to apply filters to text streams.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Send text files and output streams through text utility filters to modify the output using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU textutils package.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ bzcat
◈ cat
◈ cut
◈ head
◈ less
◈ md5sum
◈ nl
◈ od
◈ paste
◈ sed
◈ sha256sum
◈ sha512sum
◈ sort
◈ split
◈ tail
◈ tr
◈ uniq
◈ wc
◈ xzcat
◈ zcat

103.3 Perform basic file management

Weight: 4

Description: Candidates should be able to use the basic Linux commands to manage files and directories.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Copy, move and remove files and directories individually.
◈ Copy multiple files and directories recursively.
◈ Remove files and directories recursively.
◈ Use simple and advanced wildcard specifications in commands.
◈ Using find to locate and act on files based on type, size, or time.
◈ Usage of tar, cpio and dd.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ cp
◈ find
◈ mkdir
◈ mv
◈ ls
◈ rm
◈ rmdir
◈ touch
◈ tar
◈ cpio
◈ dd
◈ file
◈ gzip
◈ gunzip
◈ bzip2
◈ bunzip2
◈ xz
◈ unxz
◈ file globbing

103.4 Use streams, pipes and redirects

Weight: 4

Description: Candidates should be able to redirect streams and connect them in order to efficiently process textual data. Tasks include redirecting standard input, standard output and standard error, piping the output of one command to the input of another command, using the output of one command as arguments to another command and sending output to both stdout and a file.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Redirecting standard input, standard output and standard error.
◈ Pipe the output of one command to the input of another command.
◈ Use the output of one command as arguments to another command.
◈ Send output to both stdout and a file.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ tee
◈ xargs

103.5 Create, monitor and kill processes

Weight: 4

Description: Candidates should be able to perform basic process management.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Run jobs in the foreground and background.
◈ Signal a program to continue running after logout.
◈ Monitor active processes.
◈ Select and sort processes for display.
◈ Send signals to processes.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ &
◈ bg
◈ fg
◈ jobs
◈ kill
◈ nohup
◈ ps
◈ top
◈ free
◈ uptime
◈ pgrep
◈ pkill
◈ killall
◈ watch
◈ screen
◈ tmux

103.6 Modify process execution priorities

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should should be able to manage process execution priorities.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Know the default priority of a job that is created.
◈ Run a program with higher or lower priority than the default.
◈ Change the priority of a running process.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ nice
◈ ps
◈ renice
◈ top

103.7 Search text files using regular expressions

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to manipulate files and text data using regular expressions. This objective includes creating simple regular expressions containing several notational elements as well as understanding the differences between basic and extended regular expressions. It also includes using regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Create simple regular expressions containing several notational elements.
◈ Understand the differences between basic and extended regular expressions.
◈ Understand the concepts of special characters, character classes, quantifiers and anchors.
◈ Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.
◈ Use regular expressions to delete, change and substitute text.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ grep
◈ egrep
◈ fgrep
◈ sed
◈ regex(7)

103.8 Basic file editing

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi navigation, vi modes, inserting, editing, deleting, copying and finding text. It also includes awareness of other common editors and setting the default editor.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Navigate a document using vi.
◈ Understand and use vi modes.
◈ Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text in vi.
◈ Awareness of Emacs, nano and vim.
◈ Configure the standard editor.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ vi
◈ /, ?
◈ h,j,k,l
◈ i, o, a
◈ d, p, y, dd, yy
◈ ZZ, :w!, :q!
◈ EDITOR

Topic 104: Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

104.1 Create partitions and filesystems

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to configure disk partitions and then create filesystems on media such as hard disks. This includes the handling of swap partitions.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Manage MBR and GPT partition tables
◈ Use various mkfs commands to create various filesystems such as:
     ◈ ext2/ext3/ext4
     ◈ XFS
     ◈ VFAT
     ◈ exFAT
◈ Basic feature knowledge of Btrfs, including multi-device filesystems, compression and subvolumes.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ fdisk
◈ gdisk
◈ parted
◈ mkfs
◈ mkswap

104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to maintain a standard filesystem, as well as the extra data associated with a journaling filesystem.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Verify the integrity of filesystems.
◈ Monitor free space and inodes.
◈ Repair simple filesystem problems.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ du
◈ df
◈ fsck
◈ e2fsck
◈ mke2fs
◈ tune2fs
◈ xfs_repair
◈ xfs_fsr
◈ xfs_db

