Express Guide

Oracle LINUX 8
Shiv Kumar Goyal
 Preface
Let us starts journey with Oracle Linux. This book covers installation, file
system structure, network, LVM, Repository Structure, NTP, Log
management and many other aspects of Oracle Linux. The structure of the
book is very simple and easy to follow.
Thanks

Shiv Kumar Goyal

Contents
Introduction
Support Life Cycle of oracle Linux
Installation Media Preparation
Installation Steps
Exploring the Desktop Components
Exploring Command line
Exploring File System
Networking
Local file systems
Exploring Network File Systems
Disk Partitions
Management of local file system
Logical Volume Management
Software Management
Software Repositories
Service Management System
Users and Groups
Exploring SU and SUDO
Exploring File and Directory Permissions
Network Time Protocol
Exploring Secure Shell - SSH
Secure System with Firewall
Exploring Cockpit
Logs management
Understanding Processes
Monitoring Your System
Automating your System
Resetting forgotten root password
 Chapter 1
Introduction
Linux is an open source project started by Linus Torvalds in 1991. It is
Unix like operating system. There are thousands of Linux distributions in
the market, broadly classified on their root distribution for example
CentOS, Oracle and Scientific Linux are based on Red hat which in further
based on Fedora Linux. Fedora Linux is community project sponsored by
Red Hat.

Free V/s Paid

Linux although is open source project but there are two types of Linux
distribution available in the market, one is free and other one is paid. Free is
self-explanatory you do not have to pay anything. In case of any problem,
you can take help from volunteers working for Linux community. However,
this type of support is not time bond. So companies who uses mission
critical Linux servers and desktop computers prefers paid type of Linux
distributions where they pay fixed amount as subscription and support fee.
These paid Linux distribution companies keeps teams of Linux experts to
provide support and fixes.

Oracle Linux follow middle path, it is free to use and update but support is
paid. Oracle Linux distribution is derived from source code of RedHat.
Oracle Linux is functionally and binary compatible with Red hat enterprise
Linux. Oracle Linux generally removes Red hat’s branding and artwork.
After merger of Redhat with IBM, Centos linux which was free alternative
of Redhat is no more available. Only product available from Centos is
Centos stream which is rolling release. The customers that use to prefer
Centos as free alternative of Redhat Linux now reluctant to use Centos in
production environment. Oracle provides simple script to migrate your
current Centos environment to Oracle Linux.

Platform supported.
Oracle Linux Version 8 installation images are available for following
platforms:-
Image Platform Supported

x86_64 Intel and AMD 64 Bit

aarch64 ARM 64 Bit

Types of images
Standard installation image is in the form of ISO image only, however, you
can also get Cloud image, Container image and Vagrant image.
 Chapter 2
Support Life Cycle of oracle Linux

As mentioned earlier you can opt for support of Oracle Linux if you are
using the Oracle Linux in mission critical system, the life cycle of
Oracle Linux support is following
Premier Sustaining
General Extended
Releases Support Support
Availability Support Ends
Ends Ends
Linux 3 Oct 2003 Oct 2011 Not Available Indefinite
Linux 4 Feb 2005 Feb 2013 Not Available Indefinite
Linux 5 Jun 2007 Jun 2017 Nov 2020 Indefinite
Linux 6 Feb 2011 Mar 2021 Jun 2024 Indefinite
Linux 7 Jul 2014 Jul 2024 Not Available Indefinite
Linux 8 Jul 2019 Jul 2029 Not Available Indefinite
 Type of support
Oracle provides two types of paid support for Oracle Linux. The
difference between the two type of support according to oracle site is
bellow
Feature Basic Support Premier
Support
24x7 telephone Yes Yes
and online
support
Access to Yes Yes
enhancements,
updates, and
errata
Oracle Enterprise Yes Yes
Manager for
Linux
Management
Spacewalk Yes Yes
support
High availability Yes Yes
with Oracle
Clusterware
Comprehensive Yes Yes
tracing with
DTrace
Oracle Linux Yes Yes
load balancer
Oracle Container Yes Yes
runtime for
Docker
Oracle Linux No Yes
Virtualization
 Manager
Ksplice No Yes
Oracle Linux No Yes
Automation
Manager
Oracle Cloud No Yes
Native
Environment like
Kubernetes
Gluster Storage No Yes
Access to Oracle No Yes
Linux software
collections
Corosync and No Yes
Pacemaker
support
Premier No Yes
backports
Lifetime No Yes
sustaining
support
 Chapter 3
Installation Media Preparation
Oracle Linux downloads are available in several forms:
Format Description
ISO images Installation Media for
x86_64 and Arm
Vagrant For Vagrant Boxes
Container images for x86_64 and Arm
GitHub Container Registry
Docker Hub Docker images
Virtual machine templates .ova format templates
Raspberry Pi 4 and for Arm
Raspberry Pi 3

In this book, we will cover only Intel platform installation. To download image
of Oracle Linux follow these steps :-
1 Go to oracle site https://yum.oracle.com/oracle-linux-isos.html

2
Select the version and platform in our case it is x86_64 under Full ISO
Verifying the download
Download the checksum file from bellow site

https://linux.oracle.com/security/gpg/

if you have downloaded the image on Microsoft windows machine. Open the
powershell prompt and give following command :-
Syntax
get-filehash path for isofile
Example

PS C:\> get-
filehash D:\Download\OracleLinux-R8-U4-x86_64-dvd.iso

Now open the checksum file and compare the output of the get-filehash
command output.

Media preparation
To prepare USB media for installation on physical machine use following
steps.
1. Download Fedora live USB creator from the Fedora Linux site.

https://getfedora.org/fmw/FedoraMediaWriter-win32-latest.exe

2. Double click the downloaded file and follow the installation steps.
3.

Select Custom Image

4. Select the downloaded ISO file of Oracle Linux and press Open.
5.

Select the USB device and press Write to Disk.

6. Wait to finish and press Close.
7. Unplug the USB from the windows system.
 Now
installation media is ready to use.
 Chapter 4
Installation Steps
In this chapter, we will cover installation procedure. However, before
proceeding for installation it is advisable to check the hardware
compatibility of your server/ PC at Oracle Linux internet sites.
Oracle Linux in its release notes specify the minimum configuration for its
installation but it recommended to have at least following configuration for
optimal performance of the system
4 GB or more RAM.
Intel Core I3 or better processor.
60GB of Hard disk
16GB of USB disk for installation media
Note: it is possible to complete the installation with less resources
depending upon your requirement and environment.

Installation Basics
Oracle Linux uses Anaconda installer for installation. Installation of Oracle
Linux can be done in following ways:-
Quick install
Customized GUI install
Kickstart automated install
Partitioning
Oracle Linux supports three type of partitioned devices
Standard partition
LVM
LVM thin

Standard Partition
For boot, BIOS boot and EFI system partition only standard partition can be
used.

LVM
LVM partition scheme allows flexibility and performance benefit. When
you choose LVM partition during the installation, if no volume group
currently exists on the system, the installation creates one automatically.

LVM thin
LVM thin uses storage pool which allows thin provisioning of the storage.

File system Supported

XFS
ext4, ext3, ext2
swap
BIOS boot
EFI system partition
XFS
XFS is a high performance file system that supports up to 500 TB of single
file system. It is the default file system for Oracle Linux 8.

Ext3 and Ext4

Ext3 and Ext4 are known as Journal file systems. Journaling keep track of
changes not yet committed to the file system which allows easy file system
recovery in case of abrupt system power off.

EXT2 is the standard file system used in the older versions of Linux.

Swap
It is a virtual memory present on hard disk. When system does not have
enough RAM to operate, then it transfers some portion of the memory data
in to swap space.

BIOS boot
Partition required for GPT.

EFI
Boot device for GPT on UEFI system.
Recommended partition scheme
Partition Details
/boot 1 GB and no LVM.
/ root partition recommended size 10GB.
/home 2GB minimum (optional)
/swap Equal to more than RAM in some cases it
should be double of system memory.

Booting your machine

To start installation process of Oracle Linux you have to boot your system
with installation media.
For virtual machine like VM in VMware infrastructure, you can use ISO
image directly. Just attach the ISO image and boot the machine.
For physical server, plug in the Oracle Linux USB installation media
created earlier.
Switch on the server and press key to change boot order to use USB as boot
device (refer the hardware manual of the machine for boot manger key like
F11 for some dell servers).
Installation Procedure

1. From the boot menu, select

Install Oracle Linux 8 and press the ENTER key.

2. Select your
language and location. Click Continue.
3. Next screen is installation summary, which shows all installation options
with default values.
4.

From
the installation summary screen select Time & Date. Click your current
location on the map.
 The system will change the date, time and time zone accordingly. Change
date, time format from 24 hours to AM/PM, if required. Press Done.

5. Select
Installation Destination. From the Local Standard Disks pane, select the
target disk. Click Done to use the default setting for Automatic partitioning.
Note: if you have specific file system requirement you can select Custom
option.

6. On network configuration screen. Change the Host Name to fully qualified

host name and press Apply.
7. Press Configure.
8.

Make sure
that the Connect automatically with priority is selected.
9. Select IPV4 Settings tab to configure static IP address.
10. On the IPV4 Tab change following: -
1 Change Method to Manual from drop down menu.
2 Press Add button.
3 Provide IP address
4 Provide Net mask
5 Provide gateway.
6 Add DNS

7
Press Save.
11. Click Done to accept the changes.

12. On the
Installation Summary screen press Root Password.
13. Set root password and press Done.
14. Select User Creation on Installation Summary window.

15.
On the Create User screen, provide Full name, user name and password for
new user. Select Make user administrator if you want this user to be
administrator.

16. Press Begin Installation on Installation summary window. It will start

installation process.
17. On
Completion of installation process press Reboot System.

18. After
reboot, on Initial Setup Screen press Licence Information.
19. On the
Licence information screen, select I accept licence agreement. Press Done.

20. Press
Finish installation.

21. On the Login screen, select Not listed.

22.

Write
root and press Next.
23. Provide password for root user. The same password you selected at the time
of installation. Press Sign In.

24. On the Welcome screen press Next.

25. On the Typing Screen, press Next.
26. On Privacy Screen, press Next.

27. Press Skip

on Online Account screen
28. Press Start using Oracle Linux server
29. Press X Button to close the help screen.
This concludes our Oracle Linux 8 installation.
 Chapter 5

Exploring the Desktop Components

On Server with GUI, GNOME is the default desktop. GNOME provide easy to use
GUI experience. In this chapter we will explore desktop interfaces.

TOP BAR
The top bar has four main sections.

Activities
Application menu
Clock
System Menu
 System Menu
Right corner of the bar has power, speaker network, battery and Bluetooth icons.
Click any of these icons to open System menu. System menu allows you to adjust
speaker and microphone volume. This menu also give you option to adjust network
and Bluetooth settings. You will find quick links for system settings, Lock screen
and Shutdown Menu.

Clock
In the center of the bar, there is clock and by default, it shows day of the week and
current time in 24-hour format. If you want, you can change the time format in the
system settings. Click clock to open dialog box with calendar on the right side and
any task notification on the left side.
Activities
On the left side of the top bar is the Activities button. Click on this button to open
overview screen. You can use Super key (also known as Windows key) on your
keyboard to open Activities overview. Activities Screen provides following items
Search Bar.

Windows Peak View.

Workspaces

Search Bar
One of the main item of Activities overview screen is search bar. With search bar
you can search applications, documents, settings, calendar events etc. on your
computer. For example, if you write calculator in the search bar it will show
calculator application.
 Click the icon to open the
calculator application.

Windows Peak View

Second item of Activity overview is peek view of all running applications. Click the
desired application window to switch application. To close any running application
window, hover over the window and click X button.
 Workspaces
Left side of the Activities overview screen shows the list of workspaces.
Workspaces are virtual desktops for better windows management. You can create
multiple workspaces. Workspaces are meant to reduce mess on the single desktop
and make the desktop easier to navigate.
Click on the workspace to switch workspace. To move the application to different
workspace just drag the running application to new workspace.

