Topic 105: Shells, Scripting and Data Management
105.1 Customize and use the shell environment
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to customize shell environments to meet users’ needs. Candidates should be able to modify global and user profiles.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Set environment variables (e.g. PATH) at login or when spawning a new shell Write Bash functions for frequently used sequences of commands Maintain skeleton directories for new user accounts Set command search path with the proper directory The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:
source /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/profile env export set unset ~/.bash_profile ~/.bash_login ~/.profile ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_logout function alias lists
105.2 Customize or write simple scripts
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to customize existing scripts, or write simple new Bash scripts.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Use standard sh syntax (loops, tests) Use command substitution Test return values for success or failure or other information provided by a command Perform conditional mailing to the superuser Correctly select the script interpreter through the shebang (#!) line Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scripts Terms and Utilities:
for while test if read seq exec
105.3 SQL data management
Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to query databases and manipulate data using basic SQL commands. This objective includes performing queries involving joining of 2 tables and/or subselects.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Use of basic SQL commands Perform basic data manipulation Terms and Utilities:
insert update select delete from where group by order by join Topic 106: User Interfaces and Desktops
106.1 Install and configure X11
Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to install and configure X11.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server Awareness of the X font server Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration file Terms and Utilities:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf xhost DISPLAY xwininfo xdpyinfo X
106.2 Setup a display manager
Weight: 1
Description: Candidates should be able to describe the basic features and configuration of the LightDM display manager. This objective covers awareness of the display managers XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager) and KDM (KDE Display Manager).
Key Knowledge Areas:
Basic configuration of LightDM Turn the display manager on or off Change the display manager greeting Awareness of XDM, KDM and GDM Terms and Utilities:
lightdm /etc/lightdm/
106.3 Accessibility
Weight: 1
Description: Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of accessibility technologies.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Basic knowledge of keyboard accessibility settings (AccessX) Basic knowledge of visual settings and themes Basic knowledge of assistive technology (ATs) Terms and Utilities:
Sticky/Repeat Keys Slow/Bounce/Toggle Keys Mouse Keys High Contrast/Large Print Desktop Themes Screen Reader Braille Display Screen Magnifier On-Screen Keyboard Gestures (used at login, for example GDM) Orca GOK emacspeak Topic 107: Administrative Tasks
107.1 Manage user and group accounts and related system files
Weight: 5
Description: Candidates should be able to add, remove, suspend and change user accounts.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Add, modify and remove users and groups Manage user/group info in password/group databases Create and manage special purpose and limited accounts Terms and Utilities:
/etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/group /etc/skel/ chage getent groupadd groupdel groupmod passwd useradd userdel usermod
107.2 Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to use cron or anacron to run jobs at regular intervals and to use at to run jobs at a specific time.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Manage cron and at jobs Configure user access to cron and at services Configure anacron Terms and Utilities:
/etc/cron.{d,daily,hourly,monthly,weekly}/ /etc/at.deny /etc/at.allow /etc/crontab /etc/cron.allow /etc/cron.deny /var/spool/cron/ crontab at atq atrm anacron /etc/anacrontab
107.3 Localisation and internationalisation
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to localize a system in a different language than English. As well, an understanding of why LANG=C is useful when scripting.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Configure locale settings and environment variables Configure timezone settings and environment variables Terms and Utilities:
/etc/timezone /etc/localtime /usr/share/zoneinfo/ LC_* LC_ALL LANG TZ /usr/bin/locale tzselect timedatectl date iconv UTF-8 ISO-8859 ASCII Unicode Topic 108: Essential System Services
108.1 Maintain system time
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to properly maintain the system time and synchronize the clock via NTP.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Set the system date and time Set the hardware clock to the correct time in UTC Configure the correct timezone Basic NTP configuration Knowledge of using the pool.ntp.org service Awareness of the ntpq command Terms and Utilities:
/usr/share/zoneinfo/ /etc/timezone /etc/localtime /etc/ntp.conf date hwclock ntpd ntpdate pool.ntp.org
108.2 System logging
