Introduce yourself to Linux and advance your proficiency through a spectrum of self-paced articles and tutorials. Use them to build fundamental skills on Linux system administration at your level of expertise:

• Foundational concepts (the 101- and 102-series articles, which correspond to LPIC-1 certification)
• Intermediate to advanced topics (the 201- and 202-series tutorials, which correspond to LPIC-2 certification)
• Expert topics (the 301-series tutorials, which correspond to LPIC-3 certification)

See all LPI-oriented articles and tutorials on developerWorks.

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) certifies Linux® system administrators at three levels:

• Certification level 1 (Junior level, or LPIC-1)
• Certification level 2 (Advanced level, or LPIC-2)
• Certification level 3 (Senior level, or LPIC-3)

To attain certification level 1, you must pass LPIC-1 exams 101 and 102.
To attain certification level 2, you must pass LPIC-2 exams 201 and 202.
To attain certification level 3, you must pass LPIC-3 exam 301 ("core") and have an active certification level 2. You may also need to pass additional specialty exams at the senior level.

Before you take the exams, review the LPI-oriented articles and tutorials on developerWorks, designed as study guides for each exam topic.

We're happy to hear our self-study material is helpful, whether your aim is attaining certification or simply polishing your job skills. Here's what our readers are saying about the LPIC-1 series:

"This series by Ian Shields has become one of the major focal points of my exam preparation. Thanks for the opportunity."

"I support Domino on Linux and this is very useful information to me. I am self-taught with Linux, so learning through a self-study resource like this is completely natural."

"Overall, excellent information presented. A great deal of valuable information that was very useful to me that was not presented in the tldp.org HOWTOs - e.g. more emphasis on the theory and reasons for doing it a certain way. Thank you."

"Good, concise intro to basic linux sysadmin skills."

"Thanks a bunch for writing this stuff. It'll help me get certified, for sure."

"I like how this guy does tutorials. They aren't dry and thus I am able to concentrate on them."

"I can't believe this material can be delivered any easier.... I found it easy to understand and it gives good examples. A+"

The LPIC-1 articles and tutorials (for exams 101 and 102) are authored by Ian Shields. The LPIC-2 tutorials (for exams 201 and 202) are authored by David Mertz and Brad Huntting, individually or together. The LPIC-3 tutorials (for exam 301) are authored by Sean Walberg.

• Ian Shields, Ph.D. 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 and has published several papers. 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. Browse his published papers and other interests at his personal Web page. You can contact Ian at ishields@us.ibm.com and through his profile on developerWorks.
  
  
• David Mertz, Ph.D. is Turing complete, but probably would not pass the Turing Test. For details on his life, see his personal Web page. He's been writing the developerWorks columns Charming Python and XML Matters since 2000. Check out his book Text Processing in Python. You can contact David at mertz@gnosis.cx.
  
  
• Brad Huntting has been doing UNIX systems administration and network engineering for about 14 years at several companies. He is currently working on a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and pays the bills by doing UNIX support for the Computer Science department. You can contact Brad at huntting@glarp.com.
  
  
• Sean Walberg has been working with Linux and UNIX since 1994 in academic, corporate, and Internet service provider environments. He has written extensively about systems administration over the past several years. You can contact Sean at sean@ertw.com.

The LPI certification program is designed to certify the competency of system administration using the Linux operating system and its associated tools. It is designed to be distribution neutral, following the Linux Standard Base and other relevant standards and conventions. The Linux Professional Institute does not endorse any third-party exam preparation material or techniques in particular. For details, please contact info@lpi.org.

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