This series of articles helps you learn Linux system administration tasks. The topics mirror those of the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) level 1 (LPIC-1) exams. You can use the articles to prepare for certification, or just to learn about Linux.
There are two exams for LPIC-1 certification: exam 101 and exam 102. You must pass both exam 101 and exam 102 for LPIC-1 certification. Each exam has several topics, and each topic has several objectives. This series of articles covers one objective per article.
The material in these articles corresponds to the April 2009 objectives for exam 101 and exam 102 You should always refer to the objectives for the definitive requirements.
This roadmap is in progress; as we complete articles, we add them to the roadmap. In the meantime, though, you can find earlier versions of similar material, supporting previous LPIC-1 objectives prior to April 2009, in our LPI certification exam-prep tutorials (login required).
Note: New material will be added over the coming months as it becomes available. Build your own feed as explained in the sidebar, or check back here for updates.
Exam 101 - Topic 101: System architecture
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 101.1 Determine and configure hardware settings (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Determine and configure fundamental system hardware. This task covers integrated and external peripherals, coldplug and hotplug devices, and different kinds of mass storage devices. Tools related to devices, including USB devices, setting IDs, especially for booting, and low-level facilities such as sysfs, udev, hald, and dbus, are also covered. |
| 101.2 Boot the system (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Guide the system through the booting process. Tasks include giving common boot loader commands and kernel options at boot time, knowing the boot sequence from BIOS to boot completion, and checking boot events in the log files. |
| 101.3 Change runlevels and shut down or reboot system (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Manage the runlevel of the system. Tasks include changing to single user mode, shutting down or rebooting the system, setting the default runlevel, switching between runlevels, alerting users, and properly terminating process. |
Exam 101 - Topic 102: Linux installation and package management
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 102.1 Design hard disk layout (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system. Tasks include allocating filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks, tailoring the design to the intended use of the system, and ensuring that the boot partition is acceptable for the hardware architecture. |
| 102.2 Install a boot manager (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Select, install, and configure a boot manager. Tasks include providing alternative boot locations and backup boot options, installing and configuring a boot loader such as GRUB, and interacting with the boot loader. |
| 102.3 Manage shared libraries (coming soon) | Weight 1 | Determine the shared libraries that executable programs depend on, and install them when necessary. Tasks include identifying shared libraries, knowing the typical locations of system libraries, and loading shared libraries. |
| 102.4 Use Debian package management (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Perform package management using the Debian package tools. Tasks include installing, upgrading, and removing Debian binary packages, finding packages containing specific files or libraries, and obtaining package information like version, content, dependencies, package integrity, and installation status. |
| 102.5 Use RPM and YUM package management (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Perform package management using RPM and YUM tools. Tasks include installing, re-installing, upgrading, and removing packages using RPM and YUM; obtaining information on RPM packages such as version, status, dependencies, integrity and signatures; and determining what files a package provides, as well as finding which package a specific file comes from. |
Exam 101 - Topic 103: GNU and UNIX commands
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 103.1 Work on the command line | Weight 4 | Interact with shells and commands using the command line. This
task includes typing valid commands and command sequences;
defining, referencing and exporting environment variables; using
command history and editing facilities; invoking commands in the
path and outside the path; and using man pages to find out about
commands.
Learn these tasks in this developerWorks article: Learn Linux, 101: The Linux command line |
| 103.2 Process text streams using filters | Weight 3 | Apply filters to text streams. This task includes sending
text files and output streams through text utility filters to
modify the output, using standard UNIX commands found in the GNU
textutils package.
