System Architecture

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.

This is generally done through the BIOS settings which are accessed by pressing DEL F10 or F12 during boot. There's usually a screen titled "Integrated Peripherals" where these can be disabled.

Configure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards.

Again, should be disabled via BIOS. Some older BIOSs have an option where the system can halt on keyboard errors - make sure that isn't set.

Differentiate between the various types of mass storage devices.

SATA and IDE spinning disks and solid state disks (SSDs) show up as SCSI devices under /dev/sd?*.
On older systems, these show up as /dev/hd?*.
Firewire connected devices usually show up as /dev/sd?*
USB-connected disks generally show up as /dev/sd?(
USB flash memory sometimes shows up as two disks, because they are partitioned to have a small partition with Windows software to grant access to the second partition.
Older style RAID arrays appear as /dev/sd* or /dev/sc*. They are generally managed by a boot-time BIOS on the card.
CD and DVD RW disks show up under /dev/sr?* (scsi removable), and are also symlinked from well-known links /dev/cdrom /dev/dvd.
Network mounted storage can be available via SMB or NFS.

Set the correct hardware ID for different devices, especially the boot device.

I don't understand what this is. It could mean the GUID values that are written to partitions. It could mean the SCSI IDs. It could mean the IDs that Grub uses to boot the system. Needs further investigation.

Know the differences between coldplug and hotplug devices.

Coldplug devices are generally cold plug because of physical limitations, like PCI and IDE cannot be hot-plugged. PS/2 ports cannot be hotplugged.
USB, Firewire, SATA and eSATA devices can be hot-plugged.
All devices are detected by udev. In old Linux system hald (hardware abstraction layer) would trigger behaviors. Now it looks like udev has been made more capable of triggering programs. udev manages the /dev directory.

Determine hardware resources for devices.

I'm not sure what this means. It may mean knowing about the layouts of /sys and /proc, and how to drill down into the buses and devices to discover device IDs and memory mappings (for DMA devices).

Tools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.)

lsusb - lists the usb bus
modprobe and lsmod - lists the active drivers, and can load a driver
lspci - lists the devices on the pci bus
lsblk - lists all block devices, similar to mount
lspcmcia - lists pc bus devices
lscpu - describes the cpu
lshw - lists everything

Tools and utilities to manipulate USB devices

lsusb - lists usb devices
usb-devices - a report that's way more detailed than lsusb
I don't know enough about this topic.

Conceptual understanding of sysfs, udev, hald, dbus

udev manages the /dev directory
sysfs - do they mean /sys ? Or do they mean the thing that lists the available file system types?
udev can trigger actions, among them talking to hald
hald is a deprecated layer that manages hot-plug and cold-plug devices. Prior to hald, there were only cold-plug possibilities. hald integrates with the dbus.
dbus is a pubsub messaging bus from freedesktop.org, providing a dekstop-environment neutral way to pass messages between programs. hald and udev events can send messages to the dbus. hotplug events can thus be relayed to the desktop, which can then mount devices or load drivers or run programs.

Terms and Utilities

/sys
/proc
/dev
modprobe
lsmod
lspci
lsusb

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.

I'm weak on this part and need to study. There are some common features related to forcing VGA and other features, or to load specific kernel files, or start in a specific runlevel.

Demonstrate knowledge of the boot sequence from BIOS to boot completion.

bios, bootloader (usually grub2), on some systems load up a squashed file system read only and boot into the kernel on there, on most systems boot load the kernel and execute. Kernel starts up the init program, which then loads programs in /etc/rc?.d based on the runlevel passed to the bootloader (which passed it to the kernel). Programs in rc.d/ link to scripts in /etc/init.d, which control daemons (services). If a display manager (gdm, xdm, kdm, orlightdm) is present, it will run and start X.
I'll have to double-check my understanding. Things may have changed. There's something called upstart that I don't know.

Check boot events in the log files.

dmesg - main tool to review boot logs quickly
/var/log/messages has more info, including all the dmesg messsages

Terms and Utilities

/var/log/messages
dmesg
BIOS
bootloader
kernel
init

Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to manage the runlevel 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 runlevel and properly terminate processes. This objective also includes setting the default runlevel..