Dash
 On the left side of the desktop you will
find the Dash bar. The Dash provides access to your favourite and running
applications. Click the application icon on the dash bar to open the application. The
small dot at the bottom of icon indicates running application. Click on any running
application icon brings most recent window of the application.
Right click on the icon to open context menu. From this menu you can open new
window or pick any window of a running application. You can also add or remove
any application to favourites from this menu.
Grid

At the bottom of the dash bar there is grid icon. Click on this icon
shows the list of all and frequently used applications. The icons are in grid format,
from the bottom of the grid you can switch between all applications and frequently
used applications. The list of applications can span multiple pages, to navigate to
next page use scroll (centre) wheel of mouse or click the dots on the right side of the
grid.
Some applications in the grid are contained in the application folder. Click
application folder to list the grid of all containing applications.
 Application
menu
Located beside the Activities button, application menu shows the name of the active
application. Also provides other options specific to the active application.
System settings
 Click on system setting icon in the system menu
will open settings windows for system and hardware. Setting screen has two panes,
left pane shows the list of settings and right pane provides the description of the
selected setting. You can scroll the list of settings with mouse’s scroll wheel.
Suppose you want to change the background of your desktop. Click background in
the left pane and select the wallpaper from the list of available wallpapers in the
right pane.

Top bar of the system setting tool also houses search button. Search button offers
you to search anything related to settings. Suppose you want to look for date and
time settings, just press search button and write date. The system will show you list
of items related to date in the left pane.

Log out
After finishing your task, it is good practice to logout from the system. The logout
option closes all running application started by the user in the current session. To
logout as current user press user name from the system menu. From the sub menu
press Log Out. On the confirmation popup press logout again.

Lock screen

When you are away from your machine for

short period of time it is recommended to lock your screen so that nobody can use
your computer in your absence. When system screen is in lock state, all the running
application will continue to run. To log back, provide your login password to unlock
the screen. System also locks the screen automatically, if you leave your computer
for a specific time period.
To lock the screen manually, click the system menu on the right side of the top bar,
click Lock icon.
To unlock, press ENTER key on the locked screen and provide your password.

Power off or Restart

To shutdown or reboot the server through GUI, click the system menu on the right
side of the top bar, click Power Off button. At the dialog box, press the button you
want.
Windows
Gnome uses windows to display your running applications. This is one of
the ways to do multitasking. Whenever you launch any application, it opens
in a new window. In this section, we will explore windows operations.

List windows
To show all the running windows just click Activities button. From the list
of windows press left button of mouse to select any window.

Switch window
You can switch the window using keyboard, press Super key + TAB to open
windows switcher. Hold Super key, release and press TAB key to cycle
between open windows.

Please
note: Super key is an alternative name for the Windows key when using
Linux.

Maximize and unmaximize a window

You can maximize a window to view its content on whole desktop and
unmaximize or restore down a window to restore it to its normal size.
Maximize the Window
To maximize a window, press and hold left button of mouse at title bar of
the window to grab the window title bar, now drag it to the top bar. Other
way to maximize, is to double click left button of mouse on the title bar of
window. To maximize a window using the keyboard press Alt + F10.

Unmaximize window
To restore a window to its normal size grab the window title bar and drag
away from the top bar or just double click title bar of window. Press Alt +
F10 on the key board to unmaximize the windows using keyboard.

Tile Windows (Snap Windows)

To
copy files or to compare content of two windows you can place two
windows side-by-side. In Microsoft windows, this feature is known as
windows Snap. To snap window to left side press Super + left Arrow and to
snap window right side of screen select the window, press Super + right
arrow key on the keyboard. To snap window using mouse, grab the title of
window and drag it to the left or right side until half of the screen is
highlighted.
Switch workspaces

Workspaces are virtual desktops. It is like

having more than one monitors virtually on same desktop. If you are
working on several applications at same time, workspace is good option to
organize them. To move one application from current workspace to another
workspace, press Activities to view the list of windows and workspaces.
Grab the title of widow and move to new workspace from the list of
workspaces on right side of screen.
To move to a workspace, Click Activities and select the workspace or press
Super + Page Down and Super + Page Up on your keyboard.
 Chapter 6
Exploring Command line
In the last chapter we have discussed Graphical user interface but Linux is
known for command line. As command line provides more power and
flexibility. A command line interface (CLI) is a text-based user interface
(UI) used to manage Linux. In this chapter we will discuss various ways to
access the command line interface. But before going ahead with command
line we should know some basics of command line.

Bash
Bourne-Again Shell, bash is Linux shell that provides interface to the user
to input commands and present output as its result. You have choice of
multiple shells on the Linux like Korn, C shell and Z shell etc, but bash is
the default shell available in the Oracle Linux. However, you can use other
shells also if required. Bash shell can be used in two ways, interactive and
in the script also known as shell script.

Shell basics
When you enter any command on the terminal it has three parts
Command option argument

Example
cp -R /test/1anty.text /home/f1/.
Here cp is command
-R is option, there can be multiple options in the same command.
Rest is the argument. there can be multiple arguments depending on the
command.
Virtual Consoles
Terminal is the device to input commands. Bash uses terminal to interact
with user. Terminal term came from Unix display devices. Oracle Linux
provides 6 virtual consoles with default installation. These terminals
provide virtually independent shell environment while working on the
server. Virtual console provides another way to access shell. You can
change virtual terminal by pressing Alt + Ctrl + function keys on your
keyboard. First terminal start at F1 key through F6 key on your keyboard.
Suppose you want change to terminal 3 press Ctrl + Alt + F3 key. If you
have installed Server with GUI, then first two Virtual consoles will be
graphical user interface available with Ctrl + Alt + F1 and Ctrl +Alt + F2
key rest of the four virtual consoles can be assessed using Ctrl + Alt keys up

to f6.

Gnome Terminal
Gnome terminal is a terminal emulator for GNOME Desktop environment.
It provides terminal environment in the GUI environment.

Open GNOME terminal

Press Activities, write terminal in search bar and click on terminal icon
Shortcuts
Following are some basic shortcuts which can be used on the bash shell.
Keyboard Shortcut Task
Ctrl +a Moves the cursor to the
beginning of the command
prompt
Ctrl + e Moves the cursor to the end of
the command prompt
Ctrl + u Clear the current line
Middle mouse button Paste the highlighted text
click
Tab Completes the command
Up / Down Keys Show history of commands
Ctrl +c Terminate the current process
Ctrl + z Suspends the foreground
process
Ctrl + d Close terminal™
Commands
Let’s explore some basic and important command

Tab Completion
One of the main high light of the bash shell is the tab completion. When
you press tab after partially written command system automatically
completes the command. if more than one command is available with same
string then it will show the list of commands. Not only commands it also
completes the name of files.
Example
hostna<tab>
cat /etc/grou<tab>

history
To list the previously used command
Example
history

Count number of lines of line

wc -l

date
Print or change the system data and time.
Syntax
date
To check date
To set date
date -s "24 feb 2017 19:00"

echo
Print text on the terminal
Syntax
echo text
Example
echo hello

Accessing Terminal remotely

So far we accessed the terminal on the server locally normally servers are in
the datacentres and you may have limited access to the server. Therefore,
we usually access the Linux servers remotely. In this section will learn how
to access the Linux terminal remotely on your Linux or Window PC.
To access the server remotely we require two pieces of software one on the
server other on the client. The most common tools to access the Linux
server remotely are :-
telnet
ssh

Telnet
Telnet is old software that transfers data in plain format, hence it is not safe
to use. Due to safety concerns, telnet is not available by default on the
server. If you have specific requirement you can still install it and use it.

Install telnet Server

yum install telnet-server

Start telnet server

systemctl start telnet.socket

Enable telnet server

systemctl enable telnet.socket

On the remote machine

Install telnet client

yum install telnet

Run client to connect

Syntax
telnet IP_address port
Example
telnet 192.168.0.1 8080
ssh
ssh is the modern software for accessing terminal remotely. It transfers data
in the encrypted format therefore safe to use even on the less secure
network. Ssh has two parts, sshd which is the server daemon that runs on
the server and ssh client which runs on the client PC.

Check status of ssh server

systemctl status sshd

Access terminal on Linux client

If you are using Ubuntu or oracle as Linux client PC you can access
terminal with following procedure:-
Open Terminal on the Linux client.

On the command window.

ssh user@ip_address_of_the_server
Example
ssh [email protected]
Enter password for the user.
Access terminal on MS Windows
To access the terminal on windows machine you require a third party
software known as putty. The putty is the free software. You can download
the software from the putty site:-
1 Open site
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

2 On this site select 64 bit msi windows installer to download.

3 Install the downloaded software.

After
installation
 Open up PuTTY
on your host system, and in the field for Host Name (or IP address) type the
IP address of your server and press open.
 First time you will
get Security Alert , press Yes.
On the terminal screen write username and press Enter key
Provide password and press Enter key.
Save session
To save the session:-.
1 Write the IP address in the IP address input box.
2 Make sure ssh is selected
3 Write the name of session in the saved sessions input box.
 4 Press Save
button.

Open the saved session

To connect the server using putty session.
1 Open Putty
2 Select the session.
3 Press Load
4 Press Open.
 Chapter 7
Exploring File System
In this chapter will look into briefly in to file system structure. Like almost
all Linux distributions Oracle Linux has following filesystem structure.

Directory Description
/ Top directory, all other directories are sub
directories of root file system.
/bin This directory is link(shortcut) to /usr/bin
containing executable files.
/boot Files for system boot.
/drv Device driver files.
/etc Configuration files.
 /home Users home directory other than root user.
/lib Libraries.
/lib64 64 bit libraries
/media Mount point for external storage devices.
/mnt Mount point for user mounts.
/opt Third party software.
/proc Temp directory for all running process.
/root Home directory of root user.
/run Temp file system used by running process.
/sbin Symbolic link to /usr/sbin directory for
system executable files.
/srv Services related data.
/sys Symbolic link to the kernel source tree.
/tmp Temporary files.
/usr Binary files of the users.
/var Variable files like logs.

What is path
Path is the location of the file or directory. Path can be relative or absolute.

Relative v/s absolute path

There are two type of directory representation, relative and absolute path.

Relative path
Relative path is defined as path related to the current directory. Suppose you
are in /home directory and want to change directory to /home/user1 . You
can use relative path and give command cd user1

Absolute path
An absolute path is defined as the specifying the location of a file or
directory starting from the root (/) directory. Suppose you are in /var
directory and want to change directory to /home/user1 . You can use
absolute path and give command cd /home/user1.
File and directory operations
In this section we will discuss few file and directory operation.

Create empty file

Syntax
touch filename
Example
touch abc.txt

Add text to end of the file

Syntax
echo “text” >> filename
example
echo “this is test” >> abc.txt

Create directory
mkdir directoryname
Example
mkdir /example
it will create example directory in the root directory

Change directory
Syntax
cd directory_name
Example
cd /example
Display file content
cat
Syntax
cat file_name
Example
cat abc.txt

To view the content of file page wise

more
Paging through text one screen full at a time.
Syntax
more filename
Example
more /etc/hosts

less
Less is a program similar to more, but it allows backward and forward
movement in the file.
Syntax
less filename
Example
less /etc/hosts

head
Print the first 10 lines of a file to the standard output. You can also specify
number of line to show.

Syntax
head option file
Example
head -20 /etc/passwd
Show first 20 lines of passwd file

tail
Print the last 10 lines of a file to standard output. You can also specify
number of lines to show.
Syntax
tail option file
Example
tail -20 /var/log/logfile
it will show last 20 lines

Use tail to monitor file continuously

tail -f /var/log/logfile
It will show end of growing file. Ctrl +c to interrupt

Copy files and directory

Copy file
Syntax
cp filename target_dir
Example
cp abc.txt /home/user1/.

Copy multiple files

Syntax
cp * /target-location/.

Example
cp *.txt /home/user/.
This will copy all files with txt extension to /home/user1 directory

Prompt before any overwrite

cp –i /home /home1

Forcefully copy files

cp –f /tmp/abc.txt /backup/.

Do not overwrite an existing file, silently do nothing instead.

cp -n * /backup/.

Copy directory
Syntax
cp -R source_dir target_dir
Example
cp -R user1 user2
copy user1 directory to user2

Removing file and directory

Remove file
To remove file or directory you can use rm command
Syntax
rm file_name
Example
rm abc.txt

To remove a directory and all its contents, including any subdirectories and
files
rm -r /example
use this command very carefully, can cause data lose

Remove directory
Syntax
rmdir directory
Example
rmdir /example

List file and directories

ls
Lists the names of files and directories
Syntax
ls -<options>

Long listing
ls -l
shows list of files or directories with size, modified date, modified time and
its permission.

Show also hidden files and directories

ls -la
Show human readable format
ls -lh

mv
mv command is used to move file from one location to other location. You
can also use mv command to rename the file without moving it.

To move file
Syntax
mv filename destination_directory
Example
mv a.txt /tmp/.
It will move a.txt file from current directory to /tmp directory

To rename
Syntax
mv filename newfilename
Example
mv a.txt b.txt

grep
Searches for a String from one or more files. Display each line which has
string.

