🎯 About this course

You can already use the command line. This course teaches you to run a server: who is on it, what runs, where the data lives, how it is backed up, how it is kept up to date, and what it tells you in its logs. Every exercise names who needs it and why, uses a simulated machine that behaves like the real one, and ends with a check of the effective state rather than the file you meant to edit.

By the end you will be able to

Create, change, lock and remove accounts and groups, build shared folders that stay shared, and read an account line.
Write narrow sudo rules for single jobs, check them with visudo and sudo -l, and handle password ageing and a leaver.
Use systemctl to start, stop, enable and read the state of services, and find the cause of a failed start in the status and the journal.
Write a unit file and a timer, choose a boot target, and say what runs at start and why.
Configure a disk: partition, format, label and mount it, make the mount permanent in /etc/fstab with a UUID, and test it with mount -a.
Measure what is filling a disk with df, du and find, clean up safely, and back up, prune and restore with tar and rsync.
Plan updates with holds and reboots, install, find and remove packages, and keep a change record.
Analyse the logs and the journal with four questions, rotate logs with logrotate, and keep the journal in bounds.

Curriculum

Topics covered

People and access 5 topics

Entry check: are you ready to run a server?
A forty-five minute check of the command-line skills this course builds on, with a pointer to the earlier topic to revisit for each one.
People and accounts
What a Linux account is, how to read a line of /etc/passwd, the difference between people and service accounts, and how to create and repair accounts with useradd and…
Groups and shared folders
Groups and how to change them without removing people from others, the setgid bit that keeps a shared folder working, chgrp -R for existing files, umask, and the sticky…
sudo and least privilege
Why sudo is safer than root, how a sudoers rule is built, narrow rules in drop-in files checked with visudo -cf, how to test a grant and its refusal, and how to read the…
Passwords, expiry and leavers
Password status and ageing, why a locked password is not enough, the account expiry date, a safe offboarding order, finding and handing over a leaver's files, removing…

Services and scheduling 4 topics

What systemd runs: units and systemctl
What a service and a unit are, driving them with systemctl (status, is-active, is-enabled, list-units, --failed, cat), the two separate switches of now and at boot…
When a service fails: status, the journal and the first fix
Where to look (status, journal, unit and files), reading the Active line, exit statuses and the program's own first line, fixing a missing path and a repeated setting…
Writing your own unit
The three sections of a unit file, Type=oneshot versus simple, a full path in ExecStart, daemon-reload, start, enable and the journal, reading a failure with status 127…
Timers, boot targets and what runs at start
A timer unit that wakes a service, OnCalendar and Persistent, enabling the timer and reading list-timers, cron versus timers, and the boot path from firmware to a target…

Storage 4 topics

Disks, partitions and file systems
The four layers (disk, partition table, partition, file system), looking with lsblk and blkid, writing a gpt label and a partition with parted, creating and labelling an…
Mounting and /etc/fstab
What a mount and a mount point are, mount and umount, findmnt and df, the six fields of /etc/fstab and why UUIDs, making a mount permanent, testing with mount -a, and…
Space: df, du and the full disk
Reading df -h and df -i, finding the largest folders with du, locating leftovers with find, deleting safely with a list first, files held open by programs, and fixing…
Backups and restores
Dated archives with tar (create, list, extract into a folder), copying changes with rsync, keeping the newest N, testing a restore, and the 3-2-1 rule.

Packages and logs 4 topics

Installing, finding and removing software
Packages, repositories and dependencies, apt update and search and show, install and remove, dpkg -l/-S/-L, remove versus purge, autoremove, and why pasted scripts are…
Updates, holds and reboots
Reading apt list --upgradable, security repositories, upgrade versus full-upgrade, hold and unhold, restarting services, the reboot-required file, planning a reboot, and…
Reading the logs that matter
The files in /var/log, the systemd journal and journalctl -u/-p/--since/-n/-f, the four questions (how many, which program, when, what exactly) with grep, awk, sort and…
Rotating logs and keeping them in bounds
What logrotate does, the rule file settings (weekly, rotate, compress, missingok, notifempty), dry run and forced rotation, estimating space, limiting the journal with…

Infrastructure behind the server 4 topics

How a server starts: firmware, kernel and systemd
The parts of a start in order (firmware, boot loader, kernel, systemd and its targets, the services), a card for each with role, resource profile, failure modes, sizing…
Identity and access: from local accounts to a directory
The parts that decide who someone is and what they may do (local accounts and groups, ssh keys and sudo rules, the name service switch and PAM, a directory service), a…
Storage, backups and recovery
The parts of storage and recovery (the disk and its file system, the backup job, the second copy, the restore test), a card for each, the two numbers RTO and RPO and the…
Updates, packages and trust
The parts of the update chain (the vendor and the fix, the repository and its signing key, the package manager, the restart, the patch routine), a card for each, four…

Interview ready 2 topics

Interview ready: users, services and storage
The questions people really ask about users and groups, services and units, and disks and mounts, with model answers, a routine for timed hands-on tasks, strong and weak…
Interview ready: packages, logs and a mock round
The questions people really ask about updates, logs, rotation and backups, with model answers, strong and weak answers, four timed terminal tasks and a mock round with…

Course at a glance

See how this course is built

Where the time goes

Longer spokes mean more hours on that module.

Course roadmap click a step

Try a lesson0 / 3

Sample questions from this course. Your progress is kept only in your browser.

Week by week

Drag the slider, or press play, to walk through the course and see what you will have built by each week.

Week 1 of 8

Wk 1

Welcome to the server

The entry check and scene 1: people and accounts.

Wk 2

Groups, power and leavers

Scenes 2 to 4: shared folders, sudo, passwords and leavers.

Wk 3

Services and scheduling

Scenes 5 to 8: systemd, failed services, your own unit, timers and boot targets.

Wk 4

Storage

Scenes 9 to 12: disks, mounts, space and backups.

Wk 5

Packages and logs

Scenes 13 to 16: software, updates, logs and rotation.

Wk 6

Under the hood

Scenes 17 to 20: the start, access, recovery and the update chain.

Wk 7

Interview ready

Scenes 21 and 22: model answers, timed hands-on tasks and a mock round.

Wk 8

Capstone review

Present the capstone: the Harbour Street server handover.

What you'll build

The administrator's runbook

A runbook for harbor covering accounts and sudo, services and timers, disks and mounts, with the command that shows the effective state for each and a before-and-after transcript.

The storage and backup pack

A permanent mount with its fstab line, a space report, a dated and pruned backup routine, and a restore test with the time it took.

The infrastructure map and handover

A card for each part of the start, access, recovery and update chain, a recovery arithmetic sheet, a written patch routine, and a one-page handover.

Why take this course

Run a real server step by step
Know what is in force, not just what you typed
Recover calmly when something fails

You will build

A runbook for the office server
A storage and backup pack
An infrastructure map and handover

What you can do afterwards

Administer a server with confidence
Explain your choices and their risks
Answer administration interview questions with specifics

How to take it

💳 Delivery & fees

One course, four ways to attend. Fees are per course, in rupees excluding 18% GST (the GST-inclusive amount is shown too).Fees are per course, in Canadian dollars, before applicable GST/HST.Fees are per course, in US dollars, before any applicable local taxes. Bulk and institutional volume pricing is available.

Bulk and institutional pricing. Volume discounts are available for institutions, campuses, companies and groups enrolling several learners. Ask for a group quote →

Your fee includes our GPU lab infrastructure — no cloud credits to buy. See how we compare, with sources →

Linux system administration