Key Knowledge Areas

Set the default runlevel.

I don't know how to do this.

Change between run levels including single user mode.

telinit changes runlevels on linux. The traditional command is init.
runlevel "1" is the single user mode. it's also called "S".
runlevel "0" is halt
runlevel "6" is reboot

Shutdown and reboot from the command line.

shutdown - command to shut down and also send messages to users to exit
reboot - shuts down and reboots immediately.

Alert users before switching runlevels or other major system event.

wall - writes a message onto all terminals
shutdown has a feature to send the shutdown message as well.

Properly terminate processes.

generally, running the /etc/init.d scripts is the way to stop processes, but a new thing called upstart seems to be the new system.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/inittab
shutdown
init
/etc/init.d
telinit

Linux Installation and Package Management

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.

use fdisk or gparted to partition disks
typical server layout is separate partitions for /tmp /var / and /home. This way, growth in /var or /tmp can't cause the system to run out of disk (but apps will stop working).

Tailor the design to the intended use of the system.

desktop system should use 1 swap partition and 1 big root partition
server systems should have separate /tmp and /var partitions, with sizing based on expected use.
on internet servers nowadays /var should be really large, like tens of gigabytes, because databases, websites, and mail spools are supposed to go on there.
small server systems (like firewalls or file servers), you can usually go with a single partition, but have cron jobs that rotate old logs out and clean out /tmp.

Ensure the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements for booting.

Ouch - difficult. The main boot systems are UEFI and BIOS. There's also Sun. BIOS has some kinds of limits depending on the age of the BIOS. Generally, you can only boot from the X megabytes of the disk, depending on the bios. UEFI requires a partition that contains drivers for the filesystem and bootable devices.
On such older systems, it was common to create a /boot partition as the first partition. Once the system booted, the OSs driver could address the entire disk.

Terms and Utilities

/ (root) filesystem
/var filesystem
/home filesystem
swap space
mount points
partitions

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.

Boot is controlled by the BIOS.
You can boot from CD ROM or floppy or USB, and use tools to repair the MBR and re-install the bootloader.
GRUB or LILO boot loader can select between different kernel images. This is useful when a kernel doesn't work.

Install and configure a boot loader such as GRUB.

grub and the grub-install script do most of the work
config files are in /etc/grub.d and these are combined into the grub boot scripts that are in /boot/grub

Interact with the boot loader.

press tab during boot to enter the boot loader
generally you can't do much except select the kernel image to run and pass options to it

Terms and Utilities

/boot/grub/menu.lst
grub-install
MBR
superblock
/etc/lilo.conf
lilo

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.

Key Knowledge Areas

Identify shared libraries.

They live in /usr/lib an are named *.so or *.so.*

Identify the typical locations of system libraries.

/lib /usr/lib /usr/local/lib /usr/lib32 /usr/local/lib32
Also, if apps are installed in /opt, they may keep their libraries in their own directories.

Load shared libraries.

ldd lists the shared libraries an program needs

Terms and Utilities

ldd
ldconfig
/etc/ld.so.conf
LD_LIBRARY_PATH

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.

dpkg takes a .deb file and installs it
apt-get queries a repository to get the latest .deb file, and runs dpkg to install it
aptitude provides a visual tool to read the repository interactively, and does everything that apt-get does

Find packages containing specific files or libraries which may or may not be installed.

I generally find these on the web, and download the specific deb files. You can then install them or unzip them (deb files are zips) and extract the files you need.

Obtain package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity and installation status (whether or not the package is installed).

Terms and Utilities

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

Use RPM and YUM package management

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to perform package management using RPM and YUM tools.

Key Knowledge Areas

Install, re-install, upgrade and remove packages using RPM and YUM.

It's been YEARS. I have to study this, maybe by running Centos for a while.

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.

Terms and Utilities

rpm
rpm2cpio
/etc/yum.conf
/etc/yum.repos.d/
yum
yumdownloader

GNU and Unix Commands

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.

echo "hello world"
echo "hello world" | sed s/world/john/

Use and modify the shell environment including defining, referencing and exporting environment variables.

