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Linux Professional Institute (LPI) exam prep

Self-study articles and tutorials to help you learn Linux fundamentals and prepare for system administrator certification

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Introduce yourself to Linux, and advance your proficiency, through a spectrum of self-paced tutorials. With these tutorials, you can build fundamental skills on Linux systems administration at your level of expertise.

Exam 201 tutorials

Exam 201 is the first of two LPI intermediate-level system administrator certification exams offered by the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). The eight tutorials below help you prepare for the eight topics in LPI exam 201. Both exam 201 and exam 202 are required for intermediate-level certification, or LPIC-2.

LPI exam 201 prep: Linux kernel
Topic 201. Learn to understand, compile, and customize a Linux kernel. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to configure and customize the kernel to fit your exact requirements.
LPI exam 201 prep: System startup
Topic 202. Learn the steps a Linux system goes through during system initialization. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to customize system startup behaviors for your needs.
LPI exam 201 prep: Filesystem
Topic 203. Learn how to work with filesystems. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to control the mounting and un-mounting of filesystems, examine existing filesystems, create filesystems, and repair damaged filesystems.
LPI exam 201 prep: Hardware
Topic 204. Learn how to add hardware to your Linux system. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to configure hardware, including RAID arrays, PCMCIA cards, other storage devices, displays, video controllers, and other components.
LPI exam 201 prep: File and service sharing
Topic 209. Learn how to configure a Samba server and an NFS server. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to use a Linux system as a networked file server using any of several protocols supported by Linux.
LPI exam 201 prep: System maintenance
Topic 211. Learn the basic concepts of system logging, software packaging, and backup strategies. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to configure syslogd to act as a central network log server, build a package, and create an offsite backup storage plan.
LPI exam 201 prep: System customization and automation
Topic 213. Learn some basic approaches to automating tasks using scripts. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to write scripts to automate system events, such as report and status generation, cleanup, and general maintenance.
LPI exam 201 prep: Troubleshooting
Topic 214. Learn what you can do when things go wrong. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to create a recovery disk, diagnose kernel errors, and repair your local system and user environment configuration.

See all LPI exam-prep tutorials on developerWorks.

Exam 202 tutorials

Exam 202 is the second of two LPI intermediate-level system administrator certification exams offered by the Linux Professional Institute (LPI). The seven tutorials below help you prepare for the seven topics in LPI exam 202. Both exam 201 and exam 202 are required for intermediate-level certification, or LPIC-2.

All LPI exam-prep tutorials
LPI exam 202 prep: Networking configuration
Topic 205. Learn how to configure a basic TCP/IP network, from the hardware layer (usually Ethernet, modem, ISDN, or 802.11) through the routing of network addresses. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to set up, customize, and troubleshoot a basic TCP/IP network configuration on Linux.
LPI exam 202 prep: Mail and news
Topic 206. Learn about mail transport, local mail filtering, mailing list maintenance software, and server software for the NNTP protocol. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to use Linux as a mail server and as a news server.
LPI exam 202 prep: Domain Name System (DNS)
Topic 207. Learn how to use Linux as a DNS server, chiefly using BIND. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to perform a basic BIND configuration, manage DNS zones, and secure a DNS server.
LPI exam 202 prep: Web services
Topic 208. Learn how to configure and manage the Apache HTTP server and Squid proxy server. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to install, configure, and maintain a Web server, and install and configure a proxy server.
LPI exam 202 prep: Network client management
Topic 210. Learn how to install and configure clients and servers. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to install and configure DHCP, NIS, LDAP, and PAM on Linux.
LPI exam 202 prep: System security
Topic 212. Learn about a wide array of Linux-related topics from a security-conscious network server perspective, including general issues of routing, firewalls, and NAT translation and the relevant tools. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to approach Linux security issues.
LPI exam 202 prep: Network troubleshooting
Topic 214. Review the basic configuration and diagnostic tools—including ifconfig, route, netstat, traceroute, and more—to detect and solve common networking problems. By the end of this tutorial, you will know how to use the basic tools covered in the other previous tutorials in the 202 series.