Re: [lpi-examdev] LPIC-1 Exam 102 Objectives Discussion

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 9 November 2017 at 12:33, Fabian Thorns  wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> thanks for the great discussions on the LPIC-1 exams. Since the discussion
> seems to settle, it's (almost :) time to wrap things up. Before doing so,
> I'd like to share a list of additional proposals which were brought up in
> side conversations or seem worth a look for various reasons.
>
> Since they haven't been discussed in this thread yet, it would be great to
> get your thoughts on those, too.
>
>
What about:

105.3 "SQL data management". Rename to "SQL system administration" and
focus on how to create sql-users, change/set password and grants for
sql-users in postgres and mysql/mariadb.
Maybe consider sqlite.

108.1 "Maintain system time": Add timedatectl

Regards
Martin
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Re: [lpi-examdev] LPIC-1 Exam 101 Objectives Discussion

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 10 October 2017 at 22:10, Fabian Thorns  wrote:
>
> We might want to start commenting on exam 101 here.

OK. Here is my list of suggestions for updating 101:

103.2 "Process text streams using filters":
Drop fmt. Too many utilities in this topic and very few uses
fmt.
103.3 Perform basic file management"; Add unxz, bunzip2 because gunzip is
already there.
  Add  bzcat, xzcat, zcat.
103.4 "Use streams, pipes and redirects": Add GNU parellel
103.5 "Create, monitor and kill processes" Add tmux. I also tell my
students that tmux is much better than screen
104.1 "Create partitions and filesystems": Remove awareness of ReiserFS.
104.4 "Manage disk quotas": Drop this section.
105.3 "SQL data management". Rename to "SQL system administration" and
focus on
how to create sql-users, change/set password and grants for
sql-users in postgres and mysql/mariadb. Maybe consider
sqlite.
107.2 "Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs": Add
systemd-timers. On newer installation crontab and
at-jobs tools are not installed by default and
   systemd- timers are the way to do things now.
108.1 "Maintain system time": Add timedatectl
110.2 "Setup host security": Drop all about inetd.conf and /etc/inetd.conf
but keep xinetd.conf

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPIC-instructor at SuperUsers Denmark
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Re: [lpi-examdev] lpi-examdev Digest, Vol 105, Issue 2

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 9 March 2017 at 10:39, Costas Senekkis 
wrote:

> LPIC 1 materials need to be written again from scratch (my opinion) and
> from my experience what students like more are the exercises meaning to
> have practical exercises to practice in order to learn how to do things.


Well, I think there are great LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 books out there.

I am teaching LPIC 1 and 2 for 40-50 people a year.

For LPIC-2 I am using a book by William "Bo" Rothwell.
http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/store/lpic-2-cert-guide-201-400-and-202-400-exams-9780789757142

For the LPIC-1 I am using two books:
"LPIC-1 Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide" from Sybex
and
"CompTIA Linux+/LPIC-1 Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Second Edition
(Exams LX0-103 & LX0-104/101-400 & 102-400)"

They also contains quiz and exercises.


Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
SuperUsers A/S, Denmark
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[lpi-examdev] 208.1 suggestion

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  Under 208.1 is listed apache2ctl but not apachectl.

  The real tool released from The Apache Group is called apachectl.
  I know that some distributions used to rename this to apache2ctl but
apachectl is
the officiel name so it should also be part of 208.1 objective.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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[lpi-examdev] 209.1 samba suggestions

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  209.1 only mnetions Samba 3.
However Samba 4 was released december 2012 and all
versions 3.6.3 and below of Samba has a serious security problem.

  Also I am missing the great tools swat for configuration of samba in
objective 209.1

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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[lpi-examdev] My reasons for including SQL knowledge for Junior Linux Sysadm students.

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

My 102 students often asks me why SQL is needed for a Linux sysadm.

I give the reason that they might need to install some software eg. a CMS,
that
requires a SQL database and a SQL user.
And they shouldn't just give the MySQL root-password to the developers.

I also tell them that MySQL is much more used than other RDBS on Linux so
they should focus on MySQL.
Then I teach them how to create a MySQL user, a little bit about grants and
how to create an database.

