Question by m: What’s the best way to practice to become a Linux server admin?
Sorry for the dumba** question, but here’s the situation.
Every job I’ve had, we’ve worked w/ a unix server set up w/ some distro of Linux. For the most part, I’ve just found myself interacting w/ the server through a terminal launched in a Windows desktop.
I haven’t had admin priviliges for the server; just basic priviliges to get in, get what I need, write what I need to, and get out.
Having not yet been put in a position to shadow the server admin, and facing experience requirements to get the position that I need to get that experience, I’m in a bind.

In the past, when doing client-server apps, I’ve just done little server applications and client applications on the same machine.
I haven’t run a server OS before, so I don’t really know how to go about looping it back to possibly act as both server and client on the same machine. This would be preferable. Alternately, I could set up a tiny, 2-3 comp at home LAN and work through that, if absolutely necessary.
For all intents and purposes, I’m a complete server admin newbie.
Any self-taught Linux server admins who managed w/o shadowing anyone or specific training classes out there? How did you do it? Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by RAVEN
The easiest way is to install Linux on a home system, learn Linux and Linux Admin from an online training source (Lynda.com, e.g.) then use what you learn on your own system. You won’t find anyone that’s willing to let you use their system for guinea pig testing, so your best option is to use the one person who won’t object – you.

What do you think? Answer below!

Question by Matthew B: Linux questions?
I have an exam this week and the review contained 200 exam prep questions. I have answered and worked my A. off on the and these are the 25 out of 200 I couldn’t figure out. They may seem remediale to some of you but I am asking to please help me with these last few so I can study the correct answers thanks.

1.Which of the following are power management protocols?
A)ACPI
B)PPP
C)SMTP
D)APM

2. Which of the following would you want to remove from a system that would serve solely as a firewall?(Choose all that apply.)
A)init
B)Telnet client
C)Linux Kernel
D)Apache server

3. Which tool would you use to setup a firewall on a Linux system?
A)Apache
B)iptables
C)wall
D)TCP wrappers

4. What is the intended purpose of the rc.local or boot.local startup script?
A)Sets system time zone and language defaults
B)Holds startup commands for its specific computer
C)Displays startup messages
D)Verifies that all other startup scripts are operating correctly

5. Which of the following protocols can help with configuration of SCSI devices?
A)SCAM
B)SMB
C)ASPI
D)ATAPI

6. Which of the following is not a responsibility of lpd?
A)Maintaining printer queues
B)Accepting print jobs from remote machines
C)Informing applications of printer’s capabilities
D)Sending data to printers

7. Which of the following would show the contents of a tarball, including size and time stamps?
A)tar xzf
B)tar tzf
C)tar tvzf
D)tar x

8. Which of the following does an ethernet switch allow but a hub does not?
A)100Mbps operation
B)Linking more than five computers
C)Full duplex operation
D)Use with 10 Base 5 cabling

9. What types of devices may be attached via the USB port?(Choose all that apply)
A)Keyboards
B)Modems
C)RAM
D)Mouse

10. How would you direct the output of the uptime command to a file called uptimestats.txt?
A)echo uptimestats.txt
B)uptime > uptimestats.txt
C)uptime | uptimestats.txt
D)uptime < uptimestats.txt

11. What role does BIND fill?
A)Allows programs to use dynamic library files
B)Translates between names and IP addresses
C)Ties together POP and SMTP servers
D)Binds and IP address to a network interface

12. You think that a router between you and a server is preventing access, which command would you use to narrow down where the problem is?
A)nslookup
B)ping
C)traceroute
D)netstat

13. Which of the following when typed in Vi's command mode, saves the file and quits the program?
A):rq
B):wq
C):rp
D):we

14.Where may the Linux root(/) partition reside?
A)On a primary or logical partition
B)On a logical partition only
C)On a primary partition only
D)On a partition that falls below the 1,024th cylinder

15. Where in a network may a network firewall reside?(Choose all that apply.)
A)In the walls between important offices
B)On an individual computer
C)In a router between network segments
D)In expensive network cables

16. Which of the following commands would provide information on programs that are consuming too much CPU time?
A)cat /proc/cpuinfo
B)df
C)top
D)uptime

17. Which of the following commands would allow you to view the last few lines of a file?
A)lastlines
B)bash
C)cp
D)tail

18. Which tool can you use to measure a hard disks speed on a Linux machine?
A)fdisk
B)e2fsck
C)speedtest
D)hdparm

19. Which of the following may be used to create a swap partition?(Choose all that apply)
A)dd
B)mknod
C)Linux fdisk
D)PartitionMagic

20. Which of the following commands will install an RPM package?
A)rpm -Uvh
B)rpm -i
C)rpm -U
D)rpm -e

21. Which of the following is true of public domain and open source software?
A)They're the same thing
B)Both allow free distribution of software
C)Represent opposing philosophies
D)They can not legally appear on the same distribution medium

22. Under which of the following circumstances might you need to edit the /etc/fstab file?
A)A hard disk has been added to the computer
B)A zip disk has been added into the zip drive
C)System performs a disk check and reports no errors
D)/boot/grub/menu.lst boot options has been changed

23. What tool can diagnose and correct many common Linux filesystem problems?
A)mkfs
B)fsck
C)chkdsk
D)scandisk

24. Which programs can be used to load a module?(Choose all that apply)
A)insmod
B)rmmod
C)modprobe
D)depmod

25. Which of the following directories must reside on its own partition.
A)/boot
B)/
C)/home
D)None, it's optional for all directories

Best answer: