Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed

This comprehensive guide can help you administer Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 effectively in any production environment, no matter how complex or challenging.

Long-time Red Hat insider Tammy Fox brings together today’s best practices for the entire system lifecycle, from planning and deployment through maintenance and troubleshooting. Fox shows how to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness by automating day-to-day maintenance through scripting, deploying security updates via Red Hat Network, implementing central identity management services, and providing shared data with NFS and Samba.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed contains extensive coverage of network and web services, from the Apache HTTP server and Sendmail email services to remote login with OpenSSH. Fox also describes Red Hat’s most valuable tools for monitoring and optimization and presents thorough coverage of security–including a detailed introduction to Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux).

• Streamline deployment with Kickstart
• Find, install, update, remove, and verify software
• Detect, analyze, and manage hardware
• Manage storage with LVM, RAID, ACLs, and quotas
• Use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on 64-bit and multi-core systems
• Administer users and groups more efficiently and securely
• Ensure trustworthy backup and rapid recovery
• Script and schedule tasks to run automatically
• Provide unified identity management services
• Configure Apache, BIND, Samba, and Sendmail
• Monitor and tune the kernel and individual applications
• Protect against intruders with SELinux and ExecShield
• Set up firewalls with iptables
• Enable the Linux Auditing System
• Use virtualization to run multiple operating systems concurrently

Tammy Fox has been using Linux for programming, writing, system administration, and all day-to-day computer tasks for more than 10 years. From 2000 until 2005, she worked for Red Hat as a technical writer, team lead, programmer, build script maintainer, magazine editor, and marketing project manager. During her time in documentation, she created a new manual, the Red Hat Linux Customization Guide, which eventually became the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide. She also wrote and contributed to the Red Hat configuration tools, including writing Red Hat Logviewer. Before joining Red Hat, Tammy co-wrote and taught Linux integration and performance classes for a leading computer manufacturer. She has also been a computer consultant for leading computer communication companies.

Tammy has founded three efforts to continue the education of Linux users. She is the founding editor of Red Hat Magazine, which continues to be an online publication. She is also the founding leader of the Fedora Docs Project, acting as the organizer, a writer, and an editor. And she continues to provide free online content for new Linux users with her website www.linuxheadquarters.com, which was established with her husband in 2000.

Part I     Installation and Configuration

Chapter 1 Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Choosing an Installation Method

Creating the Installation Source

Starting the Installation

Performing the Installation

Installing with Kickstart

Installing with PXE

Performing an Upgrade

Red Hat Network Provisioning

Summary

Chapter 2 Post-Installation Configuration

Red Hat Setup Agent

Logging In for the First Time

Network Configuration

Printer Configuration

Adding Boot Parameters

Summary

Chapter 3 Operating System Updates

Navigating Through the RHN Website

Assigning Users for the RHN Website

Subscribing to RHN Channels

Performing Actions on Individual Systems from the RHN Website

Using System Groups on the RHN Website

Retrieving Software from RHN with YUM

Summary

Part II Operating System Core Concepts

Chapter 4 Understanding Linux Concepts

Learning the Desktop

Filesystem Hierarchy System

Shell Basics

Becoming the Root User

Manual Pages

Editing Text Files

File Permissions

Initialization Scripts

Runlevels

Summary

Chapter 5 Working with RPM Software

Understanding How RPM Works

Finding the Software

Installing Software

Updating Software

Removing Software

Verifying Software Files

Querying Package Files

Building RPM Packages

Summary

Chapter 6 Analyzing Hardware

Listing Devices

Detecting Hardware

Gathering Information from the BIOS

Listing and Configuring Kernel Modules

HAL

Summary

Chapter 7 Managing Storage

Understanding Partitioning

Understanding LVM

Understanding RAID

Understanding Clustering and GFS

Using Access Control Lists

Using Disk Quotas

Summary

Chapter 8 64-Bit, Multi-Core, and Hyper-Threading Technology Processors

64-Bit Processors

Multi-Core Processors

Processors with Hyper-Threading Technology

Summary

Part III System Administration

Chapter 9 Managing Users and Groups

What Are Users and Groups?

