utilization. Chapter 13 describes how to use the sar command.
● Shell scripting– Create a simple shell script to take input and produce output in various ways. Shell scripting is described in Chapter 7.
● Remote logging– Configure the rsyslogd facility to gather log messages and distribute them to a remote logging server. Also, configure a remote logging server facility to gather log messages from logging clients. Chapter 13 covers remote logging with rsyslogd.
● SELinux– With Security Enhanced Linux in Enforcing mode, make sure that all server configurations described in the next section are properly secured with SELinux. SELinux is described in Chapter 24.
Installing and configuring network services
For each of the network services in the list that follows, make sure that you can go through the steps to install packages required by the service, set up SELinux to allow access to the service, set the service to start at boot time, secure the service by host or by user (using iptables, TCP wrappers, or features provided by the service itself), and configure it for basic operation. These are the services:
● Web server– Configure an Apache (HTTP/HTTPS) server. You must be able to set up a virtual host, deploy a CGI script, use private directories, and allow a particular Linux group to manage the content. Chapter 17 describes how to configure a Web server.
● DNS server– Set up a DNS server (bind package) to act as a caching-only name server that can forward DNS queries to another DNS server. No need to configure master or slave zones. DNS is described from the client side in Chapter 14. For information on configuring a DNS server with Bind, see the RHEL Networking Guide (https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html-single/Networking_Guide).
● NFS server– Configure an NFS server to share specific directories to specific client systems so they can be used for group collaboration. Chapter 20 covers NFS.
● Windows file sharing server– Set up Linux (Samba) to provide SMB shares to specific hosts and users. Configure the shares for group collaboration. See Chapter 19 to learn about configuring Samba.
● Mail server– Configure postfix or sendmail to accept incoming mail from outside the local host. Relay mail to a smart host. Mail server configuration is not covered in this book (and should not be done lightly). See the RHEL System Administrator's Guide for information on configuring mail servers (https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html-single/System_Administrators_Guide/index.html#ch-Mail_Servers).
● Secure Shell server– Set up the SSH service (sshd) to allow remote login to your local system as well as key-based authentication. Otherwise, configure the sshd.conf file as needed. Chapter 13 describes how to configure the sshd service.
● Network Time server– Configure a Network Time Protocol server (ntpd) to synchronize time with other NTP peers. See Chapter 26 for information on configuring the ntpd service.
● Database server– Configure the MariaDB database and manage it in various ways. Learn how to configure MariaDB from the MariaDB.org site (https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/documentation/).
Although there are other tasks in the RHCE exam, as just noted, keep in mind that most of the tasks have you configure servers and then secure those servers using any technique you need. Those can include firewall rules (iptables), SELinux, TCP Wrappers, or any features built into configuration files for the particular service.
Summary
Linux is an operating system that is built by a community of software developers around the world and led by its creator, Linus Torvalds. It is derived originally from the UNIX operating system, but has grown beyond UNIX in popularity and power over the years.
The history of the Linux operating system can be tracked from early UNIX systems that were distributed free to colleges and improved by initiatives such as the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The Free Software Foundation helped make many of the components needed to create a fully-free UNIX-like operating system. The Linux kernel itself was the last major component needed to complete the job.
Most Linux software projects are protected by one of a set of licenses that fall under the Open Source Initiative umbrella. The most prominent of these is the GNU Public License (GPL). Standards such as the Linux Standard Base and world-class Linux organizations and companies (such as Canonical Ltd. and Red Hat, Inc.) make it possible for Linux to continue to be a stable, productive operating system into the future.
Learning the basics of how to use and administer a Linux system will serve you well in any aspect of working with Linux. The remaining chapters each provide a series of exercises with which you can test your understanding. That's why, for the rest of the book, you will learn best with a Linux system in front of you so you can work through the examples in each chapter and complete the exercises successfully.
The next chapter describes how to get started with Linux by describing how to get and use a Linux desktop system.
Chapter 2
Creating the Perfect Linux Desktop
Using Linux as your everyday desktop system is becoming easier to do all the time. As with everything in Linux, you have choices. There are full-featured GNOME or KDE desktop environments or lightweight desktops such as LXDE or Xfce. There are even simpler standalone window managers.
After you have chosen a desktop, you will find that almost every major type of desktop application you have on a Windows or Mac system has equivalent applications in Linux. For applications that are not available in Linux, you can often run a Windows application in Linux using Windows compatibility software.
The goal of this chapter is to familiarize you with the concepts related to Linux desktop systems and to give you tips for working with a Linux desktop. In this chapter you:
● Step through the desktop features and technologies that are available in Linux
● Tour the major features of the GNOME desktop environment
● Learn tips and tricks for getting the most out of your GNOME desktop experience
To use the descriptions in this chapter, I recommend you have a Fedora system running in front of you. You can get Fedora in lots of ways, including these:
● Running Fedora from a live