104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to configure the mounting of a filesystem.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Manually mount and unmount filesystems.
◈ Configure filesystem mounting on bootup.
◈ Configure user mountable removable filesystems.
◈ Use of labels and UUIDs for identifying and mounting file systems.
◈ Awareness of systemd mount units.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

/etc/fstab
/media/
mount
umount
blkid
lsblk

104.4 Removed

104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership

Weight: 3

Description: Candidates should be able to control file access through the proper use of permissions and ownerships.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Manage access permissions on regular and special files as well as directories.
◈ Use access modes such as suid, sgid and the sticky bit to maintain security.
◈ Know how to change the file creation mask.
◈ Use the group field to grant file access to group members.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ chmod
◈ umask
◈ chown
◈ chgrp

104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be able to create and manage hard and symbolic links to a file.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Create links.
◈ Identify hard and/or soft links.
◈ Copying versus linking files.
◈ Use links to support system administration tasks.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ ln
◈ ls

104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location

Weight: 2

Description: Candidates should be thoroughly familiar with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including typical file locations and directory classifications.

Key Knowledge Areas:

◈ Understand the correct locations of files under the FHS.
◈ Find files and commands on a Linux system.
◈ Know the location and purpose of important file and directories as defined in the FHS.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

◈ find
◈ locate
◈ updatedb
◈ whereis
◈ which
◈ type
◈ /etc/updatedb.conf

Continue reading

LPIC-3 Linux Enterprise Professional

The LPIC-3 certification is the culmination of LPI’s multi-level professional certification program. LPIC-3 is designed for the enterprise-level Linux professional and represents the highest level of professional, distribution-neutral Linux certification within the industry. Three separate LPIC-3 specialty certifications are available. Passing any one of the three exams will grant the LPIC-3 certification for that specialty.

Prerequisites: The candidate must have an active LPIC-2 certification to receive LPIC-3 certification, but the LPIC-2 and LPIC-3 exams may be taken in any order.

LPIC-3 Specialities

LPIC-3 300: Linux Enterprise Professional Mixed Environment

◈ What: Ability to integrate Linux services in an enterprise-wide mixed environment.

◈ How: Pass LPI 300 exam; 60 multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions in 90 minutes. Must also have active LPIC-2 certification.

◈ Cost: $200 USD (1 exam, certification valid for 5 years). Price may vary per region.

LPIC-3 303: Linux Enterprise Professional Security

◈ What: Ability to secure and harden Linux-based servers, services and networks enterprise-wide.

◈ How: Pass LPI 303 exam; 60 multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions in 90 minutes. Must also have active LPIC-2 certification.

◈ Cost: $200 USD (1 exam, certification valid for 5 years). Price may vary per region.

LPIC-3 304: Linux Enterprise Professional Virtualization and High Availability

◈ What: Ability to plan and implement enterprise-wide virtualization and high availability setups using Linux-based technologies.

◈ How: Pass LPI 304 exam; 60 multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions in 90 minutes. Must also have active LPIC-2 certification.

◈ Cost: $200 USD (1 exam, certification valid for 5 years). Price may vary per region.

Continue reading

LPIC-2: Linux Engineer

LPIC-2 is the second certification in LPI’s multi-level professional certification program. The LPIC-2 will validate the candidate's ability to administer small to medium–sized mixed networks. The candidate must have an active LPIC-1 certification to receive LPIC-2 certification, but the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 exams may be taken in any order.

Current Version: 4.5 (Exam codes 201-450 and 202-450)

Prerequisites: The candidate must have an active LPIC-1 certification to receive LPIC-2 certification, but the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 exams may be taken in any order

Requirements: Passing exams 201 and 202

Validity Period: 5 years

Languages: English and German

To become LPIC-2 certified the candidate must be able to:

◈ perform advanced system administration, including common tasks regarding the Linux kernel, system startup and maintenance;

◈ perform advanced Management of block storage and file systems as well as advanced networking and authentication and system security, including firewall and VPN;

◈ install and configure fundamental network services, including DHCP, DNS,  SSH, Web servers, file servers using FTP, NFS and Samba, email delivery; and

◈ supervise assistants and advise management on automation and purchases.

Exam 201 Topics

◈ Capacity Planning

◈ Linux Kernel

◈ System Startup

◈ Filesystem and Devices

◈ Advanced Storage Device Administration

◈ Networking Configuration

◈ System Maintenance

LPIC-2 Exam 201 Objectives

Exam 202 Topics

◈ Domain Name Server

◈ Web Services

◈ File Sharing

◈ Network Client Management

◈ E-Mail Services

◈ System Security

LPIC-2 Exam 202 Objectives

Continue reading