Managing Users

Managing Groups

How It All Works

Best Practices

Summary

Chapter 10 Techniques for Backup and Recovery

Writing a Backup Plan

Using Amanda for Backups

Other Linux Backup Utilities

Recovery and Repair

Summary

Chapter 11 Automating Tasks with Scripts

Writing Scripts with Bash

Additional Scripting Languages

Scheduling Tasks with Cron

Summary

Part IV Network Services

12 Identity Management

Understanding PAM

Enabling NIS

Enabling LDAP

Enabling Kerberos

Enabling SMB or Winbind Authentication

Enabling with the Authentication Tool

Summary

Chapter 13 Network File Sharing

Network File System

Samba File Sharing

Summary

Chapter 14 Granting Network Connectivity with DHCP

Allowing Connections

Configuring the Server

Logging Connections

Summary

Chapter 15 Creating a Web Server with the Apache HTTP Server

Apache HTTP Server and SELinux

Allowing Connections

Configuring the Server

Logging Connections

Starting and Stopping the Server

Summary

Chapter 16 Hostname Resolution with BIND

Understanding DNS Concepts

Allowing Connections

Configuring BIND

Configuring BIND Graphically

Logging Connections

Summary

Chapter 17 Securing Remote Logins with OpenSSH

Allowing Connections

Configuring the Server

Connecting from the Client

Logging Connections

Summary

Chapter 18 Setting Up an Email Server with Sendmail

Understanding Email Concepts

Configuring Sendmail

Using POP and IMAP

Logging Sendmail Connections

Allowing Email Connections

Summary

Chapter 19 Explaining Other Common Network Services

The xinetd Super Server

Keeping Accurate Time with NTP

Creating a Network Printer with CUPS

Summary

Part V Monitoring and Tuning

Chapter 20 Monitoring System Resources

Reporting Filesystem Usage

Reporting Disk Performance

Reporting System Processes

Reporting on the System Processors

Reporting Memory Usage

Reporting on the Network Subsystem

Generating a System Report

Locating Log Files

Viewing Log Files with Logwatch

Summary

Chapter 21 Monitoring and Tuning the Kernel

Using the /proc Directory .

Optimizing Virtual Memory

Managing Memory with NUMA

Using AltSysRq to Execute System Requests

Saving Kernel Dumps for Analysis

Setting SMP IRQ Affinity

Enabling NMI Watchdog for Locked Systems

Summary

Chapter 22 Monitoring and Tuning Applications

OProfile

Valgrind

Additional Programs to Consider

Summary

Chapter 23 Protecting Against Intruders with Security-Enhanced Linux

Selecting an SELinux Mode

Selecting and Customizing the SELinux Policy

Utilizing the SELinux Troubleshooting Tool

Working with Security Contexts

Summary

Chapter 24 Configuring a Firewall

Selecting a Table and Command for IPTables

Selecting IPTables Options

Using IPTables Match Extensions

Using IPTables Target Extensions

Starting and Stopping the IPTables Service

Saving the IPTables Rules

IPTables Examples

Enabling the Default Firewall

Summary

Chapter 25 Linux Auditing System

Configuring the Audit Daemon

Writing Audit Rules and Watches

Starting and Stopping the Daemon

Analyzing the Records

Tracing a Process with Audit

Summary

Appendixes

Appendix A Installing Proprietary Kernel Modules

Installing Proprietary Modules

Installing the nVidia Display Driver

Recognizing a Tainted Kernel

Appendix B Creating Virtual Machines

Virtualization System Requirements

Installing Virtualization

Setting Up the VM and Installing the Guest OS

Introducing the virsh Command

Starting and Stopping the Virtual Machine

Modifying Dedicated Resources

Performing Additional Actions

Managing VMs with the xm Utility

Appendix C Preventing Security Breaches with ExecShield 547

How ExecShield Works

Determining Status of ExecShield

Disabling ExecShield

Appendix D Troubleshooting

Installation and Configuration Troubleshooting

OS Core Concepts Troubleshooting

System Administration Troubleshooting

Network Troubleshooting

Monitoring and Tuning Troubleshooting

Security Troubleshooting