Exam 102: Detailed Objectives

This is a required exam for LPI certification Level 1. It covers basic skills for the Linux Professional that are common across all distributions of Linux.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: These are the current 102 objectives, which are valid effective 2009-04-01.

Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights range roughly from 1 to 10 and indicate the relative importance of each objective. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Objectives: Exam 102

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:

· /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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· for

· while

· test

· if

· read

· seq

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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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 X and an X font server.

Key Knowledge Areas

· Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server.

· Install and configure an X font server.

· Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration file.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/X11/xorg.conf

· xhost

· DISPLAY

· xwininfo

· xdpyinfo

· X

106.2 Setup a display manager

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able setup and customize a display manager. This objective covers the display managers XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager) and KDM (KDE Display Manager).

Key Knowledge Areas

· Turn the display manager on or off.

· Change the display manager greeting.

· Change default color depth for the display manager.

· Configure display managers for use by X-stations.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/inittab

· xdm configuration files

· kdm configuration files

· gdm configuration files

106.3 Accessibility

Weight	1
Description	Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of accessibility technologies.

Key Knowledge Areas

· Keyboard Accessibility Settings (AccessX?)

· Visual Settings and Themes

· Assistive Technology (ATs)

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/passwd

· /etc/shadow

· /etc/group

· /etc/skel

· chage

· 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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

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

· Locale settings.

· Timezone settings.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/timezone

· /etc/localtime

· /usr/share/zoneinfo

· Environment variables:

o LC_*

o LC_ALL

o LANG

· /usr/bin/locale

· tzselect

· tzconfig

· 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

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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	2
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.

Key Knowledge Areas

· syslog configuration files

· syslog

· standard facilities, priorities and actions

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· syslog.conf

· syslogd

· klogd

· logger

108.3 Mail Tranfer 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)

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· ~/.forward

· sendmail emulation layer commands

· newaliases

· mail

· mailq

· postfix

· sendmail

· exim

· qmail

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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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 network masks.

· Knowledge of the differences between private and public "dotted quad" IP-Addresses.

· Setting a default route.

· Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119, 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 993, 995).

· Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP.

· Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPV6.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/services

· ftp

· telnet

· host

· ping

· dig

· traceroute

· tracepath

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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/hostname

· /etc/hosts

· /etc/resolv.conf

· /etc/nsswitch.conf

· ifconfig

· ifup

· ifdown

· 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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· ifconfig

· ifup

· ifdown

· route

· host

· hostname

· dig

· netstat

· ping

· traceroute

109.4 Configure client side DNS

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to configure DNS on a client host.

Key Knowledge Areas

· Demonstrate the use of DNS on the local system.

· Modify the order in which name resolution is done.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/hosts

· /etc/resolv.conf

· /etc/nsswitch.conf

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.

· Basic sudo configuration and usage.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· find

· passwd

· lsof

· nmap

· chage

· netstat

· sudo

· /etc/sudoers

· su

· usermod

· ulimit

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.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

· /etc/nologin

· /etc/passwd

· /etc/shadow

· /etc/xinetd.d/*

· /etc/xinetd.conf

· /etc/inet.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 puplic 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 and usage.

· Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels).

The following is a partial list of the used files, 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

· /etc/ssh_known_hosts

· gpg

· ~/.gnupg/*