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Administering a Linux server

From a first SSH connection to a machine you can monitor, back up and repair.

9 courses · about 1177 minutes

This path assumes you have never administered a server. It starts with connecting and the shell, then adds, in order, what makes a machine sustainable: services, accounts, scripts, the firewall, monitoring, backups, and finally the method to apply when something breaks.

What you will be able to do

  • Connect to a server and find your way around it with no graphical interface
  • Install, start and troubleshoot a service with systemd
  • Create accounts and grant exactly the rights they need
  • Close the access nobody uses, and watch what the machine exposes
  • Restore a backup, and know what it does not contain
  • Diagnose a failure from what the machine has already told you

The path

  1. Your first server

    What a server is, how to connect to one for the first time, and how to keep it updated without breaking it.

    7 lessons · about 136 minutes

  2. Linux Fundamentals

    First steps in a Linux terminal: finding your way around the filesystem, reading files, and understanding permissions.

    11 lessons · about 193 minutes

  3. Managing services with systemd

    Start, stop and diagnose services on an Ubuntu server, and write a unit for your own application.

    7 lessons · about 130 minutes

  4. Users, sudo and SSH access

    Create accounts, grant privileges with sudo, and secure SSH with keys — without ever locking yourself out.

    4 lessons · about 85 minutes

  5. Bash scripting for administrators

    Automate administrative tasks without writing a script that fails silently or destroys data through an empty variable.

    5 lessons · about 124 minutes

  6. Firewall and hardening

    Close what has no business being open, slow automated attacks down, and check regularly what the server exposes — without locking yourself out.

    5 lessons · about 130 minutes

  7. Monitoring a server

    Read disk, memory and load correctly, control log growth, and find out before your users do.

    5 lessons · about 126 minutes

  8. Backups and restores

    Back up a database and files, apply retention, and above all verify that a restore works before you need it.

    5 lessons · about 125 minutes

  9. Diagnosing a failure: what each output proves

    Read what each output actually proves, narrow an unknown failure down to one component, and fix it without destroying the evidence that explained it.

    6 lessons · about 128 minutes