Syntax
grep string file
Example
grep '127.0.0.1' /etc/hosts

diff
Compares two files.
Syntax
diff First_file Second_file
Example
diff abc.txt bbc.txt

file
Determine file type
Syntax
file file_name
Example
file bbc.txt
Linking files and directories
Link is the like short cut in Windows which point to the original file. There
are two types of links
Hard link
Soft link
Both hard and soft link are short cut to file. Soft link can exit in different
file system where as hard link can exist only in the same file system. When
you remove original file soft link will stop working whereas there will be
no effect on hard link. The reason is that, in case of hard link both original
file and hard link is pointing to same inode.

Create Soft link

Syntax
ln -s /source/file_name /target/file_name
Example
ln -s /home/admin/abc.txt /abc1.txt

Create hard link

Syntax
ln file_name /target/file_name
Example
ln /home/admin/abc.txt /home/admin/abc1.txt
 Chapter 8
Networking
In this chapter we will discuss networking part. There mainly two types of
networks :

Non-IP network
Non-IP network make use of transport layers for communication. One of
the example of Non-IP network is InfiniBand.

IP Network
IP network is the network which uses IP address to communicate. Each
device which is part of IP network should have IP address. IP Network is
most common type of the network type. Home, offices and internet mostly
use IP network.

For IP Network you have option to select address assignment mechanism.

Two types of IP address mechanisms are available.

Static
Static IP address is manual mode of IP address assignment to devices. In
case of static IP addressing, IP address remain same over the time, unless
you change it. This type of IP addressing is mainly used on small networks
or shared devices like Servers, printer etc where you want same IP address
every time.

Dynamic IP Address:
Dynamic IP address configuration is an automatic configuration of
addresses. It uses DHCP server to get the IP address for your device. When
you configure DHCP server you allocate range of IP addresses to be
assigned to the clients. When you start the device it connects to the DHCP
server to get the IP address. Every time you start your device you may get
different IP address, unless you reserve an IP address based on MAC
address of the device. Dynamic IP configuration is ideal for large
organizations where it is not possible to remember the address assigned to
each device. But DHCP is not ideal solution for servers and printers where
you want same IP address every time.

Configuring Network
By default, Oracle Linux 8 uses NetworkManager to configure and manage
network connections. To use NetworkManager for configuring network
interfaces, use one of the following tools:
nmtui Text based User Interface to
manage network. This tool is very
useful in non GUI environment.
GNOME Graphical Tool for network
Networkmanager management .
nmcli Command line tool.
Device naming convention
The interface name starts with a two-character prefix based on the type of
interface:
Type of device Prefix
Ethernet en
wireless wl
wireless wide area network ww

To keep the deice name persistent the Oracle Linux uses following
convention for Ethernet devices:-
Type of device Device Name
For Onboard enoX where X is the device number
devices
For PCIe devices ensX where X is the device number
For Multi-port enpZsX where Z is the physical port
devices number and X is the device number
Traditional ethX where X is the device number
Naming

Traditional naming convention ethX was used for network devices in the
older versions of Linux. The new naming convention provides following
benefits:-
1 Stable interface names across reboots.
2 Stable interface names even after hardware addition and
removal.

Benefits of using NetworkManager

 1 Synchronized and updated network status for all applications.
2 Easier network management.
3 Variety of tools for network management.
4 Easy and flexible Wi-Fi network management.

Network manager scripts

By default, NetworkManager executes scripts in the
/etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d directory or subdirectories in
alphabetical order in response to network events. Each script should be an
executable file owned by root.

Using traditional scripts

By default Oracle Linux 8 use NetworkManger for network management,
however, if required you can still use the deprecated network scripts to
manage network configuration instead NetworkManager.
To install the scripts:
yum install network-scripts

nmtui
nmtui is Text Based Interface (TUI) tool for configuring networking. This
tool is very helpful in network management on the system without GUI.

To start nmtui
nmtui

Set Static IP address using nmtui

In this example we will set static IP address.
1. Start nmtui

2. Select Edit a connection.

3. Select the
connection profile from the list and press Edit.
4. On the Edit Connection screen, press SPACE BAR key at IPv4
configuration.
5. Select Manual.
6. Press TAB and select Show.
7. Provide IP Address, Netmask, gateway and DNS in respective
fields.
8.

Scroll down and make sure Automatically connect radio button is

selected.
9. Press OK.
10. Select Back .
11.
Select Activate the connection, and press Enter.
12. Select the connection from the list, and press Enter to activate
the connection. If connection is already activated, then deactivate
and activate to make changes effective.
13. Select Back.
14. Select Quit.
Commands nmtui
Set hostname using nmtui
Syntax
nmtui hostname new_hostname
Example
nmtui hostname Server2

nmcli
nmcli is a command-line tool for managing network. nmcli can be used to
create, display, edit, delete, activate, and deactivate network connections.
nmcli is a very useful tool to control and display network device status.

Listing network devices and their status

Syntax
nmcli device

Example
Device detailed information
nmcli device show

List connections
nmcli connection show
Activate Connection
Syntax
nmcli connection up connection_name
Example
nmcli connection up ens35

Deactivate Connection
Syntax
nmcli connection down connection_name
Example
nmcli connection down ens35

Change networking status

Syntax
nmcli networking on/off
Example
nmcli networking off

Show hostname
nmcli general hostname
Wifi network management

Listing available WiFi APs

nmcli device wifi list

Connecting to password protected Wifi network

Syntax
nmcli device wifi connect "SSID" password "password"
Example
nmcli device wifi connect "mynetwork" password "pa$$w0rd"
GNOME GUI network manager
Network can be controlled in GUI mode in two places either from top bar
system menu or under settings.

Connecting Wireless connection.

You will see Wi-Fi icon at the top bar of your desktop if system is
connected to wireless network, otherwise follow the bellow procedure to
connect to your home or office wireless network:-
1. Click System Menu.
2. Click Wireless not connected to expand collapsed menu.

3. Click Select Network.

4. New screen will open with all available networks. Select your Wi-Fi
network name. Press Connect.
 5.

If network is password
protected, at password prompt, provide password and press
Connect.
6. Now your network is connected and top bar will show Wi-Fi icon.

Change Wi-Fi Password

If for some reasons you had changed the Wi-Fi network password on your
Wi-Fi router, you have to set the same password in your system also
otherwise, it will not connect next time.
1. Click System menu.
 2. Click wireless Connected to open sub menu.
3. Click Change settings.
4. From the list of available networks select your network and press
gear icon next to it.
5. In security setting change password and press ok.

Wired network
Connecting wired network is easy, just plug the network cable to your
computer. The system will automatically configure the system for available
network. As soon as the system is connected to the wired network, system
indicator shows at the top bar.

Manual Wired network configuration.

Most of the time wired network settings are automatic, but in some cases
you have to set IP address manually. This type of configuration is known as
static IP address configuration.
To configure static IP address:-
1. Open System Menu.
2. Click Wired Connected and
select Wire Settings.
3. It will bring Network settings windows.
4. Click gear icon.

5. Wired profile dialog box will open.

6. In the Details tab make sure Connect automatically is ticked.
7. Click IPv4 tab.
1 Click Manual radio button.
2 Provide IP address.
3 Enter Netmask,
4 Enter Gateway.
5 DNS
8. Press Apply.
Name Resolution
Whenever you write hostname instead of IP address to connect Linux host,
you have followingoptions to resolve hostname to IP address.
Local file i.e. /etc/hosts
DNS server
NIS

Local file (/etc/hosts)

/etc/hosts is file which stores hostname to IP address mapping. It provides
ability to resolve hostname without using DNS server. We generally use this
file if we are connecting to limited number of hosts due scope or security
reason. Downside of using this file is that in case of IP address change,
administrator has to change this file on all servers or PCs .
Format
IP_address hostname aliases
Example
127.0.0.1 server1 localhost
31::1 server1 localhost
192.168.228.129 server1 server1.example.com

DNS
A DNS server is a central repository that contains a database of IP addresses
and their associated hostnames. Whenever any client wants to resolve
hostname to IP address instead of using its local file it sends request to DNS
server. If IP Address of some client changes you just have to update the DNS
entry. You can have multiple DNS server in one organization. To redirect
your request for hostname resolution Oracle Linux uses /etc/resolve.conf
file. By default, NetworkManager on Oracle Linux 8 dynamically updates
the /etc/resolv.conf file. However, depending on your requirement you can
disable DNS processing by NetworkManager.

Teaming
Teaming allows you to group multiple physical Ethernet network adapters
into one logical adapter. This logical network adapter provides higher
throughput or redundancy.

Modes for Teaming

Round-robin In this mode, data is transmitted across
all ports in turn.
Broadcast Here data is transmitted across all ports.
Load-balance Traffic is distributed across all NICs.
Active- Where one link or port is activated as the
backup rest are reserved as a backup. This is
used for failover to provide redundancy.
LACP Uses 802.3ad protocol for link
aggregation

Install teaming packages

yum install teamd NetworkManager-team

Create active backup team adapter

Example
nmcli connection add type team con-name bond0 ifname bond0 config
'{"runner": {"name": "activebackup"}}'

Important Network Commands

Show IP address
ip addr show

Show Link status

ip link show

The highlighted text shows the link state.

Show routing table

ip route

Check network reachability

Syntax
ping ipaddress/hostname
Example
ping 192.110.22.121

Check and change host name

The name of the computer in Linux is known as hostname. To change the
hostname, you can use hostnamectl command.
Display current hostname
hostnamectl

Change hostname
Syntax
hostnamectl set-hostname newname
Example
hostnamectl set-hostname myhost1

If you are interested in changing IP address manually using command line,

try nmcli command. Check nmcli-examples command for more
information.

dig
DNS lookups and displays result
Syntax
dig hostname
Example
dig microsoft.com

telnet
To connect destination host:port. You can also use telnet command to test
host and port reachability.
Syntax
telnet hostname port
Example
telnet myserver1 8080
nslookup
Query Internet domain name servers.
Syntax
nslookup hostname
Example
nslookup microsoft.com
scp
Copy files from one host to other host over the network in secure manner.
Syntax
scp filename user@targetserver:/path
Example
scp ast.txt user1@server2:/home/user1

ssh
For secure login to target server.
Syntax
ssh user@targethost
Example
ssh user1@server2

nmap
Checks the opened port on the server.
Syntax
nmap hostname
Example
nmap cloudflare.com
 Chapter 9
Local file systems
File system controls how data is stored and retrieved in the Operating system.
File system is way to organize data on the storage. Oracle Linux 8 supports
different type file system for local data storage. We will discuss two major
file systems.
XFS
EXT4

XFS
XFS is high performance file system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc
(SGI) in 1993. XFS is the default file system for Oracle Linux 8. it is
journaling file system which means recovery of the file system is seamless in
case of abrupt system failure. XFS is also capable of storing large files and
big file systems. XFS can be extended and defragmented in mounted state.

EXT4
EXT file system has long history. ext4 is the fourth generation of the ext file
system family. It is also a journaling file system. Ext4 drivers can read and
write both ext3 and ext2 file system. It can support file system size up to 50
TiB. Being a legacy file system ext4 file system is supported by almost all
applications on Linux.
Commands for XFS file system management
Create XFS file system
Syntax
mkfs.xfs devicename
Example
mkfs.xfs /dev/sda01

Resize XFS file system

You can only extend the file system and can not reduce it. To grow XFS file
system use:-
Syntax
xfs_growfs device_name
Command
This command will extend xfs file system to maximum limit of the device.
xfs_growfs /dev/sda01

-D takes argument number as file system blocks.

xfs_growfs /dev/sda01 -D 200

Repair XFS file system

Syntax
xfs_repair -n device_name
Example
xfs_repair -n /dev/sda01
Ext4 file system management Commands
Create ext4 filesystem
Syntax
mkfs.ext4 /dev/device_name
Example
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sd01

Label the partition

Syntax
e4label device_name new_label
Example
e2label /dev/sda01 data01

Resize
you can expand ext4 file system while it is mounted. Shrink require ext4
file system has to be unmounted.
Syntax
Resize2fs device_name new_size
Example
Resize2fs /dev/sda01
if you do not specify size this command will extend the file system to
maximum limit of the device.
To change the file system to specific size
resize2fs /dev/sda01 5G
 Chapter 10
Exploring Network File Systems
In the previous chapter we had discussed local file systems, however to
share data over the network remote file system comes in to the picture.
Network file system requires extra layer above local file system in order to
share and mount over the network. Network file system can be used by
multiple users at same time. Once mounted it behaves like local file system
on remote machine. In this chapter, we will walk through commonly used
remote file system on Oracle Linux 8.