I think that a Junior Linux Sysadm. should be able to create a MySQL user
and database.
However he/she doesn't need to understand group by, subqueries etc.

I know that PostgreSQL is much better for programming but for a Junior
Level
Sysadm. specific MySQL knowledge is important.

So move the focus away from the SQL language to more sysadm. task based
items eg. create a MySQL user, database, backup/restore etc.

/Martin
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Re: [lpi-examdev] suid

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 7 February 2015 at 21:24, Sandor Strohmayer 
sstrohma...@linuxcourseware.com wrote:

 I agree that suid will not be allowed on a script, but why bring it up as
a special topic.  From a teaching perspective (and as you pointed out) the
issue should be pointed out as part of the general suid discussion


I still think that there is a problem with the text.

The text currently says:
Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scripts

***Manage*** the ***suid-rights*** of scripts.

There is nothing to manage. It doesn't matter if it is on or off.

I agree that students can be told that you can't change the effective user
of a shell-script with the suid-bit.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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[lpi-examdev] Suggestions for 202 exams (remove)

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi again,
  Here are two things I think should be removed from 202:

211.2 procmail
  Does anyone use procmail anymore ? I used it myself in the 90's.
  But I want to torture my students teaching than procmail rules in details.

207.3 Securing a DNS Server
  I think DNSSEC are too advanced topic here.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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[lpi-examdev] Suggestions for 202 exams (adds)

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi again,
   I think that the following should be added to the 202 exams:

208.?? Varnish
  Varnish is a very effective and common used HTTP accelerator and much
better than squid for this use case.
  It is also quite easy to configure.

212.3 ssh-keygen
  This tool for making ssh keys are missing (strange)

212.3 ssh-copy-id
   This tool for added/uploading ssh keys are good to know.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPI Instructor at
SuperUsers A/S
Denmark
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Re: [lpi-examdev] Extra stuff for 201

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 29 July 2014 16:10, Alessandro Selli alessandrose...@linux.com wrote:

 200.2 zabbix
   Because my students are moving away from nagios and are using zabbix
 instead.


   I would like to know how your experience is reflected in the IT industry
 at large.  Sometimes one's own experience turns out to be the situation of
 a minority except in his/her own environment.


:-) I agree. I will gladly tell where I got my experience from so other can
better judge it.

I have been teaching various open source courses the last seven years.
I have about 4-8 students in each class which gives a total of about
150-200 different students during one year. Maybe half of them are LPI
students and works with sysadm.
The rest are programmers and comes for learning perl, java, shell
programming etc.
101 and 102 are each four days course
201 and 202 are each three days course.

I ask most of my students about their monitoring tools because I used to
work with Nagios and BigBrother/Hobbit before I start teaching.

Some of using IBM Tivoli and similiar expensive products. Those people also
have Mainframes etc.

Some use their own build products.

Very few uses Nagios and fewer each year. Some of them who uses nagios
talks about moving away from it.
And a lot uses Zabbix. Maybe the Zabbix/Nagios ratio are 5:1 currently for
my students.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
Instructor at SuperUsers A/S, Denmark
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[lpi-examdev] Status of 101+102 update ?

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,

  What are the plan for updating the 101 and 102 ?

  The latest revision is from April 2009 according to
  https://www.lpi.org/linux-certifications/programs/lpic-1
  and I really thinks it needs a lot of updates.


Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPI trainer at SuperUsers
http://superusers.dk/
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[lpi-examdev] 211.2 Managing Local E-Mail Delivery - Procmail

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  I suggest that 211.2 is rewritten and procmail is dropped.
  Is anyone using procmail anymore ?

Regards
Martin
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Re: [lpi-examdev] 211.2 Managing Local E-Mail Delivery - Procmail

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 11 March 2014 20:42, Jens Schüßler j...@trash.net wrote:
 * Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen traxpla...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi,
   I suggest that 211.2 is rewritten and procmail is dropped.
   Is anyone using procmail anymore ?