FOO=bar command
FOO=bar
export FOO
echo $FOO

Use and edit command history.

!!
arrow keys
history | grep foo
!foo
!123

Invoke commands inside and outside the defined path.

./foo (outside the path)
/path/to/foo (outside the path)
foo (inside the path)

Terms and Utilities

.
bash
echo
env
exec
export
pwd
set
unset
man
uname
history

Process text streams using filters

Weight: 3
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.

I'm weak on the following: cut, expand, fmt, od, join, nl, paste, pr (jeez, does anyone use this anymore???), split, tr, unexpand (tabs).

Terms and Utilities

cat
cut
expand
fmt
head
od
join
nl
paste
pr
sed
sort
split
tail
tr
unexpand
uniq
wc

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.

cp
mv
rm
rmdir

Copy multiple files and directories recursively.

cp -R

Remove files and directories recursively.

rm -f dir

Use simple and advanced wildcard specifications in commands.

cat ?.?
cat *.*
cat */???.txt
cat */[0-3]*.txt

Using find to locate and act on files based on type, size, or time.

find . -name "*.type" -exec command {} \;
find . -name foo -delete
find . -size +10M
find . -atime -1
find . -mtime +1
find . -mmin +30

Usage of tar, cpio and dd.

tar xf foo.tar
tar cf foo.tar stuff-to-add
tar c files > tarfile.tar
cpio --- i gotta learn this command. too many years of tar
dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/johnk/mbr bs=512 count=1

Terms and Utilities

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

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.

echo "foo" | xargs -L 1 ls
grep | sort
ps aux | grep

Use the output of one command as arguments to another command.

xargs

Send output to both stdout and a file.

echo "foo" | tee foo.txt | cat

Terms and Utilities

tee
xargs

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.

foo &
foo
fg

Signal a program to continue running after logout.

nohup foo > out &
screen

Monitor active processes.

top
pstree
ps
ps aux

Select and sort processes for display.

ps | grep
ps | sort

Send signals to processes.

kill -SIGHUP 1234
killall -SIGINT foo

Terms and Utilities

&
bg
fg
jobs
kill
nohup
ps
top
free
uptime
killall

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..

nice foo

Change the priority of a running process.

renice

Terms and Utilities

nice
ps
renice
top

Search text files using regular expressions

Weight: 2
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. 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.
Use regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content.

Terms and Utilities

grep
egrep
fgrep
sed
regex(7)

Perform basic file editing operations using vi

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to edit text files using vi. This objective includes vi navigation, basic vi modes, inserting, editing, deleting, copying and finding text.

Key Knowledge Areas

Navigate a document using vi.
Use basic vi modes.
Insert, edit, delete, copy and find text.

Terms and Utilities

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

Devices, Linux Filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

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

ext2
ext3
xfs
reiserfs v3
vfat

Terms and Utilities

fdisk
mkfs
mkswap

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.

fsck -p /dev/sda1

Monitor free space and inodes.

df - free space on disks
df -i - free inodes
du - disk usage of a directory

Repair simple filesystem problems.

i don't know how to do anything but fsck. need to read up on ext2 ext3 ext4!

Terms and Utilities

du
df
fsck
e2fsck
mke2fs
debugfs
dumpe2fs
tune2fs
xfs tools

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.

mount
umount

Configure filesystem mounting on bootup.

vi /etc/fstab

Configure user mountable removeable filesystems.

need to study up on this one - GPT

Terms and Utilities

/etc/fstab
/media
mount
umount

Manage disk quotas

Weight: 1
Description: Candidates should be able to manage disk quotas for users.

Key Knowledge Areas

Set up a disk quota for a filesystem.

I don't know how to do this.

Edit, check and generate user quota reports.

Again, another thing I don't know.

Terms and Utilities

quota
edquota
repquota
quotaon

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.

chmod

Use access modes such as suid, sgid and the sticky bit to maintain security.

chomd u+s

Know how to change the file creation mask.

umask

Use the group field to grant file access to group members.

vi /etc/group

Terms and Utilities

chmod
umask
chown
chgrp

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.

ln
ln -s

Identify hard and/or softlinks.

ls -F

Copying versus linking files.