Learn these tasks in this developerWorks article: Learn Linux, 101: Text streams and filters |
| 103.3 Perform basic file and directory management | Weight 4 | Use the basic UNIX commands to copy, move, and remove files and
directories. Tasks include advanced file management operations
such as copying multiple files recursively, removing directories
recursively, using wildcard patterns, finding files and acting on
them based on type size or time, and using tar, cpio, and dd
commands. Learn these tasks in this developerWorks article: Learn Linux, 101: File and directory management |
| 103.4 Use streams, pipes, and redirects (coming soon) | Weight 4 | 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. |
| 103.5 Create, monitor, and kill processes (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Manage processes. This task includes knowing how to run jobs in the foreground and background, bringing a job from the background to the foreground and vice versa, starting a process that will run without being connected to a terminal, and signaling a program to continue running after logout. Tasks also include monitoring active processes, selecting and sorting processes for display, sending signals to processes, and killing processes. |
| 103.6 Modify process execution priorities (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Manage process execution priorities. Tasks include determining the default priority of jobs, running a program with higher or lower priority, determining the priority of a process, and changing the priority of a running process. |
| 103.7 Search text files using regular expressions (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Manipulate files and text data using regular expressions. Tasks include creating simple regular expressions containing several notational elements, and using regular expression tools to perform searches through a filesystem or file content. |
| 103.8 Perform basic file editing operations using vi (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Edit text files using vi. Tasks include vi navigation, understanding basic vi nodes, and inserting, editing, deleting, copying, and finding text. |
Exam 101 - Topic 104: Devices, Linux filesystems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 104.1 Create partitions and filesystems (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Configure disk partitions and create filesystems or swap space on media such as hard disks, and design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system. Tasks include understanding the different types of common Linux filesystems, and allocating filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks. |
| 104.2 Maintain the integrity of filesystems (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Maintain a standard filesystem or journaling filesystem. Tasks include verifying the integrity of filesystems, monitoring free space and inodes, and repairing simple filesystem problems. |
| 104.3 Control mounting and unmounting of filesystems (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Configure the mounting of a filesystem. Tasks include manually mounting and unmounting filesystems, configuring filesystem mounting on bootup, and configuring user-mountable removable filesystems. |
| 104.4 Manage disk quotas (coming soon) | Weight 1 | Manage disk quotas for users. Tasks include setting up a disk quota for a filesystem, as well as editing, checking, and generating user quota reports. |
| 104.5 Manage file permissions and ownership (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Control file access through the proper use of permissions and ownerships. Tasks include managing access permissions on regular and special files as well as directories; using access modes such as suid, sgid, and the sticky bit to maintain security; learning how to change the file creation mask; and using the group field to grant file access to group members. |
| 104.6 Create and change hard and symbolic links (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Create and manage hard and symbolic links to a file. Tasks include creating links, identifying hard and or soft links, understanding the difference between copying and linking files, and using links to support system administration tasks. |
| 104.7 Find system files and place files in the correct location (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Understand the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), including typical file locations and directory classifications. Tasks include understanding the correct locations of files under the FHS, finding files and commands on a Linux system, and learning the location and purpose of important file and directories as defined in the FHS. |
Exam 102 - Topic 105: Shells, scripting, and data management
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 105.1 Shells, scripting, and data management (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Customize and use the shell environment. Tasks include customizing shell environments to meet user needs; modifying global and user profiles; setting environment variables, such as PATH, at login or when spawning a new shell; writing Bash functions for frequently used sequences of commands; maintaining skeleton directories for new user accounts; and setting command search paths with the proper directories. |
| 105.2 Customize or write simple scripts (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Customize existing Bash scripts, or write simple new ones. Tasks include using standard shell loop and test syntax; using command substitution; testing return values for success or failure; conditionally mailing the superuser, selecting the correct script interpreter through the shebang (#!) line; and managing the location, ownership, execution, and suid-rights of scripts. |
| 105.3 SQL data management (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Query databases and manipulate data using basic SQL commands, including joins or subselects. Tasks include using basic SQL commands and performing basic data manipulation. |
Exam 102 - Topic 106: User interfaces and desktops
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 106.1 Install and configure X11 (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Install and configure X11. Tasks include verifying that your video card and monitor are supported by an X server, understanding the X font server, and understanding the X Window configuration file. |
| 106.2 Set up a display manager (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Configure the mounting of a filesystem. Tasks include setting up the XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager), and KDM (KDE Display Manager); customizing the greeting and color depth; and configuring display managers for use by X-stations. |
| 106.3 Accessibility (coming soon) | Weight 1 | Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of accessibility technologies. Tasks include understanding keyboard accessibility settings (AccessX?), visual settings and themes, and assistive technology (ATs). |
Exam 102 - Topic 107: Administrative tasks
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 107.1 Manage user and group accounts and related system files (coming soon) | Weight 5 | Add, remove, suspend, and change user accounts. Tasks include adding, modifying, and removing users and groups; managing user and group info in password and group databases; and creating and managing special-purpose and limited accounts. |
| 107.2 Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Maintain a standard filesystem or journaling filesystem. Tasks
include using the
cron or anacron facilities
to run jobs at regular intervals and the
at command to run jobs at a specific time. |
| 107.3 Localization and internationalization (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Localize a system in a language other than English and understand
why LANG=C is useful when scripting.