NFS
NFS is a file sharing file system, which works on server client basis. The
file systems which are shared on server can be mounted on client over the
network. NFS File system is very popular file system sharing protocol
among Unix and Linux systems. Oracle Linux server support both NFS
Server and client. NFS on Linux is very useful for cross platform files and
folders sharing. NFS is also widely used protocol on Network Attached
Storage NAS systems also. Currently there are four versions of NFS and
each versions has further releases, like version 4 has 4.2:-
NFS V1
NFS V2
NFS V3
NFS V4
Where NFS V3 and NFS V4 are more recent version of NFS. In Oracle
Linux 8, NFS over UDP is no longer supported. NFSV4 has added
advantage of working through firewall and works on TCP. In Oracle Linux
8, the default NFS version is 4.2 which features support for Access Control
Lists (ACLs), server-side copy and sparse files. Oracle Linux 8 support
only version 3 and version 4 of NFS, version1 and version 2 is no more
supported by Oracle Linux version 8.

Installing NFS

Install packages
yum install nfs-utils
After installation, enable the service to start automatically after reboot.
systemctl enable nfs-server.service

Start the service

systemctl start nfs-server.service
this command will start other services required by the NFS such as nfsd,
nfs-idmapd, rpcbind, rpc.mountd, lockd, rpc.rquotad, rpc.statd and
rpc.idmapd.

Now check the status of service

systemctl status nfs-server.service

The important files for NFS server are

File Name Purpose
/etc/nfs.conf main configuration file for the NFS
daemons and tools.
/etc/nfsmount.conf Global configuration file for NFS
mounts.
/etc/exports File for NFS server export table
/etc/exports files options
rw allows both read and write access on the
file system.
sync this option by default tell NFS server to
reply to requests only after the last
changes have been committed.
all_squash Map all UIDs and GIDs to the
anonymous user. Useful for public FTP
directory
root_squash Map requests from client UID/GID 0
to the anonymous UID/GID.
no_subtree_check This option disables subtree checking

Export directory
In this example we will create two directories and export these directory for
clients to mount .
mkdir /accounts
mkdir /hrms

Edit the /etc/exports file

vi /etc/exports

Add following entries

/account 10.101.11.0/24(rw,sync)
/hrms *(rw.sync)
in this example first line exports the NFS share to specific network IP
range. Second line shares hrms directory to everybody.
Export the directory
exportfs -a
List the exported directories
export -s

Add the firewall rule

firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=rpc-bind
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=mountd
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=nfs

Reload the filewall configuration

firewall-cmd --reload

Check the firewall configuration

firewall-cmd --list-all|grep nfs
Configure NFS on client
Install the package if it is not already there.
yum install nfs-utils nfs4-acl-tools

Create directory for mount

mkdir /myhrms

Mount the file system

mount -t nfs 192.168.115.128:/hrms /myhrms

Configure file system to mount automatic on boot using /etc/fstab file

echo "192.168.115.128:/hrms /myhrms nfs defaults 0 0" >>/etc/fstab
Samba or CIF
Samba is a free and open source protocol that allows files to be sharing
across Linux and windows machine.
In this chapter we will see how use to Oracle Linux 8 server as smb client.
We will use the shared folder from Window machine on Oracle Linux
Linux machine.

Install required packages

yum install cifs-utils

Mount the shared folder

Syntax
mount -t cifs -o username=user //servername/sharename /Local_mount_point/

Example
mount -t cifs – username=user1 //192.168.115.129/shared /mnt

This command will prompt for windows password

 Chapter 11
Disk Partitions
Disk partitioning is a way to create separate region on the storage which can
be managed independently. Partitions have following benefits: -
1 Running more than one OS on your system.
2 Data and application space segregation.
3 Minimize corruption risk.
4 Improve performance.

Partition Table
A partition has partition table where it stores partition’s beginning and end.
It also stores the code that is used during start-up, if a partition is bootable.
You have option to setup disk as MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT
(GUID Partition Table). In this section, we will explain what difference
between two is.

Master Boot Record (MBR)

The MBR partition was introduced in 1983 with DOS 2.0 also Known as
Master Boot Record. As it very old partition scheme it provides the
maximum compatibility. It not only support x64 but also conventional x86-
based computers. Due to old architecture of MBR, it has many limitations.
First one, it limits the maximum addressable storage space of a partitioned
disk up to 2 TB, which is a big barrier for new disks which can store more
than 2TB and specially with RAID where partition can be pooled capacity
of several disks. Another limitation is, MBR disks support only four
primary partitions. If you want more than four partitions then you have to
make one of your primary partitions as extended partition and create logical
partitions inside it.

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

To overcome limitations of MBR and bring new features like security of
partitions, GPT was introduced in late 1990s. Unlike MBR, GPT does not
support x86 systems. GPT uses UEFI instead of BIOS. Each GPT Partition
has Globally Unique Identifier or GUID which is unique random number.
GPT has no limitation in the case of maximum number of partitions as it
allows nearly unlimited number of partitions, only limited by OS
limitations, like Oracle Linux 8 allows up to 128 partitions. For redundancy
GPT disks uses primary and backup partition tables. For integrity, it uses
CRC32 field.
Although GPT brings many advantages, but MBR is still the most
compatible and widely used partition schema.
In this chapter we will learn to create, delete, and modify various types of
disk partitions.
There are couple of utilities for partition management .
Parted
fdisk
Parted
Parted is command line tool that can manage partition tables.

Display partition layout

Syntax
parted -l
This command will display partition layout of all block devices

To display partition table of specific block device

Syntax
parted device print
Example
parted /dev/sda print

Use parted interactively

Enter parted command with device name. Suppose new disk is sdb
parted /dev/sdb
it will start the interactive session.

Create partition table on a disk

Start parted
Syntax
parted device_name
Where device name is disk name
Example
parted /dev/sda
Create partition
Syntax
mkpart part-type name fs-type start end
Where
part-type can be primary, logical, or extended for
MBR partition table.
name partition name required for GPT partition
tables.
fs-type can be xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32,
hfs, hfs+, linux-swap, ntfs, or reiserfs. The
fs-type parameter is optional because parted
does not create the file system on the
partition.
start and are sizes that determine the starting and
end ending points of the partition. Size suffixes,
such as MiB, GiB, or TiB. The default size
megabytes.

Example
(parted) mkpart primary xfs 1 5GiB

List the partition using print command

(parted) print
Model: VMware, VMware Virtual S (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 5369MB 5368MB primary xfs lba

use quit command to exit parted

(parted) quit
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
Remove partition using parted
In the parted interactive session select the
parted device

Example
parted /dev/sdb

Display the current partition table

(parted) print
Model: VMware, VMware Virtual S (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 10.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags

1 1049kB 5370MB 5369MB primary lvm
2 5370MB 7000MB 1631MB primary ext2 lba

Remove the partition with rm command and select the partition number
(parted) rm
Partition number? 2
(parted)
Create partition using fdisk
Syntax
fdisk device

In this example we will create 5GB partition on device sdb

fdisk /dev/sdb
1 On interactive prompt give n command to create new partition.
2 Enter partition type p for primary and e for extended.
3 Select the partition number. Press enter to select default.
4 Press enter to use default start point
5 Enter size in MB, GB and KB like for 5 GB write +5G
6 Use p command to print the partitions
7 Optionally if you required to change filesystem type using t
command and press L to list the filesystem type with IDs . Enter the
id like 83 for Linux and 8e for Linux LVM.
8 Use w command to write the changes.

Command (m for help): n

Partition type
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
First sector (2048-20971519, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-20971519, default
20971519): +5G
Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 5 GiB.
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 10 GiB, 10737418240 bytes, 20971520 sectors
Geometry: 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x08dd22da
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 10487807 10485760 5G 83 Linux
Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list all codes): L

Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e

Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux LVM'.
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
Remove partition
Start fdisk with device name
fdisk /dev/sdb

Print current partition table

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 10 GiB, 10737418240 bytes, 20971520 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0eacb20b

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdb1 2048 10487807 10485760 5G 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sdb2 10487808 14393343 3905536 1.9G 83 Linux

Use d command to delete partition

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2
Partition 2 has been deleted.
 Chapter 12
Management of local file system
In this chapter we will cover management of local file system
Create a file system
Remove a file system
Mount a file system
Unmount a file system
Create LVM volume groups
Remove LVM volume groups
Create logical volumes
Remove logical volumes

Create file system

Before creating file system you should decide which type of file system you
want to create.
Create XFS filesystem
Syntax
mksfs.xfs /dev/sdb1
Example
mksfs.xfs /dev/sdb1

Create ext4
Syntax
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Example
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

Mount file system

In Linux based systems to use file system you have to first mount the file
system. Mounting require minimum two things, mount device and mount
point.

Mount device
Mount device is the block device or remote filesystem which you want to
use for storing data.

List all block devices

lsblk

To mount file system you can identify the mount device by following
identifiers :-
UUID UUID is the Universal Unique ID of the
device. This is the best way to mount the
device as UUID remain same. You can
use blkid command to get UUID of
device.
Device Device name is hierarchical name of the
name device it can be like /dev/sdb1
Label Volume label for example
LABEL=data1 . You can use e2label to
check or change the label of ext file
system. To set or list label of XFS file
system use xfs_admin command.
Mount point
Mount point is the link for accessing this mount device. Mount point is the
normal directory. Once mounted device becomes the part of the directory
and you can access the contents of file system under this directory.

Mount command
mount command can be used for mounting file system.
Syntax
mount -t type -o options device dir

Mount command require following parameter to mount the file system.

type Type of file system it can be xfs, ext4, nfs etc.
options Options like rw for read and write, ro for
read only, loop for ISO media,
device Device name.
dir Mount Point.

Example
mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 /mnt

Automatic mounting
If you want to mount the filesystem to be mounted automatically on every
boot you can use /etc/fstab file.
fstab file has following format
first second third fourth fifty sixth

Field Description
First Block device or remote file system
Second Mount point
Third File system type
Fourth Options, atleast one ro or rw. Other options are
defaults : rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and
async.
noauto: do not mount automatically or with
mount -a command.
user: allow a user to mount the file system.
owner: allow device owner to mount.
Fifth Dump option, default is 0 for no dump.
Sixth File system check priority for fsck.

Example
/dev/mapper/cl-root / xfs defaults 00
UUID=095af347-cb2c-4d50-99b6-xxx /boot ext4 defaults 1 2
/dev/mapper/cl-swap swap swap defaults 00
LABEL=data1 /data1 ext4 defaults 00
/dev/sdb2 /data2 xfs defaults 00

Manually mount all devices in the fstab with auto option

mount -a

Manually mount single device in the fstab.

Syntax
mount mount_point
No need to specify the device name.
Example
mount /data2

List all mounted file systems

mount
or
findmnt

List specific fileystems type

findmnt -t xfs

Unmounting a file system

Syntax
umount mount_point
Example
umount /data1

If you get “target is busy” error when you unmount a file system, use fuser
command to list all processes using fileystem.
Syntax
fuser --mount mountpoint
Example
fuser –mount /data1
Remove file system
To delete a file system, we must first unmount it
Example
umount /dev/sda2
Then we can delete the partition from the partition table using fdisk or
parted

Example
fdisk /dev/sda2

Select the option d to delete the partition

Write the changes to the partition table by selecting w.
 Chapter 13
Logical Volume Management
LVM or Logical Volume Manager allows creation of group of disk and
partitions that can be used as one disk. Creates an abstraction layer between
physical devices and logical devices. The benefits of LVM are bellow
Flexibility: allows resize.
Snapshot: take point in time copy of Logical Volume.

Conventional setup of disk is bellow

File systems / /opt /home
Partitions /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3
Physical /dev/sda
/dev/sdb
devices

This setup has disks then partitions and above partitions there are file
systems.

LVM setup
File systems / /home /var
Logical
/dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3
Volume
Volume Group Vg01
Physical
/dev/sda /dev/sdb
Volume
Physical volume
Physical Volume (PV) is underlying physical storage unit. Physical storage
is a block device such as a partition or whole disk. Use pvcreate command
to use the physical device as Physical Volume. If block device is a partition,
then use fdisk to change the partition type to 8e (Linux LVM) before using
pvcreate command.
Create PV
Syntax
pvcreate device
Example
pvcreate /dev/sdb

If device is a partition
Change partition type as LVM
fdisk /dev/sda (Refer the partition chapter to change partition type)
now create PV
pvcreate /dev/sda3

Volume Groups
One or more physical volumes combined together to make a Volume Group
(VG). Volume group is an abstract that presents underlying devices as a
unified logical device with combined storage capacity of the physical
volumes.
To create Physical Volume
Syntax
vgcreate vgname PV1 PV2 ..
Example
vgcreate vg01 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

Logical Volume
Logical Volume is logical partitioning of the volume group. Logical volume
can be used for file system creation. In some cases, you can also use LV as
block device.