Linking saves space.

Use links to support system administration tasks.

Terms and Utilities

Find system files and place files in the correct location

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be thouroughly 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.

etc usr lib bin home opt run root sys var mnt boot dev sbin tmp
share doc X11 libexec /usr/local

Terms and Utilities

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

Exam 102: Detailed Objectives

This is a required exam for LPI certification Level 1. It covers basic skills for the Linux Professional that are common to major distributions of Linux.

Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights range roughly from 1 to 10 and indicate the relative importance of each objective. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Shells, Scripting and Data Management

Customize and use the shell environment

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to customize shell environments to meet users' needs. Candidates should be able to modify global and user profiles.

Key Knowledge Areas

Set environment variables (e.g. PATH) at login or when spawning a new shell.
Write BASH functions for frequently used sequences of commands.
Maintain skeleton directories for new user accounts.
Set command search path with the proper directory.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/profile
env
export
set
unset
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.profile
~/.bashrc
~/.bash_logout
function
alias
lists

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to customize existing scripts, or write simple new BASH scripts.

Key Knowledge Areas

Use standard sh syntax (loops, tests).
Use command substitution.
Test return values for success or failure or other information provided by a command.
Perform conditional mailing to the superuser.

cat report | mail -S "something messed up"

Correctly select the script interpreter through the shebang (#!) line.
Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scripts.

Terms and Utilities

for
while
test
if
read
seq

SQL data management

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to query databases and manipulate data using basic SQL commands. This objective includes performing queries involving joining of 2 tables and/or subselects.

Key Knowledge Areas

Use of basic SQL commands.
Perform basic data manipulation.

Terms and Utilities

insert
update
select
delete
from
where
group by
order by
join

User Interfaces and Desktops

Install and configure X11

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to install and configure X11.

Key Knowledge Areas

Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server.
Awareness of the X font server.
Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration file.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/X11/xorg.conf
xhost
DISPLAY
xwininfo
xdpyinfo
X

Setup a display manager

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able setup and customize a display manager. This objective covers the display managers XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager) and KDM (KDE Display Manager).

Key Knowledge Areas

Turn the display manager on or off.
Change the display manager greeting.
Change default color depth for the display manager.
Configure display managers for use by X-stations.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/inittab
xdm configuration files
kdm configuration files
gdm configuration files

Accessibility

Weight: 1
Description: Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of accessibility technologies.

Key Knowledge Areas

Keyboard Accessibility Settings
Visual Settings and Themes
Assistive Technology (ATs)

I'm weak on these - need to study!

Terms and Utilities

Sticky/Repeat Keys
Slow/Bounce/Toggle Keys
Mouse Keys
High Contrast Desktop Themes
Large Print Desktop Themes
Screen Reader
Braille Display
Screen Magnifier
On-Screen Keyboard
Gestures
Orca
GOK
emacspeak

Administrative Tasks

Manage user and group accounts and related system files

Weight: 5
Description: Candidates should be able to add, remove, suspend and change user accounts.

Key Knowledge Areas

Add, modify and remove users and groups.

useradd, userdel, groupadd, groupdel, also just edit passwd and group

Manage user/group info in password/group databases.

Create and manage special purpose and limited accounts.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/skel
chage
groupadd
groupdel
groupmod
passwd
useradd
userdel
usermod

Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to use cron or anacron to run jobs at regular intervals and to use at to run jobs at a specific time.

Key Knowledge Areas

Manage cron and at jobs.
Configure user access to cron and at services.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/cron
/etc/at.deny
/etc/at.allow
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.allow
/etc/cron.deny
/var/spool/cron/*
crontab
at
atq
atrm

Localisation and internationalisation

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to localize a system in a different language than English. As well, an understanding of why LANG=C is useful when scripting.

Key Knowledge Areas

Locale settings.
Timezone settings.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/timezone
/etc/localtime
/usr/share/zoneinfo
Environment variables
/usr/bin/locale
tzselect
tzconfig
date
iconv
UTF-8
ISO-8859
ASCII
Unicode

Essential System Services

Maintain system time

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to properly maintain the system time and synchronize the clock via NTP.