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be able to configure the syslog daemon. This objective also includes configuring the logging daemon to send log output to a central log server or accept log output as a central log server. Use of the systemd journal subsystem is covered. Also, awareness of rsyslog and syslog-ng as alternative logging systems is included.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Configuration of the syslog daemon Understanding of standard facilities, priorities and actions Configuration of logrotate Awareness of rsyslog and syslog-ng Terms and Utilities:
syslog.conf syslogd klogd /var/log/ logger logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf /etc/logrotate.d/ journalctl /etc/systemd/journald.conf /var/log/journal/
108.3 Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) basics
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should be aware of the commonly available MTA programs and be able to perform basic forward and alias configuration on a client host. Other configuration files are not covered.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Create e-mail aliases Configure e-mail forwarding Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (no configuration) Terms and Utilities:
~/.forward sendmail emulation layer commands newaliases mail mailq postfix sendmail exim qmail ~/.forward sendmail emulation layer commands newaliases
108.4 Manage printers and printing
Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to manage print queues and user print jobs using CUPS and the LPD compatibility interface.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers) Manage user print queues Troubleshoot general printing problems Add and remove jobs from configured printer queues Terms and Utilities:
CUPS configuration files, tools and utilities /etc/cups/ lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq) Topic 109: Networking Fundamentals
109.1 Fundamentals of internet protocols
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should demonstrate a proper understanding of TCP/IP network fundamentals.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Demonstrate an understanding of network masks and CIDR notation Knowledge of the differences between private and public “dotted quad” IP addresses Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports and services (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 123, 139, 143, 161, 162, 389, 443, 465, 514, 636, 993, 995) Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPv6 Knowledge of the basic features of IPv6 Terms and Utilities:
/etc/services IPv4, IPv6 Subnetting TCP, UDP, ICMP
109.2 Basic network configuration
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to view, change and verify configuration settings on client hosts.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Manually and automatically configure network interfaces Basic TCP/IP host configuration Setting a default route Terms and Utilities:
/etc/hostname /etc/hosts /etc/nsswitch.conf ifconfig ifup ifdown ip route ping
109.3 Basic network troubleshooting
Weight: 4
Description: Candidates should be able to troubleshoot networking issues on client hosts.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables to include adding, starting, stopping, restarting, deleting or reconfiguring network interfaces Change, view, or configure the routing table and correct an improperly set default route manually Debug problems associated with the network configuration Terms and Utilities:
ifconfig ip ifup ifdown route host hostname dig netstat ping ping6 traceroute traceroute6 tracepath tracepath6 netcat
109.4 Configure client side DNS
Weight: 2
Description: Candidates should be able to configure DNS on a client host.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Query remote DNS servers Configure local name resolution and use remote DNS servers Modify the order in which name resolution is done Terms and Utilities:
/etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf /etc/nsswitch.conf host dig getent Topic 110: Security
110.1 Perform security administration tasks
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should know how to review system configuration to ensure host security in accordance with local security policies.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Audit a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit set Set or change user passwords and password aging information Being able to use nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a system Set up limits on user logins, processes and memory usage Determine which users have logged in to the system or are currently logged in Basic sudo configuration and usage Terms and Utilities:
find passwd fuser lsof nmap chage netstat sudo /etc/sudoers su usermod ulimit who, w, last
110.2 Setup host security
Weight: 3
Description: Candidates should know how to set up a basic level of host security.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Awareness of shadow passwords and how they work Turn off network services not in use Understand the role of TCP wrappers Terms and Utilities:
/etc/nologin /etc/passwd /etc/shadow /etc/xinetd.d/ /etc/xinetd.conf /etc/inetd.d/ /etc/inetd.conf /etc/inittab /etc/init.d/ /etc/hosts.allow /etc/hosts.deny
110.3 Securing data with encryption
Weight: 3
Description: The candidate should be able to use public key techniques to secure data and communication.
Key Knowledge Areas:
Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usage Understand the role of OpenSSH 2 server host keys Perform basic GnuPG configuration, usage and revocation Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels) Terms and Utilities:
ssh ssh-keygen ssh-agent ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa and id_rsa.pub ~/.ssh/id_dsa and id_dsa.pub /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key and ssh_host_rsa_key.pub /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key and ssh_host_dsa_key.pub ~/.ssh/authorized_keys ssh_known_hosts gpg ~/.gnupg/