To create LV
Syntax
lvcreate -n name -L size VG_name
Example
lvcreate -n data_lv -L 5G vg01

File system
To create XFS filesystem on the LV
Syntax
mkfs.xfs lv_name
Example
mkfs.xfs /dev/vg01/data_lv

To create ext filename on LV

Syntax
mkfs.ext4 lv_name
Example
mkfs.ext4 /dev/vg01/data_lv

Two more terms in LVM is worth mentioning

 Physical Extent
Logical Extent
Physical Extent
Storage space from Physical Volume is divided in to small unit of fixed size
known as physical extent, which is smallest unit that can be allocated. P.E.
size is always same for all physical volume in the same VG.

Logical extent
Mapping of PE to make up frontend of LVM. By default, one PE is
generally mapped to one LE. However, you can map more than one PE to
one LE in case of mirroring.
LVM management commands
PV management commands
List all PVs
pvs

Display attributes
Shows the attributes of PVs, like size, physical extent size, space etc.
pvdisplay

PV Resize
If PV is coming from storage or vitrtual storage you have option to change
size of virtual device or LUN. To update LVM with the new size of physical
storage.
Syntax
pvresize device
Example

pvresize /dev/sda
Remove PV
If for some reason the PV is no more used by LVM you can remove the PV
using pvremove command
Syntax
pvremove device
Example
pvremove /dev/sda

Rescan system for PVs

pvscan scans all block devices in the system for PVs.
Syntax
pvscan --cache

VG management commands
Display summary all VGs.
Syntax
vgs
Example
[root@Server1 ~]# vgs
VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree
cl 1 2 0 wz--n- <19.00g 0

Display VG properties
vgdisplay displays properties of VG such as size, extents, number of physical
volumes etc)
Syntax
vgdisplay
To view specific VG
Syntax
vgdisplay vgname
Example
vgdisplay vg01

Scans all the disks for VG

To scans all the disks for volume groups and rebuilds the LVM cache file use
vgscan command.
Syntax
vgscan

Adding Physical Volumes to a Volume Group

To increase the space of VG you can add additional physical volumes to an
existing volume group. To extend the VG use the vgextend command.
Syntax
vgextend vgname new_PV
Example
vgextend vg01 /dev/sdc

Use vgscan command to rescan for VGs on the system.

Example
[root@Server1 ~]# vgscan
Found volume group "cl" using metadata type lvm2
Remove PV from VG
To remove the physical volume from VG you can use vgreduce command.
Before reducing VG make sure there is no data on the PV.
Syntax
vgreduce vgname pv_name
Example
vgreduce vg01 /dev/sdc

Change VG
You can deactivate an active VG and vice versa using vgchange
command. VG in deactivated state can be used.
Syntax
vgchange -a n vgname
Example
vgchange -a n vg01

same way you can activate VG also.

Example
vgchange -a y vg01

Remove VG
When vg is no more required and there is no LV on the VG you can remove
it.
Syntax
vgremove vgname
example
vgremove vg01
Rename VG
For some reason if you have to rename a VG
Syntax
vgrename vgname new_vgname
Example
vgrename vg01 vg02

Moving a Volume Group to Another System

To move volume group from one system to another first you have to export
the volume group from the original system and then import into the target
system. The export VG command insure the removal of VG information
from the system so that next time it will not complain about missing VG.

Syntax
vgexport vgname
Example
vgexport vg01

On the target machine

Syntax
vgimport vgname
Example
vgimport vg01
Logical volume
list logical volume on the system
lvs

Show the properties of the Logical volume or volumes.

lvdisplay

Remove a LV
To remove a logical volume, make sure it is not in use anymore.
Syntax
lvremove vgname/lvname
Example
lvremove vg01/lv01

Extend the file system size

in this section we will go through the practical scenario in which one the
filesystem with LVM configuration is full. To extend the file system we will
use following procedure:-
Check the filesystem and its LV
df -hT

Add the new disk to the system

Check if new disk is visible
lsblk
or
fdisk -l
Create PV for new disk
pvcreate /dev/sdb

Check the new PV

pvs

Extend the VG with filesystem to be extended

vgextend vg01 /dev/sdb

Extend the LV and filesystem

Use this command to increase the size of LV and filesystem over it. This
command will increase the size of LV by 20 GB and also extend the
respective filesystem.
lvextend -L 20G -r vg01/lv-root

Use this command to extend the LV to use 100% free space of VG and
extend the filesystem also.
lvextend -l +100%FREE -r vg01/lv-root

This concludes the LVM chapter

 Chapter 14
Software Management
Oracle Linux distribution is based on RPM packages. Oracle Linux uses
.rpm packages for installing software with rpm command. RPM package is
simply a file that contains some files and information about those files.
Technically speaking RPM is a file containing cpio archive and metadata
about itself. RPM Header contains the metadata and this metadata is used to
determine following things about the package:-
Description of package.
List of files in the package.
Version and release of package.
When and who made it.
Architecture supported.
Checksums of the files contained in the package.
Dependences.
Etc…

Package Management System

If you try to install single package manually you have to first install all its
dependencies and keep track of versions also. To make software
management easy Linux companies have developed a system known as
package management system or package manager. Package management
system install precompiled packages, which are in form of archives
containing binaries of software, configuration files, and information about
dependencies. Package management system is a collection of software tools
to automate the process of installation, upgradation and removal of software
packages. Software manager maintains its own database of software
dependencies and version information. Package management system helps
in preventing software mismatches and missing prerequisites. Oracle Linux
uses YUM tool for package management.

YUM
Like other Linux distributions, Oracle Linux uses very comprehensive
package management system known as YUM. Yellow dog Updater
Modifier is command line tool for package management. Yum uses
repositories to fetch the correct version of a particular package compatible
for your system. Yum allows automatic updating of packages and
dependency management. When you use yum command for installation of
software, it automatically downloads package and all its dependencies from
defined repositories. Oracle Linux version 8 uses YUM v4 instead to YUM
v3 used in the earlier version. YUM v4 tool, which is based on the DNF
technology has the following advantages :
Better performance
Support for modular content (We will discuss later about modules)
Stable API for integration with tooling

In Oracle Linux 8 has three application streams, each one with its own
lifecycle:
BaseOS provides the basic operating system,
AppStream provides user applications,
CodeReady Linux Builder provides developer tools and languages.
Package management
Search package
Syntax
yum search package_name
Example
yum search httpd

Display information about package

Syntax
yum info package_name
Example
yum info httpd

List available packages

yum list available

Install packages from the default stream

Syntax
yum install package_name
Example
yum install httpd

Install locally downloaded package

Syntax
yum localinstall package.rpm
Example
yum localinstall abc.rpm
Removing package
Syntax
yum remove package_name
Example
yum remove httpd

Update
Update specific package
Syntax
yum update package_name
Example
yum update vsftpd

Update whole system

To update the system to latest level
yum -y update

Update only security patches

yum -y update --security
This command can increase the minor release of the system., in some cases
it is not required then you can use more conservative approach to security
update.

yum update-minimal --security -y

CVE
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures is a list of common identifiers for
publicly known Cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each CVE has unique ID
assigned by central body.

To install specific CVE.

Syntax
yum update --cve cve-id
Example
yum update --cve CVE-2017-1000392

List all CVE

yum updateinfo list cves

Update advisory
Update advisory is the list of packages with bug fixes.
View update advisory
yum updateinfo list

Install specific advisory

Syntax
yum update --advisory=advisory_id
Example
yum update --advisory=RHBA-2020:0618

Remove unwanted dependencies

yum autoremove
Display package which provide specific file
Syntax
yum whatprovides filename
Example
yum whatprovides /etc/hosts

Clean yum cache

yum clean all

View History of Yum

To view all the past transactions of yum command, just use the following
command.
yum history
Modules
In Oracle Linux 8 a new concept of modules has been introduced. Modules
is the extension to RPM. A module is set of RPM packages that represent a
component. A module typically contains application packages, its libraries,
dependent packages and documentation including help files. Oracle Linux 8
can contain multiple versions of same package for example you can have
two versions of python or perl. These packages have its own life cycle
rather than Oracle Linux life cycle. When you install one version of module
its dependencies and libraries will be automatically installed from the
module. You can consider module as a virtual repository. For handling
module yum module command has been introduced. The modules has
extension module after rpm like example.rpm.module.

Streams and profiles

Module Streams
Modules are available in single or multiple streams which usually represent
a version of a software, providing you an option to choose what versions of
packages you want to install. Module stream is like virtual repository. Each
module may have a default stream which usually provides the latest or
recommended version of the component. Default streams make it easy to
install packages without the need to learn about modules. Modules make it
possible to have multiple versions of software available to your system for
installation.

Module Profiles
To simplify installation further, modules usually classified with set of
specific set of packages for specific workload or user case. This list of
packages is known as profile. A profile name can be anything like server,
client, development, minimal install etc.

Package management using modules

List all available modules
yum module list

It will show output in four columns

Name of the module
Stream
Profile
Summary
The output shows Steams and profiles with [d], [e], [x] and [i] in the stream
and profile column which show the status of module’s stream and profile.
Where [d] if for default, [e] for enabled [x] for disabled [i] installed.
Display information about module
Syntax
yum module info module_name
Example

yum module info nodejs

Search which module provides specific package

Syntax
yum module provides package_name
Example
yum module provides php

Display information about module’s profiles

Syntax
yum module info --profile module_name
Example
yum module info --profile nodejs

Display information about specific profiles

Syntax
yum module info --profile module_name:stream
Example
yum module info --profile nodejs:12

Install package from specific stream

To install package for other stream first you have to enable that stream and
then install the package
Syntax
yum module enable module_name:stream
Example
yum module enable nodejs:12

Install module
Syntax
yum module install module_name
Example
yum module install nodejs

This will install the module from default stream

To install module of specific stream without enabling
Syntax
yum module install module_name:stream
Example
yum module install nodejs:10

Install a selected profile of the module stream

Syntax
yum module install module_name:stream/profile
Example
yum module enable --profile httpd:2.4/devel

Remove all packages from a selected stream

Syntax
yum module remove --all module_name:stream
Example
yum module remove --all nodejs:12

Remove packages of particular profile

Syntax
yum module remove module_name:stream/profile
Example
yum module remove --profile nodejs:12/minimal
Reset a module to the initial state
Syntax
yum module reset module_name
Example
yum module reset nodejs

Disable a module and all its streams

Syntax
yum module disable module_name
Example
yum module disable nodejs
RPM
Package management using rpm.
Although yum is very versatile package manager but in some situations you
have to manage rpm packages manually
List all installed packages
rpm -qa

List specific installed package

Syntax
rpm -qa |grep package_name
Example
rpm -qa |grep gzip

Install rpm package

Syntax
rpm -ihv package_name
where -i for install
-v for verbose mode
-h show progress
Example
rpm -ihv zsh-html-5.5.1-6.el8_1.2.noarch.rpm

Update already installed package

Syntax
rpm -Uhv package_name
Example
rpm -Uhv zsh-html-5.5.1-6.el8_1.2.noarch.rpm
Check the dependency of package
Syntax
rpm -qpR package_name
Example
rpm -qpR zsh-html-5.5.1-6.el8_1.2.noarch.rpm

To list all files installed by specific package

Syntax
rpm -ql package_name
Example
rpm -ql zsh-html-5.5.1-6.el8_1.2.noarch.rpm

Remove package
Syntax
rpm -ev package_name
Example
rpm -ev zsh-html

Print information about the package before installation

Syntax
rpm -qip package.rpm
Example
rpm -qip zsh-html-5.5.1-6.el8_1.2.noarch.rpm
To rebuild the rpm database
cd /var/lib/rpm
rm __db*
rpm --rebuilddb
/usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_verify /var/lib/rpm/Packages
Package Group
Package group contain packages that perform related tasks such as System
Tools, Workstation and Minimal Install etc.
List group list
Syntax
yum grouplist

Install package group

Syntax
yum group install “Group Name”
Example
yum group install “System Tools”

Update group
Syntax
yum group install “Group Name”
Example
yum group update “System Tools”

Remove package group

Syntax
yum group remove “Group Name”
Example
yum group remove “System Tools”
 Chapter 15
Software Repositories
A Linux repository is a storage location from where Linux updates operating
system. Repositories are also used for installing new application and
updating installed applications. Each repository is a collection of software
hosted on a remote server or locally. Repository can be classified in to
multiple branches like binaries, source codes, optional etc.
To add new repository add entries in the / etc/yum.conf file , however it is
recommended to create separate file for each repository in the
/etc/yum.repos.d directory. The file extension for repository files should be
.repo .