Key Knowledge Areas

Set the system date and time.
Set the hardware clock to the correct time in UTC.
Configure the correct timezone.
Basic NTP configuration.
Knowledge of using the pool.ntp.org service

Terms and Utilities

/usr/share/zoneinfo
/etc/timezone
/etc/localtime
/etc/ntp.conf
date
hwclock
ntpd
ntpdate
pool.ntp.org

System logging

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to configure the syslog daemon. This objective also includes configuring the logging daemon to send log output to a central log server or accept log output as a central log server.

Key Knowledge Areas

syslog configuration files
syslog
standard facilities, priorities and actions

Terms and Utilities

syslog.conf
syslogd
klogd
logger

Mail Tranfer Agent (MTA) basics

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be aware of the commonly available MTA programs and be able to perform basic forward and alias configuration on a client host. Other configuration files are not covered.

Key Knowledge Areas

Create e-mail aliases.
Configure e-mail forwarding.
Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (no configuration)

Terms and Utilities

~/.forward
sendmail emulation layer commands
newaliases
mail
mailq
postfix
sendmail
exim
qmail

Manage printers and printing

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to manage print queues and user print jobs using CUPS and the LPD compatibility interface.

Key Knowledge Areas

Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers).
Manage user print queues.
Troubleshoot general printing problems.
Add and remove jobs from configured printer queues.

Terms and Utilities

CUPS config files, tools and utils
/etc/cups
lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq)

Networking Fundamentals

Fundamentals of internet protocols

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should demonstrate a proper understanding of TCP/IP network fundamentals.

Key Knowledge Areas

Demonstrate an understanding network masks.
Knowledge of the differences between private and public "dotted quad" IP-Addresses.
Setting a default route.
Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119, 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 993, 995).
Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP.
Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPV6.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/services
ftp
telnet
host
ping
dig
traceroute
tracepath

Basic network configuration

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to view, change and verify configuration settings on client hosts.

Key Knowledge Areas

Manually and automatically configure network interfaces
Basic TCP/IP host configuration.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/hostname
/etc/hosts
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf
ifconfig
ifup
ifdown
route
ping

Basic network troubleshooting

Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to troubleshoot networking issues on client hosts.

Key Knowledge Areas

Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables to include adding, starting, stopping, restarting, deleting or reconfiguring network interfaces.
Change, view, or configure the routing table and correct an improperly set default route manually.
Debug problems associated with the network configuration.

Terms and Utilities

ifconfig
ifup
ifdown
route
host
hostname
dig
netstat
ping
traceroute

Configure client side DNS

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to configure DNS on a client host.

Key Knowledge Areas

Demonstrate the use of DNS on the local system.
Modify the order in which name resolution is done.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/hosts
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf

Security

Perform security administration tasks

Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should know how to review system configuration to ensure host security in accordance with local security policies.

Key Knowledge Areas

Audit a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit set.
Set or change user passwords and password aging information.
Being able to use nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a system.
Set up limits on user logins, processes and memory usage.
Basic sudo configuration and usage.

Terms and Utilities

find
passwd
lsof
nmap
chage
netstat
sudo
/etc/sudoers
su
usermod
ulimit

Setup host security

Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should know how to set up a basic level of host security.

Key Knowledge Areas

Awareness of shadow passwords and how they work.
Turn off network services not in use.
Understand the role of TCP wrappers.

Terms and Utilities

/etc/nologin
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/xinetd.d/*
/etc/xinetd.conf
/etc/inetd.d/*
/etc/inetd.conf
/etc/inittab
/etc/init.d/*
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny

Securing data with encryption

Weight: 3
Description: The candidate should be able to use puplic key techniques to secure data and communication.

Key Knowledge Areas

Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usage.
Understand the role of OpenSSH
Perform basic GnuPG configuration and usage.
Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels).

Terms and Utilities

ssh
ssh-keygen
ssh-agent
ssh-add
~/.ssh/id_rsa
id_rsa.pub
~/.ssh/id_dsa
id_dsa.pub
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
~/.ssh/authorized_keys
/etc/ssh_known_hosts
gpg
~/.gnupg/*