ITI-481: Unix Administration Rutgers University Internet Institute

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ITI-481 Unix AdministrationRutgers University
Internet Institute

• Instructor Chris Uriarte
• ltchrisjur_at_cju.comgt

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Meeting Times and Locations

• Per Syllabus

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Prerequisites

• Either ITI-480 Unix Fundamentals or equivalent
  user-level knowledge of Unix.
• You MUST know how to use a UNIX text editor (i.e.
  pico, vi, emacs)

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Course Overview and Goals

• The purpose of this course is to teach you how to
  install a UNIX operating system and perform
  system administration activities in a hands-on
  environment.
• The course objective will be achieved through a
  combination of lecture, demonstrations, and
  hands-on exercises.

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Major Topics

• Installing UNIX and Linux
• X-Window Configuration
• Installing Software
• Account Management
• Booting and Shutting Down
• Network Configuration
• Core System Services
• System Monitoring and Logging
• File System Administration
• Configuring Specific Services NIS, SSH,
  Sendmail,Telnet, FTP, Printing
• Securing your Server

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Course Resources

• Textbook To be announced
• Instructor Website at http//www.cju.com/classes/
  (see link to ITI 481 at bottom of page)
• Workstation where each of you will install a copy
  of Linux.
• User account on Linux server iti.rutgers.edu.

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Todays Agenda

• Introduction to UNIX, UNIX distributions and some
  background concepts.
• Installing Linux on your own workstation.

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What is UNIX

• UNIX is an operating system that originated at
  Bell Labs (NJ) in 1969.
• UNIX is actually a trademark, but often used as a
  generic term to describe UNIX-like operating
  systems.
• There are numerous different flavors of UNIX
  all of which utilize similar UNIX operating
  system concepts, but may have different features
  or run on different hardware.

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The UNIX Umbrella
Hardware Vendors
Linux Distributions
Sun Solaris, HP HP-UX, Compaq True 64 UNIX, IBM
AIX, IRIX, MAC OSX
RedHat, Mandrake, SuSe, Debian, Caldera,
Yellowdog
FreeBSD, BSDI, NetBSD OpenBSD
SCO UNIX (now Caldera/Tarantula)
Other
BSD Flavors
Commercial distribution (i.e you must pay for
it)
Derivative of RedHat
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Popularity vs. Maturity
Popular
Sun Solaris
RedHat Linux / Linux Mandrake
RedHat Linux
FreeBSD / NetBSD / OpenBSD, etc.
Debian Linux
HP-UX
Caldera Linux
SuSe
AIX
Irix
Compaq True 64 UNIX
SCO UNIX
Darwin (Mac OSX)
Mature
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What makes UNIX Unique?

• UNIX is a multi-user, time-sharing operating
  system every user gets a piece of the CPU.
• UNIX flavors generally adhere to some types of
  standards (I.e. POSIX)
• UNIX standards allow for portability of software
  across multiple UNIX distributions.

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What is Linux?

• A Unix-like operating system initially developed
  in the early 1990s by Linus Torvold.
• Initially developed to run on PC hardware but has
  been ported to other architectures as well.
• Distributed under a GNU General Public License
  free software.
• Kernel is its distinguishing feature.
• Generally packaged in various distributions.

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Linux Distributions

• Vary according to included software packages,
  package management systems, installation
  process, and Window Managers.
• Distributions
• Red Hat Linux
• Caldera OpenLInux
• Linux Mandrake
• Corel Linux
• SuSE Linux
• TurboLinux
• Debian GNU/Linux
• Slackware

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Why Linux?

• Linux has matured greatly over the past 5 years
  and has positioned itself as the most flexible
  UNIX distribution today.
• It can be run on very low-end, generally
  available hardware.
• Lots of software available.
• Flexible the same Linux distribution used by a
  hobbyist on low end hardware can be used by an
  enterprise on high-end hardware.
• Its the first UNIX flavor to hit retail store
  shelves and is easily obtainable across the
  world.
• Administration skill sets transfer easily to and
  from other UNIX flavors.
• Its free!