The main components of repository files are

[repository] Each repository should have

repository ID with starts the
repository section
name=repository_name Name of the repository
baseurl=repository_url Location of the repository the
location can be http , ftp or
local
Http http://path/repo
FTP ftp://path/repo
Local file:///path/repo
enabled = 1 Defines state of repository 1
for enabled and 0 for disabled
gpgcheck = 1 Verify the GPG signature
 before installation

Example
Oracle Linux Repositories
Unlike previous versions, Oracle Linux 8 comes with two main repositories.
1 BaseOS
2 Appstream

BaseOS
BaseOS is intended to provide core set of functionality and core components
to OS independent to all types of installations. Which mean BaseOS
repository is required for all set of installation even for headless installation.

Appstream
Appstream contains additional userspace applications, languages, databases
etc. Appstream is intended for different set of workloads like http, database
or file server. Appstream gets updates more frequently than BaseOS.
Appstream is made up of rpm packages and modules.
Repository management commands
List all enabled repositories
yum repolist

List status of all repositories

yum repolist all

Add repository using repofile from internet

Example
yum config-manager --add-repo http://www.example.com/example.rep

Enable /Disable repository

Using repofile
You can enable or disable a repository by either editing repo file in the
/et/yum.repo.d or using command yum config-manager command.
To enable any repository using repo file.

open the repo file and change from enabled=0 to enabled=1. To disable any
repository, change from enabled=1 to enabled=0.
Using command
Enable any repository
Syntax
yum config-manager --set-enabled repo_name
Example
yum config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools

Disable repository
Syntax
yum config-manager --set-disabled reponame
Example
yum config-manager --set-disabled PowerTools

Clear cache after each modification

yum clean all
Set Up a Local repository
In some cases, where internet is not available you have to create local
repositories for software management. The steps for creating local
repository are following: -
1. Create directory
2. mkdir /local_repo

3. Mount the DVD on /mnt directory

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
Note : your cdrom device name can be different

4. Copy installation files to the server’s /local_repo directory

cp -r /mnt/* /local_repo

5. Copy the repo file to /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory

cp /local_repo/media.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/local_repo.repo

6. Change the permission of repo file

chmod 644 /etc/yum.repos.d/local_repo.repo

7. Edit the configuration

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/local_repo.repo

8. Changed file should look like below

[InstallMedia-BaseOS]
name=Oracle Linux 8 - BaseOS
metadata_expire=-1
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
baseurl=file:///local_repo/BaseOS/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle

[InstallMedia-AppStream]
name=Oracle Linux 8 - AppStream
metadata_expire=-1
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
baseurl=file:///local_repo/AppStream/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle

9. Clean the Cache

yum clean all

10. List repositories

yum repolist
Repository for developers
PowerTools
Powertools repository is mainly for software developers. This repository
contains number of packages required for building applications from source
code.
Enable
yum config-manager --set-enabled PowerTools

Third Party repositories

To install software which are not available on these three repositories due
license issues or scope, you can add third-party repositories. The most
common third party repositories are:-
EPEL
REMI
RPM Fusion

EPEL repository
EPEL or enterprise Linux repository is from fedora community containing
packages which are not available from Oracle official repository due to
license limitation. Most common packages are chromium, codec for audio
and videos.
To add repository
yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

Enable
yum config-manager --set-enabled epel
REMI
REMI is a free to use repository created and maintained by a Remi Collect.
The REMI provides the latest versions of the PHP stack and some other
software.

Install
yum -y install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm

Enable
yum config-manager --set-enabled remi

RPM Fusion
RPM Fusion provides proprietary multimedia software that the Oracle
Linux doesn’t want to ship.

Install
yum install --nogpgcheck https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-
8.noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8.noarch.rpm

Note: This is single line command which will add both free and non-free
RPM Fusion repositories.
 Chapter 16
Service Management System
What is service
A service is a program that runs in the background waiting to be used, or
carrying out essential tasks. When system boots, it starts many services to
achieve required state of the system. Suppose you want to start the system
in GUI mode, system has to start all the services related to Desktop
environment. Same way if you have configured the server as web server
you have to start the web services during boot process. Even to do its basic
tasks it requires many services to be running like network, date and time
etc. Unlike regular software program that is launched by the user and closes
automatically when the user log off, services can start without user
intervention and may continue to run even after the user logs off. Most of
the services runs in the background without the knowledge of users.
Software developer can develop its own software to run as service.

Introduction to SYSTEMD
Systemd is a system and service manager for most of the Linux
distributions. Oracle Linux also uses Systemd for service management.
Systemd is backward compatible with legacy SysV init scripts. The major
benefits of using Systemd for service management are:-
Easier service management
Parallelized job execution at boot time
cgroups for better resource management.
On-demand activation of daemons

Important directories and files for systemd

 Directory Description
/usr/lib/systemd/system/ Systemd unit files installed
programs .
/run/systemd/system/ Systemd unit files created at run
time.
/etc/systemd/system/ Systemd unit files created for
automatic start of the services.

System units type

Unit Description
.service For services
.device For devices
.target Equivalent to run level in sysv
.snapshot Stores state of services
.swap Encapsulate memory swap partitions or
swap files.

Commands
systemctl is the command to manage the services in Oracle Linux 8. we
will use this command to view, start, stop, enable and disable the service.

List all services

systemctl list-units --type service --all

Display status of the services

Syntax
systemctl status service_name
Example
systemctl status sshd
To check whether a service is active (running)
Syntax
systemctl is-active service_name
Example
systemctl is-active sshd

Starting and Stopping Services

Starts a service
Syntax
systemctl start service_name
Example
systemctl start httpd

Stops a service
Syntax
systemctl stop service_name
Example
systemctl stop httpd

Restart a service
Syntax
systemctl restart service_name
Example
systemctl restart httpd
Restart a service if it is running
Syntax
systemctl try-restart service_name
Example
systemctl try-restart httpd

Reloads configuration of service

Syntax
systemctl reload service_name
Example
systemctl reload httpd

Mask Service
When you mask the service it is impossible to start the service. This is very
useful in disabling dangerous and unknown services.
Syntax
systemctl mask service_name
Example
systemctl mask httpd

Unmask the service

Syntax
systemctl unmask service_name
Example
systemctl unmask httpd
Using Targets (Runlevels)
Targets are basically intended to bring the server into a specific state. Many
services and other units start and stop to bring the server to desired state.
Multiple targets can be active at the same time.

To see all of the targets available on your system

systemctl list-unit-files --type=target

View the default target

Described in /lib/systemd/system/default.target that systemd tries to reach at
boot.
systemctl get-default

To change the default target that will be used at boot

Syntax
systemctl set-default target_name
Example
systemctl set-default multi-user.target

List units tied to a target

Syntax
systemctl list-dependencies target_name
Example
systemctl list-dependencies multi-user.target
Predefined target
Target Discerption
rescue.target Single user mode.
multi-user.target Non GUI multi-user console access
graphical.target A GUI session.
custom.target custom defined targets.
emergency.target The most minimal environment for
system repair.
Shutdown or Reboot
Shutdown using systemctl
systemctl poweroff

To reboot
systemctl reboot

To boot the server in rescue mode

systemctl rescue
Enabling and disabling services
To configure any service to start at boot time we use systemctl enable
command. This command creates link file in the /etc/systemd/system/
directory. When you disable any service systemctl removes the link file for
this directory.

Configure service to start automatically

Syntax
systemctl enable service_name
Example
systemctl enable httpd

Disable service automatic start

Syntax
systemctl disable service_name
Example
systemctl disable httpd

Checks whether a service is enabled

Syntax
systemctl is-enabled service_name
Example
systemctl is-enabled httpd

List enabled services (automatic start at boot)

systemctl list-unit-files --type service
Know more about services
Syntax
systemctl cat service_name
Example
systemctl cat httpd

or

Syntax
systemctl help service_name
Example
systemctl help httpd
 Chapter 17
Users and Groups
User and group
A user is anyone who uses a computer or network service. A user can be
ether human or an account. For better management, the users are grouped
together in groups. Group is logical entity to organize users together based
on their different properties, it can be either based on same department,
same place or same work. Sometimes groups are just made to provide
certain common facilities or right to different users. When you create a user
in Oracle Linux, by default each user is given a corresponding group with
the same name known as User Private Group (UPG). For user and group
management you can use both command line and GUI mode.
Group provides following benefits: -
Easy user management
To share same resource with a number of users.
Easy permission and right assignment.

User Management Commands

Create a new user
Syntax
useradd options username
Example
useradd user3
The bellow command will create user acct1 and -c option adds description
(comment) for the user
useradd -c accounts acct1
Now when you check /etc/passwd it will show like that
acct1:x:1002:1002:accounts:/home/acct1:/bin/bash

Modify user
Syntax
usermod
Example
usermod -c finance acct1

Delete user
Syntax
userdel
Example
userdel acct1

Change or display user password expiry information.

Syntax
chage options username
Example
show account aging information
chage -l user3

Change the maximum numbers to 90 for password change

chage -M 90 user3
Change user password
Syntax
passwd username
Example
To change own password
passwd
To change other user password if you have administrator rights
passwd user3
Group commands
Add group
Syntax
groupadd option groupname
Example
groupadd finance

Delete group
Syntax
groupdel option groupname
Example
groupdel finance

Modify group
Syntax
groupmod options groupname
Example
groupmod -n finance1 finance
in this example change the group name of finance to finance1

Print the groups of the user

groups

Change the group membership

Syntax
Groupmems option groupname
Example
groupmems -g finance -a apache

List all groups on the system

less /etc/groups
User ID
UID stands for user identifier. A UID is a number assigned to each user. Linux kernel
identifies each user internally through its ID. UIDs are stored in the /etc/passwd file.
User ID for root user is 0 and all system users id is less than 1000. All user normal users
id start from 1000 onward.
You can check this in the /etc/login.defs file
grep -E '^UID_MIN|^UID_MAX' /etc/login.defs

To view a user's list of groups, UID and GIDs

Syntax
id user_name
Example
id user2

Check own groupid and userid

id

List all normal users on the system

Now you have the minimum and maximum range of normal, to list all normal users
awk -F'[/:]' '{if ($3 >= 1000 && $3 != 65534) print $1}' /etc/passwd

/etc/passwd file
/etc/passwd file hold the list of all users on the system both system users and normal
users. The format of the file is that each line represents a user. The fields in each line are
separated by : (colons). The fields have following information
1 User Name
2 The encrypted password (show x, actual location of encrypted password is
/etc/shadow file)
3 User ID number (UID)
4 Group ID of user (GID)
5 User full name
6 Home directory
 7

Login shell

List of all users on the system

awk -F':' '{ print $1}' /etc/passwd
Group ID (GID)
Groups in Linux are defined by group IDs (GIDs). GIDs are stored in the
/etc/groups file. The first 1000 GIDs are usually reserved for system use.
All application groups start from 1001 onward.

/etc/group file
/etc/group is a file that defines the groups of each user. Multiple users can
belong to same group. Each user name in the same group is separated with
commas. The fields have following information: -
1 Name of the group.
2 Password: Generally, password is not used, hence it is
empty/blank. If it is not blank, then stores encrypted password.
This is useful in implementing privileged groups.
3 Group ID (GID)
4 Users list separated by commas.
 Chapter 18
Exploring SU and SUDO
To elevate the privilege assigned to the current user you can either use su or
sudo.
SU
The su command is used to switch to another user. If executed without a
username, it will login as root user by default. su requires the password of
the target account.
To login as specific
Syntax
su username
Example
su oracle

when used with a hyphen (su -) assume the user environment of the target
user.
Example
For root user
su -
For other user
su - oracle
sudo
sudo allows users to run programs with the security privileges of another
user, by default, it uses administrator’s privileges to run commands. It is
mechanism by which you can assign some administrator task to less
privileged users without sharing administrator password. Unlike su which
requires the password of the target account, sudo requires the password of
the current user. Precede command with sudo to execute any administrative
command.
Example to run privilege command which changes system configuration
sudo yum install gzip
or change hostname
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname host2021

Run command as different user.

