Linux Beginner’s Guide!

Linux commands, scripting, services and applications, access control, process control, user management, database management, web services and similar topics will be covered.

Part 1: Introduction to Linux and OS Installations

• What is Linux? How Does Linux Work?
• Basic Guide to Linux Boot Process
• Linux Directory Structure and Key Files
• How to Install for Free
• Installing VMware Workstation to Test Different Linux Distributions
• Best Linux Distributions for Beginners

Part 2: Essential Linux Commands

• ls – List Files and Directories
• cd – Navigate Between Directories
• pwd – Check Current Working Directory
• dir – List Directory Contents
• mkdir – Create New Directories
• rmdir – Remove Directories
• mv – Rename or Move Files/Directories
• cp – Copy Files/Directories
• touch – Create New Files
• find – Locate Files/Directories
• cat – Display File Contents
• df – Check Disk Space Usage
• du – Monitor File/Directory Disk Usage
• tar – Create, Extract, and List Archive Files
• grep – Search Patterns/Strings in Text Files
• ln – Create Hard/Symbolic Links
• alias – Create Command Shortcuts
• echo – Print Text to Terminal
• tail – Display Last 10 Lines of a File
• top – List Running Processes
• ps – List Processes with PIDs
• kill – Terminate Processes by PID
• uniq – Remove Duplicate Lines

Part 3: Fundamentals of Advanced Linux Commands

• Must-Know ls Command Variations
• Efficient File Management with head, tail, and cat
• Counting Lines/Words/Characters Using wc
• Basic File Sorting with sort
• Advanced File Sorting Techniques
• pydf: Alternative Disk Usage Tool to df
• Monitoring RAM Usage with free
• Advanced File/Directory Renaming with rename
• Printing Text/Strings Using echo

Part 4: More Advanced Linux Commands

• 20 Useful Commands for Windows-to-Linux Migrants
• 20 Intermediate-Level Commands
• 20 Expert-Level Commands
• 24 Fun Terminal Commands to Try
• 6 Amusing Linux Commands (Terminal Fun)
• 51 Lesser-Known Useful Commands
• Dangerous Commands You Should NEVER Run

Part 5: User, Group, and Permission Management

• Adding Users with useradd
• Modifying User Attributes with usermod
• Advanced User/Group and File Permission Management
• su vs. sudo – Configuration Guide (Advanced)
• Monitoring User Activity with psacct/acct Tools

Part 6: Linux Package Management

• YUM (CentOS/RHEL/Fedora)
• RPM (CentOS/RHEL/Fedora)
• APT-GET/APT-CACHE (Debian/Ubuntu)
• DPKG (Debian/Ubuntu)
• Zypper (SUSE/openSUSE)
• Advanced Package Management Comparison
• 27 Essential DNF Commands (YUM Fork)

Part 7: System Monitoring & Cron Scheduling

• Process Monitoring with top
• Process Management via kill, pkill, killall
• File Process Management with lsof
• Job Scheduling with cron
• 20 System Performance Commands
• 13 Performance Monitoring Tools
• Nagios Monitoring (Advanced)
• Zabbix Monitoring (Advanced)
• Shell Scripts for Network/Disk/Uptime/RAM Monitoring

Part 8: Archiving/Backup/Recovery

Archiving/Compression:

• Using tar for File Archiving
• Handling RAR Files in Linux
• 5 Compression Tools
• Advanced Archiving/File Attributes

Backup/Sync:

• rsync for Local/Remote Sync
• File Transfer with scp
• Rsnapshot (Rsync-Based Backups)
• Advanced Web Server Sync

Recovery:

• System Backup/Restore with Redo Backup
• Disaster Recovery via Mondo Rescue
• File Recovery Using Scalpel
• 8 Disk Cloning Tools

Part 9: Filesystem & Network Storage

• Ext2/Ext3/Ext4: Creation/Conversion
• Understanding Linux Filesystems
• Advanced FS Configuration
• NFSv4 Server Setup (Advanced)
• Mounting Local/Network (Samba/NFS) FS
• BtrFS Management (Advanced)
• GlusterFS Intro & Setup (Advanced)

Part 10: LVM Management

• Flexible Storage with Logical Volume Manager
• Extending/Reducing LVM Volumes
• Snapshots and Restoration
• Thin Provisioning
• I/O Striping Across Multiple Disks
• Migrating Partitions to New Logical Volumes

Part 11: RAID Management

• RAID 0 (Striping) with mdadm
• RAID 1 (Mirroring) Setup
• RAID 5 (Distributed Parity)
• RAID 6 (Double Parity)
• RAID 10 (Nested) Configuration
• Expanding Arrays and Replacing Failed Disks
• Merging Partitions as RAID Devices

Part 12: Service Management

• Auto-Starting Services
• Disabling Unwanted Services
• Managing systemd with systemctl
• Boot Process and Service Management

Part 13: Security & Firewalls

Security:

• Linux Security Tools
• 25 Server Hardening Tips
• 5 SSH Security Best Practices
• GRUB Password Protection
• SSH/MOTD Banner Security
• Auditing with Lynis
• ACLs for File Security
• Network Performance/Security Auditing
• SELinux MAC Basics

Firewalls:

• IPTables Fundamentals
• Configuring IPTables
• FirewallD Setup
• Essential FirewallD Rules
• UFW (Uncomplicated Firewall)
• Shorewall (High-Level Config)
• CSF (ConfigServer Firewall)
• IPFire Distribution
• pfSense 2.1.5 Setup
• 10 Open-Source Firewalls

Part 14: LAMP Stack

• Ubuntu 14.04 + LAMP Setup
• Building a Web Server
• Apache Virtual Hosts (IP/Name-Based)
• SSL with Name-Based Hosting
• DDoS Protection via mod_security/mod_evasive
• 13 Apache Security Tips
• Syncing Web Servers with rsync
• Varnish (HTTP Accelerator) + Load Testing

Part 15: LEMP Stack

• LEMP Installation
• FcgiWrap Setup for Perl/Ruby/Bash

Part 16: MySQL/MariaDB

• Basic Database Commands
• 20 mysqladmin Commands
• Backup/Restore Procedures
• Master-Slave Replication
• Monitoring with mytop/mtop
• Performance Tuning

Part 17: Bash Scripting Basics

• Understanding Shell Scripting
• 5 Beginner Scripts
• BASH Programming Fundamentals
• Math in Bash
• Calculating Expressions
• Writing Functions
• Advanced Function Techniques
• Working with Arrays
• Variable Usage
• Nested Variables & Predefined BASH Variables