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Planning for Your Linux System

• Is your hardware supported?
• Will it be a workstation or a server?
• Are there special services that you want to run
  (web server, email server, DNS server, etc.)
• Will you need to store user and/or application
  data?

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Checking Hardware Compatibility

• Its very important that you make sure you
  hardware is fully supported by your UNIX
  distribution.
• Hardware Compatibility Lists (HCLs) contain the
  hardware supported by your OS vendor. They can
  be obtained at the vendors website.
• Therefore, its good to know some specifics about
  the hardware youre using amount of system RAM,
  brand of video card, brand of NIC brand of sound
  card, etc.

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Hardware Compatibility, cont.

• Some particularly good things to know about your
  hardware
• Video card brand and chipset
• Hard drive total amount of hard drive space
• Sound card brand and model of sound card
• Network Card brand and model of NIC
• Some vendors have searchable hardware
  compatibility database
• RedHat http//www.redhat.com/support/hardware/

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Disk Partitioning

• Disk Partitioning is the concept of dividing your
  hard disk into logical partiations, making one
  hard drive appear as if its actually multiple
  drives.
• Theres several reasons why we partition disks
• Performance
• Ease of storage management
• Security

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UNIX Disk Partitioning

• In UNIX, a physical disk partition is associated
  with a directory path, sometimes referred to as a
  mount point.
• All files that are in directories associated with
  a mount point are stored on the mount points
  physical partition.
• If a directory path is not explicitly associated
  with a physical disk partition, its files are
  stored under the root ( / ) partition.

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UNIX Partition Example
Contains all files under the /usr directory (I.e.
/usr/local/bin/pico, /usr/bin/vi, etc.)
HARD DRIVE
Example Partitioning Scheme Total Hard Drive
Space 8GB
/usr 2GB
/home 4GB
/ (root) 1.5GB
Contains all files under the /home directors
(I.e. /home/chrisjur, /home/iti1234)
Contains all other files and directors, such as
/var, /opt, /sbin, etc.
swap
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Partition Naming

• In UNIX, the system gives each partition a
  special device name.
• In Linux, standard IDE hard drives are named
  /dev/hdx, where x is a unique letter given to
  identify the hard drive, starting with the letter
  a (e.g. /dev/hda)
• For example, the first hard drive on the system
  is called /dev/hda.
• Partitions are given a name with the format
  /dev/hdx , where /dev/hdx is the hard drive the
  partition is on, and is a uniquely assigned
  partition number, starting with 1 (e.g.
  /dev/hda1).
• For example, the first partition on the first
  hard drive on the system is called /dev/hda1.

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Figuring out Your Partitions

• You will have to partition your disk during a
  typical UNIX installation.
• Common partitions include
• / (called root), /usr, /home, /var
• Typical uses for specific UNIX partitions
• /usr software packages
• /home user home directories
• /var log files and configuration files
• /opt software package and application installed
  (esp. on Solaris)

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What do you need to Install UNIX?

• At minimum, you need a CD media containing the
  UNIX distribution.
• You may be able to set your computer to boot
  directly from the CD-ROM, which will start the
  install program.
• If your computer cannot boot directly from the
  CD-ROM, you must create a boot floppy disk, which
  will boot the computer and load the installation
  program from CD-ROM.

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Exercise Installing Linux On Your Workstations

• Refer to the distributed instructions.

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Note Linux and Other Operating Systems on a
Single PC

• Yes, Linux can run on a PC that is running one or
  more other operating systems. However, there are
  a number of caveats
• Linux needs to be installed after Microsoft
  operating systems.
• You need to have unused partitions on your
  existing PC hard drive to install Linux.
• Linux needs to be installed on one or more of its
  own partitions. The kernel needs to be on a
  primary partition.
• Multi-booting is not recommended for servers.
• Recommendation If you really want to dual-boot
  Linux with another operating system, use a
  commercial software package like PartitionMagic
  and BootMagic (by PowerQuest)

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Homework

• Homework this week
• As noted in class
• Next week
• Introduction to the X-Windows system
• Software installation
• Booting and Shutdown
• Emergency boot procedures