Syntax
sudo -u user command
Example
sudo -u user2 hostnamectl

Use sudo in interactive mode

sudo -i

Changing the sudo Configuration

Sudo stores its configuration in /etc/sudoers file. To modify the sudo
configuration, use the command visudo command. It effectively starts the
vi editor and edits as the /etc/sudoers file. The visudo command should to be
executed by administrator.
The /etc/sudoers file contains a list of users, and what commands those
users can run.
user host=(users) [NOPASSWORD:]commands
Example
%operators localhost = (apache) /usr/sbin/

Wheel group

Oracle Linux comes with default administrator group known as wheel group
if you want to assign all administrator rights to a user without sharing root
password you can add that user in wheel group. But before that make sure
the line in /etc/sudoer file it is not commented out.

To add user in wheel group

usermod --append -G wheel user_name
Example
usermod --append -G wheel user1

Note: The main difference between SU and SUDO is that in case of SU you
seek root permission through switching to superuser or root user, where as in
case of SUDO you seek root permission through a single command.
 Chapter 19
Exploring File and Directory Permissions
Linux is a multi-user operating system which can be accessed by many
users simultaneously. Therefore, it becomes utter necessary that users do
not touch each other’s data. For security and sanity of the data and system
files, the operating systems deploys different type of security system. Linux
divides authorization into 2 levels.
Ownership
Permission

Ownership
Ownership defines who can access the file or directory. To represent the
ownership Linux uses following symbols:
Symbol Description
u User (owner)
By default user who creates the file or directory
becomes the owner of the file or directory.
g Group
o Other, Grants permissions to other users.
Practically, it means everybody else.
Permission
Permission defines action allowed on the file or directory. These actions are
read write and execute. There are two ways to represent the permissions:-
1 Symbol
2 Numbers

Symbols
To represent the file permissions following symbols are used:
Symbol Permission
r Read
w Write
x Execute
Execute permission for directory allows user to access the content of the
directory.

Numeric representation of permissions

To view the permissions in numerical format each permission has a numeric
value:-
Number Permission
1 Execute
2 Write
4 Read
We use sum to represent the net permissions .
Sum Symbol Permission
0 - No permission
1 --x Execute permission
2 -w- Write permission
3 -wx Write and Execute permission
4 r-- Read permission
5 r-x Read and Execute permission
6 rw- Read and Write permission
7 rwx Read, Write and Execute
permission

Now let’s see how we use them practically. This is the output of ls -l
command :-
Other object types
In the above command output you can see other objects like

Code Object type

– Regular file
d Directory
l Symbolic link
c Character device
b Block device

Mask
Umask or user mask is the assigned default permissions when we create
new file or directory.
Check umask value
umask

To change the current session umask value.

umask 0044

To calculate the umask value just subtract the desired permissions from the
default one:
777-755 = 022

To set permanently use /etc/profile file for all users. For individual user
change ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc file.
Permissions command
chmod is the command to manage permissions

Add permission
Syntax
chmod +permssions filename
Example
chmod +x para.sh

This command will add execute permission to the file

Remove permissions
Syntax
chmod -permssions filename
Example
chmod -x para.sh

you can add or remove multiple permissions at same time

chmod +xw para.sh

Removing permissions for group

Syntax
chmod g-permission filename
Example
chmod g-xw para.sh
Remove permission for others
Syntax
chmod o-permission filename
Example
chmod o-xw para.sh

Like you can add and remove permissions for group and others at same
time.
chmod go-xw para.sh

Changing permissions using numeric value

This the most popular way for changing permissions
Syntax
chmod permissions filename
Example
chmod 700 hello.txt
this will give all permissions to the user and remove all permissions from
others and group.
Change ownership
chown command can be used to change the ownership of the file or
directory
Change the Owner of a File
Syntax
chown username filename
Example
chown user2 para2.sh

Change the Owner and Group of a File

Syntax
chown username:group filename
Example
chown user2:group2 para2.sh

Change only the group

Syntax
chown :group filename
Example
chown :user2 notes.txt

Recursively Change the file ownership

To recursively change ownership of the directory and its files
Syntax
chown -R user:group directory
Example
chown -R user2: /home/timetable
 Chapter 20
Network Time Protocol
NTP is Network Time Protocol used to sync the time of computers.
Computers worldwide use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to
synchronize their times via a hierarchy of NTP servers. The primary servers
are at stratum 1 connects to stratum 0 via satellite, radio or modems.
On Oracle Linux 8 Chrony provides implementation of NTP. Chrony is
designed for systems that are often powered down or disconnected from the
network like laptops. Chronyd is the daemon that runs in user space and
uses chrony.conf file. The NTP has two components.
Server
Client
Clients connects to server for time synchronization. NTP provides high
degree of time synchronization of computers on a network. Time
synchronization is very important for logs management, login information
and in some cases transaction fails if the time is not same on the two
machines.

Configuring chrony on server

Install chrony package
yum install chrony

The main configuration file is /etc/chrony.conf . Edit this file and add
bellow parameters.
server Ip_of_the_stratum
Example
server 192.20.3.1

If this server is in isolated network

local stratum 10

You can restrict the usage of NTP server for a host or network
Syntax
allow network/hostIP
Example
allow 192.116.1.0/24
Save the file

Now enable and start chronyd daemon

systemctl enable chronyd
systemctl start chronyd

chronyc is a command-line program to verify the configuration. It has

many options. The two main options are :-
tracking Displays system time information
sources Displays information about current sources and
other information about source.
Verify
To verify if chrony is working
chronyc tracking
also you can use
chronyc sources

On the client
Install chrony package
yum install chrony

Edit /etc/chrony.conf and add the IP address of the NTP server

server IP_address_NTP
Example
server 192.116.1.123
Save and close the file

Now enable and start chronyd daemon

systemctl enable chronyd
systemctl start chronyd

Configure ntpdate
The purpose of the ntpdate service is to set the clock during system boot.
Edit /etc/ntp/step-tickers
Add entries of server IP
Example
192.116.1.123
Enable ntpdate and start
systemctl enable ntpdate
systemctl start ntpdate

Verify
chronyc sources
 Chapter 21
Exploring Secure Shell - SSH
SSH is secure protocol for login to remote network. SSH works on server
client basis on the server sshd daemon is running and on client it connects
using ssh client. Openssh is an implementation of ssh on most of the Linux
distribution. Oracle Linux 8 also supports openssh as ssh server.

Install openssh server

yum install sshd

Enable and start sshd daemon

systemctl start sshd
systemctl enable sshd

The main configuration file used by openssh server system-wide is

/etc/ssh/sshd_config. By default, it is configured in restrictive manner. The
common settings which can be changed in sshd_config file for power users
and developers are following :-
X11Forwarding yes
AllowAgentForwarding yes
PermitRootLogin yes

After the modification in the configuration file stop and start the sshd
service.
systemctl stop sshd
systemctl start sshd
On the client
ssh login@server_ip
Example
ssh [email protected]

On windows machine use putty software as ssh client to connect server.

 Chapter 22
Secure System with Firewall
Firewalld is a firewall management solution available in the Oracle Linux
Linux 8. Firewalld is frontend for the iptables packet filtering system
provided by the Oracle Linux kernel. In this Chapter, we will cover how to
set up a firewall for Oracle Linux server and basics of managing firewall.
firewall-cmd is the command line administrative tool for managing
firewall.

Basic concepts of firewall

Zones
Zones are groups of settings that are applied to the computer depending on
where the computer is connected. Zones may contain connection settings
and connection security settings. Zones defines level of protection for your
computer. The zones are connected to networking interfaces or assigned a
range of addresses. Predefined zones are
Zone Description
drop least trusted zone in which only outgoing
connections are possible. All inbound
connections are rejected without reply.
block Only outgoing connections are allowed and
incoming connections are rejected with an
icmp-host-prohibited message.
public This setting is applied when system is
connected to less secured network like direct
 connections to public internet. Only selected
incoming connections are allowed.
external Uses NAT masquerading so that your internal
network remains private .
internal Trusted zone both way connections are allowed.
dmz Applied in DMZ or isolated computers where
only confident incoming connections are
allowed.
work Trusted zone with more services allowed.
home Trusted zone with many services are allowed.
trusted Trust all of the machines in the network.

Rule Duration
In firewalld, rules can be designated as
Permanent
Runtime.

Permanent Rules will be available even after reboot .

Runtime Rules which are available only now not after reboot.

Rule types
You can configure rules for specific
Program
Port
Predefined services: those service which are in the database of
firewall for allowing and blocking rules.
Custom
Install and Enable Your Firewall service
yum install firewalld

Start
systemctl start firewalld

Enable
systemctl enable firewalld

Displaying firewall configuration

Display all zones
firewall-cmd --get-zones

Display detailed information about all zones

firewall-cmd --list-all-zones

Display information about specific zone

Syntax
firewall-cmd --zone=zone_name --list-all
Example
firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-all

Display selected zones

firewall-cmd --get-default-zone

Display Active zone

 firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

Change firewall rules

Change zone of interface

Syntax
firewall-cmd --zone=zone_name --change-interface=interface_name
Example
firewall-cmd --zone=internal --change-interface=eth1

Change default zone

Syntax
firewall-cmd --set-default-zone=zone_name
Example
firewall-cmd --set-default-zone=internal

Change runtime rules to permanent

firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Implement permanent rules in runtime

firewall-cmd --reload
This command will reload the setting of firewall and use the permanent
settings.

Allow service
First check if this service is in the list of predefined services
firewall-cmd --get-services
List the current configuration and see list of allowed services
firewall-cmd --list-services

Add
Syntax
firewall-cmd --add-service=service_name
Example
firewall-cmd --add-service=ssh

Make current configuration as permanent

firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Add service to different Zone

Syntax
firewall-cmd --add-service=service --zone=zone_name
Example
firewall-cmd --add-service=ssh --zone=public

Remove service from allowed list

Syntax
firewall-cmd --remove-service=service_name --zone=zone_name
Example
firewall-cmd --remove-service=ssh --zone=public
After this command save current configuration as permanent
firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
Add port
List all allowed ports
firewall-cmd --list-ports

Add port
Syntax
firewall-cmd --add-port=port_no/port_type
Example
firewall-cmd --add-port=1191/tcp

Save current configuration as permanent

firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Working with zones

Add new zone

List all zones

firewall-cmd --list-all

View the default zone

firewall-cmd --get-default-zone
View Information about zone
Syntax
firewall-cmd --zone=zone_name --list-all
Command
firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-all
View Active Zones
firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

Stop firewall Service

systemctl stop firewalld

Disable firewall service

systemctl disable firewalld

Check the status of firewall

firewall-cmd --state

Check the permanent configuration

firewall-cmd --check-config

Reload the configuration

firewall-cmd --reload
GUI Firewall Management
You can also use graphical interface for firewall
Install firewall-config
yum install -y firewall-config

Use

Press
Activities then in the search bar write firewall and click firewall icon
The interface is self-explanatory
Changing the Firewall Settings
Changing Configuration

When you start the interface, by default Runtime configuration is selected

from the configuration dropdown menu for immediate change in the current
firewall settings, alternatively to apply the setting on next system start or
firewall configuration reload, select Permanent from the drop-down list.

Change zone of Connection

 To configure or add
connection to a zone start firewall-config, from the Options menu select
Change zone of connections. It will show sub menu with list of
connections available, select the desired connection from the dropdown
menu. From next dropdown menu, select the Zone.

Set default zone

 To set the
default zone for new interface or change the default zone for an existing
interface. First select the desired connection then select Options from the
menu bar, and select Change Default Zone from the drop-down menu.
Now select the require zone from the list Menu.

Configuring services
Firewall-config tool provides interface to enable and disable predefined or
custom services. First, select the zone for which, service you want to
configure. Next is to select or deselect the service check box. Selected
check boxes are for enabled services and cleared (un-selected) check-boxes
are of blocked services.
 Chapter 23
Exploring Cockpit
Cockpit is a Web based server management tool available for Oracle Linux
8. It is default server management tool. Cockpit is a very useful Web based
GUI tool with which you can monitor and manage multiple Linux servers.
Cockpit also allows you to manage networking, storage on servers,
containers, virtual machines. Logs management is quite easy with cockpit.
Installation.
If Cockpit is not already installed on the system then you can install it using
following command.
yum install -y cockpit

Start and enable the service

Run the following command to enable and start cockpit service.
systemctl start cockpit.socket
systemctl enable cockpit.socket

Check the status of the service

systemctl status cockpit.socket

Access Cockpit
Open web browser on your PC or on the server and type url :

https://<Your_serever_IP>:9090
Example
https://192.168.1.128:9090
If you are opening on the same server, you can use also use localhost
instead IP address.
 Chapter 24
Logs management
Logs are very important part of any operating system. logs are very helpful
in troubleshooting and auditing of system. Oracle Linux keeps it most of the
logs in central location /var/log directory. One of the important file is
/var/log/messages where Oracle Linux logs the kernel / core system logs.