Tasks include understanding
locale and timezone settings. |
Exam 102 - Topic 108: Essential system services
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 108.1 Maintain system time (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Maintain the system time and synchronize the clock via NTP. Tasks setting the system date and time, setting the hardware clock to the correct time in UTC, configuring the timezone, configuring NTP, and understanding the pool.ntp.org service. |
| 108.2 System logging (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Configure the syslog daemon, as well as the logging daemon to send log output to a central log server or accept log output as a central log server. Tasks include understanding syslog configuration files, the syslog facility, as well as standard facilities, priorities, and actions. |
| 108.3 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) basics (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Become familiar with commonly available MTA programs and perform basic forward and alias configuration on a client host. Tasks include creating e-mail aliases, configuring e-mail forwarding, and learning about commonly available MTA programs such as postfix, sendmail, qmail, and exim. |
| 108.4 Manage printers and printing (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Manage print queues and user print jobs using CUPS and the LPD compatibility interface. Tasks include configuring CUPS for local and remote printers, managing user print queues, troubleshooting general printing problems, and adding and removing jobs from configured printer queues. |
Exam 102 - Topic 109: Networking fundamentals
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 109.1 Fundamentals of internet protocols (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Understand TCP/IP network fundamentals. Tasks include learning about network masks; knowing the differences between private and public dotted decimal IP addresses; setting a default route; understanding common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119, 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 993, and 995); understanding the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP; and knowing the major differences between IPv4 and IPV6. |
| 109.2 Basic network configuration (coming soon) | Weight 4 | View, change, and verify configuration settings on client hosts. Tasks include manually and automatically configuring network interfaces, and configuring TCP/IP hosts. |
| 109.3 Basic network troubleshooting (coming soon) | Weight 4 | Troubleshoot networking issues on client hosts. Tasks include manually and automatically configuring network interfaces and routing tables to add, start, stop, restart, delete, or reconfigure network interfaces; changing, viewing, or configuring the routing table; correcting an improperly set default route manually; and debugging problems associated with the network configuration. |
| 109.4 Configure client side DNS (coming soon) | Weight 2 | Configure DNS on a client host. Tasks include using DNS on the local system, and modifying the order in which name resolution is done. |
Exam 102 - Topic 110: Security
| LPI exam objective | Objective weight | Objective summary |
|---|---|---|
| 110.1 Perform security administration tasks (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Review system configuration to ensure host security in accordance with local security policies. Tasks include auditing a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit set; setting or changing user passwords and password aging information; using nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a system; setting limits on user logins, processes, and memory usage; and basic sudo configuration and usage. |
| 110.2 Setup host security (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Set up a basic level of host security. Tasks include learning about shadow passwords and how they work, stopping network services not in use, and learning about TCP wrappers. |
| 110.3 Securing data with encryption (coming soon) | Weight 3 | Use public key techniques to secure data and communication. Tasks include configuring and using OpenSSH 2 clients, learning the role of OpenSSH 2 server host keys, configuring and using GnuPG, and learning about SSH port tunnels, including X11 tunnels. |
Learn
- At the
LPIC
Program site, find detailed objectives, task
lists, and sample questions for the three levels of
the Linux Professional Institute's Linux system administration
certification. In particular, see their April 2009 objectives for
LPI
exam
101
and
LPI
exam
102.
Always refer to the LPIC Program site for the latest objectives.
- Review the entire
LPI exam prep series
on developerWorks to learn Linux fundamentals and prepare for system
administrator certification based on earlier LPI exam objectives prior to April
2009.
-
Exam
Preparation Resources for Revised LPIC Exams
is a list of other certification training resources maintained by LPI.
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Ian Shields works on a multitude of Linux projects for the developerWorks Linux zone. He is a Senior Programmer at IBM at the Research Triangle Park, NC. He joined IBM in Canberra, Australia, as a Systems Engineer in 1973, and has since worked on communications systems and pervasive computing in Montreal, Canada, and RTP, NC. He has several patents. His undergraduate degree is in pure mathematics and philosophy from the Australian National University. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from North Carolina State University.
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