Journalctl
Journald is the service used for collecting and storing the logs data in the
Oracle Linux. This service is used to manage the system log which includes
boot messages, kernel logs, syslog messages, service messages and system
error messages etc. By default, it keeps all logs in the memory and store
logs only in a small ring-buffer in /run/log/journal directory. if persistent
log configuration is enabled then it start storing logs under
/var/log/journal directory.

Configuration file
The main configuration file for journald is /etc/systemd/journald.conf.

Change the logs to persistent

if you want save the logs permanently on your system you can configure
storage variable in the configuration file to auto or persistent.
[Journal]
#Storage=auto
#Compress=yes
#Seal=yes
#SplitMode=uid
#SyncIntervalSec=5m
#RateLimitIntervalSec=30s
#RateLimitBurst=10000
---truncated ---

List the logs from the oldest entry

journalctl

List the logs from current boot

journalctl -b

List logs from yesterday

journalctl --since yesterday

List logs by specific Process ID

Syntax
journalctl -F _PID=PID
Example
journalctl -F _PID=2451

View running logs

journalctl -f

To stop the view press Ctrl + C

View specific number of recent entries

journalctl -n10
This command will show last 10 entries

The log entries of specific priority like all errors

journalctl -p err

To view all entries with warnings

journalctl -p warning

Rsyslog
Rocket-fast Syslog Server or rsyslog is the very popular and old processing
system used by most the Linux distributions. The log files contain messages
about the system, kernel, services, and applications. Oracle Linux 8 uses
Rsyslog as default logging service. Journald forwards all logs to rsyslog.
Rsyslog stores all logs forwarded by journald in plain text format files
under /var/log/ directory. The main configuration file of Rsyslog is
/etc/rsyslog.conf . Configuration file contains rule lines to store log
messages. It has following parameters: -
Facility
Priority
Actions
Facility Facility is process or application generating
message, Using * means all facilities.
Priority Priority is type of log message, codes are emerg
for emergency, alert, crit for critical errors, err
all errors, warn for warnings, notice, info,
debug. Using * means all priority levels.
Action Action decides what action must be taken for
the matched rule.
In the bellow example Facility is mail, Priority is all errors and Action is
log messages to mail.err file

Rsyslog can also be used for log forwarding to central log server.
 Chapter 25
Understanding Processes
Any program executed by the user or system starts process or processes to
accomplish the task. Each process has its own process ID. The process ID is
always unique during the lifetime of the process. There are two type of
processes: -

Foreground A foreground process is any command or

task you run directly on the terminal and
wait for it to complete. Some foreground
processes also require user interaction.
Background Unlike foreground process shell does not
wait for process to complete. The
background processes are non-interactive
in the nature.

Daemons
These are the special processes which runs in the background and generally
not effected by user login and logout. There are two types of daemons one
which starts with system start others which gets triggered by process or
command.

Child and parent process

When a process starts any new process, the new process is known as child
process and the process which starts the process is known as parent
processes. One parent process can have multiple child processes.
The Init process
The init process is mother of all processes. It is the first program that
executes when Linux system start. Therefore, the Init process is parent
process of all other processes.
The process id of the init process is always 1.
When processes die and its child processes are still active. then these child
processes are known as orphan process. The init process adapts any orphan
running process in the system.

Find the process ID

As mentioned each process has its own process ID. This process ID is very
important for the system, as Linux internally recognise the process with its
ID. To find out the processes ID of any running program
Syntax
pidof program_name
Example
pidof systemd

Listing all processes.

Prints the processes of the current shell
ps

List all active processes on the system

ps -e

List all process with Username

ps -eu
Show detailed process list
ps -aux
or
ps -ef

These above two commands show detailed information about the processes
which includes process id and parent process ID.

Top
Top is another command to list the processes, process id and resource
utilization summary.
top

On the top screen press q to exit

Control the processes
To stop the running process
To stop the process first check its ID
Syntax
ps -ef | grep process name
Example
ps -ef |grep http

To stop
Syntax
kill PID
Example
kill 234

Kill the process immediately forcefully without clean up

Syntax
kill -9 PID
Example
kill -9 234

Start process in background

To start any command in the background, add ampersand mark (&)
Syntax
program &
Example
tar -xvf mytest.tar . &
To move the running process to background press Ctrl +Z
tar -xvf mytest.tar .
^Z

To check the background process

bg
or
jobs

Move background process to foreground

Syntax
fg %jobid
Example
fg %2
Changing Priority of process
Every process which executes on the system has scheduling priority.
Priority decides which process will run first when CPU executes the
process. Processes with a higher priority will be executed before those with
a lower priority. The processes with the same priority executes one after the
next.

Nice and renice

You can change the priority of jobs scheduling using nice and renice
commands. by default, when you start any process it start with 0 priority
and you can change the priority with nice command from -20 to +19. where
-20 is the lowest priority and +19 is highest priority.
To modify the priority of process at the time of starting use nice command
Syntax
nice -n priority command
Example
nice -n 5 tar -xvf testdox.tar .

Change the nice value of running process

Syntax
renice -n priority -p process_id
Example
renice -n 5 -p 1235

Check the nice value of all process

Syntax
ps -eo pid,ni,comm

Check the nice value of specific process

Syntax
ps -eo pid,ni,comm | grep command
Example
ps -eo pid,ni,comm |grep cron

Only root user can change the nice value of other user’s processes and
system processes.
 Chapter 26
Monitoring Your System
System monitoring is vital task for system administration. System monitoring
avoid the abrupt system failure and denial of services

Viewing System Processes

To List the process
ps

Top command is multipurpose monitoring tool also can be used for processes
monitoring
top

Viewing Memory Usage

The free command shows the memory snapshot including total, available and
free memory
free

To display memory in GB
free -g

Viewing Block Devices

Block device in Linux is device that supports reading and writing data in
fixed-size blocks. it is usually hardware device exposed to the Linux user for
further use.
List available block device
lsblk

List device UUID of Block device

blkid

Displays a list of disk partitions of selected device

Syntax
partx -s device_name
Example
partx -s /dev/sda

List currently mounted file systems in tree format

findmnt

Orderly list of currently mounted file systems

findmnt -l

Display the list of currently mounted file systems with usage information
df

By default, df command shows the partition size in 1 kilobyte blocks, to

Display the list in human readable format i.e. Mega Bytes and GB
df -h

Display the amount of space being used by files in a directory

du
By default, du displays the disk usage in kilobytes, to view in human
readable format i.e KB, MB and GB
du -h

To view the grand total usage of the directory

du -sh

Viewing Hardware Information

Lists all PCI devices currently installed in the system

lspci

Display detailed information about all PCI devices.

lspci -v

To display more detailed information about all PCI devices.

lspci -vv

List all USB device present in the system

lsusb

List detailed information about all USB device present in the system
lsusb -v
List all pcmcia devices
lspcmcia
Display more information about PCMCIA devices
lspcmcia -v

Display information about CPUs

To view CPUs, cores , threads, vendor, family, model, etc
lscpu
or
cat /proc/cpuinfo
The main information in this output can be
CPU The logical CPU number
CORE The logical core of CPUs.
SOCKET The logical sockets .

Display hardware information

lshw

Display summary of hardware information

lshw -short

Display kernel information

uname -rv

Display hostname
hostname
Display Oracle Linux version
cat /etc/oracle-release

Hardware monitoring
Monitor all hardware resources like CPU, Memory and network in one screen
top command is the most used command with summary of all hardware
resources information
top

CPU monitoring
To monitor CPU over committing you can use
SAR
sar command is system activity reporting tool.
Install sar command
yum install sysstat

The use sar command to monitor system

Syntax
sar time number_of_sample
Example

sar 2 3
Monitor memory
vmstat command can be used to view the memory and swap space usage.
Syntax
vmstat delay count
Example
vmstat 2 3
This command will take 3 samples each after 2 seconds.

Display memory summary

vmstat -s

To monitor IO devices
iostat

List open files

This command will display all open files with respective processes
lsof
You can use grep command with this command to filter the process or file.
Network
Monitor network multiple commands are there
Display all listening ports
netstat -a

Display only tcpip listening ports

netstat -at

Display all ports

netstat -tunlp

Display routing table and with default gateway

netstat -r

tcpdump
tcpdump command mostly used as network packet analyser or packets
sniffer program for TCP/IP. This command analyse all network traffic pass
through your computer. To use this command, you should have thorough
knowledge of tcpip protocol.
Syntax
tcpdump -i interface_name
Example
tcpdump -i eth0
ss
SS utility show the network socket related information
To display all listening ports
ss -l

Display the uptime (how long the Oracle Linux system has been
running)
uptime

NFS statistics
nfsstat
to view only server side statistics
nfsstat -s

To view only client side statistics

nfsstat -c

Display information about mounted NFS file systems.

nfsstat -m
Graphical Gnome system monitor
The System Monitor application allow you to monitor the condition of the
system at any instance. Moreover, you can collect valuable information
about applications. It provides following information:-
Monitor CPU, memory, swap space and network.
Monitor processes and their properties
Control process behaviours
Search for open files
Shows disks and mounts information

Process Tab
Shows all running processes of the system with their CPU usage, memory
usage, disk usage etc. Right click the process to manipulate the selected
process.
Resource Tab
Shows all the hardware resource usage and history in graphical format.

Filesystem Tab
Shows mounted file system and their percentage of usage.
 Chapter 27
Automating your System
Automation of system makes job of administrator easy and reduces the
number of mistakes during repeated tasks. Linux offers scheduler for
handling regular jobs.
Cron is a time-based job scheduler available in Oracle Linux to run
commands at given times of intervals. Other than system wide cron table,
each user can have separate cron table to execute schedules jobs.
The system wide cron table file is /etc/crontab. /var/spool/cron/ directory
contains cron table files for each user.

To Add or edit the cron job

crontab -e
This command will open crontab file for the user in the vi editor. you can
add or change the crontab.
The format of cron file is
Minute Hour DayOfMonth Month DayOfWeek [user-name] command
Example
01* * * /opt/backup.sh
In this example the backup script will execute at 1 am every night.
Where * stands for every value, like * in the day of month field is for every
day of month, * for the month field stands for every month and * for the
day of week is for every day.
User Access Control
As crontabs can be very harmful for the system you can control the access of users
to use crontab file for scheduling jobs using /etc/cron.allow and /etc/cron.deny files.
Add the username in either of the two files to allow or deny the access to the
crontab. To avoid the confusion, if the cron.allow file is present in the /etc directory
then cron.deny file will not be used. If both files are not present than only root user
can use crontab file.

List the crontab entries

crontab -l

To delete user's crontab

crontab -r

root user can change the crontab of other users, using -u parameter
Example
crontab -u user2 -l

At
Unlike cron, which let you run a task on a regular basis at specified date and time,
at command is mostly used for scheduling adhoc jobs. The at command is
controlled by atd daemon. To use at command scheduling atd daemon should be
in running state.
Install
yum install at

To start and enable

systemctl start atd
systemctl enable atd
Check the atd daemon state
systemctl status atd

To add the job

at command with time and number of days from now.
at 4pm + 3 days
This command will open the interactive at prompt to write the command or script
name you want to schedule at the 4 PM 3 days later. Press Ctrl +d key to exit at
prompt.

To add the job without interactive prompt

at time -f scriptname
Example
at 4pm + 3 days -f /etc/opt/backup1.sh

To list the scheduled jobs

atq

To delete a scheduled job

atrm job_number
Example
atrm 3
 Chapter 28
Resetting forgotten root password
To reset the unknown root password use following procedure:-
1 Reboot the machine and at GRUB menu press e key.
2

Look for line starting with Linux and move the cursor to end of the line
using Ctrl+e and write rd.break .
3 Press Ctrl + x key.
4 It will give prompt with read only root file system.
5 Remount the file system to Read into write mode
mount -o remount,rw /sysroot
6 Change the root directory
chroot /sysroot
7 Change password
passwd
8 Create file autorelabel to enable the SELinux relabeling process on the
next boot.
touch /.autorelabel
9 Write exit and press enter.
10

Write exit and press ENTER again to start the system in normal
mode.