 I do. And many others I'm aware of too. Anything wrong with using it? It
 just works like it should.

Well, maildrop is a active project.

The last stable procmail release was version 3.22, made in September of 2001.

From https://lwn.net/Articles/416901/

Officially, the last stable procmail release was version 3.22, made in
September of 2001. As one might expect, there has never been an
official the project is dead announcement. Instead, only
circumstantial evidence exists. Although several of the FTP mirrors
include what appear to be development snapshot packages as recent as
November of 2001, there does not appear to have been any substantial
work since that time. The developers' mailing list has hardly seen a
non-spam blip since 2003.


and



But there are risks inherent in running abandonware, even if it was of
stellar quality at the last major release. First and foremost are
unfixed security flaws. Mitre.org lists two vulnerabilities affecting
procmail since 2001: CVE-2002-2034, which allows remote attackers to
bypass the filter and execute arbitrary code by way of
specially-crafted MIME attachments, and CVE-2006-5449, which uses a
procmail exploit to gain access to the Horde application framework. In
addition, of course, there are other bugs that remain unfixed. Matthew
G. Saroff pointed out onelong-standing bug, and the procmail site
itself lists a dozen or so known bugs as of 2001.

Just as importantly, the email landscape and the system administration
marketplace have not stood still since 2001, either. Ed Blackman noted
that procmail cannot correctly handle MIME headers adhering to RFC
2047 (which include non-ASCII text), despite the fact that RFC 2047
dates back to 1996. RFC 2047-formatted headers are far from mandatory,
but they do continue to rise in frequency.



Regards
Martin
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[lpi-examdev] Comment on LPIC-2 v4 208.4 Implementing Nginx as a web server and a reverse proxy

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  Currently it says under 208.4:


208.4 Implementing Nginx as a web server and a reverse proxy
Description  Candidates should be able to install and configure a
reverse proxy server, Nginx. Basic configuration of Nginx as a HTTP
server is included.


I think Varnish should be used in 208.4 instead of Nginx.
Varnish is made for reverse proxy while Nginx is a web server which
also can be used as a reverse proxy.

Varnish is used by many of the largest websites in the world.
( https://www.varnish-software.com/who-relies-on-varnish )

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPI Instructor at SuperUsers Denmark
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[lpi-examdev] Comments on 206.2 Backup operations

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  LPI-2 version 4 says:

  206.2 Backup operations
  Description   Candidates should be able to use system tools to back
up important system data.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:
/bin/sh
cpio
dd
tar
/dev/st* and /dev/nst*
mt
rsync


Does anyone uses cpio anymore ? And for backup ?
And what about dd ? dd is usefull for copying the MBR or making a
iso-file from a data cdrom but I don't
think it should be under backup operations.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPI Instructor at SuperUsers Denmark.
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Re: [lpi-examdev] Comments on 206.2 Backup operations

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 5 June 2013 21:39, Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen
traxpla...@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi,
   LPI-2 version 4 says:

   206.2 Backup operations
   Description   Candidates should be able to use system tools to back
 up important system data.

My favorite livecd for doing manual backups is clonezilla which uses
many tools including the
great partclone.

http://partclone.org/
http://clonezilla.org/

Maybe partclone or clonezilla should be awardness in this objective ?

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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Re: [lpi-examdev] 203.2 Maintaining a Linux filesystem (version 4.0.0rc1)

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

 in the list of used files, terms and utilities for this topic is
 mentioned the badblock command. I don't remember when I used it last
 time, but it was at least 10 years ago; and I don't think anybody today
 will insist to use a disk with hardware problems.

 So I suggest to remove it.

totally agree. The badblocks program is useless.

/Martin
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Re: [lpi-examdev] Attempt to make a XML objectives file

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 15 January 2013 17:07, G. Matthew Rice m...@starnix.com wrote:
 Hey, Martin.

 It's looking good to me.  Could I make a few change suggestions, though.

Thanks for your suggestions. I like and will use some of them.
A new version of the xml file will soon be ready.

Regards
Martin
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[lpi-examdev] Attempt to make a XML objectives file

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

Hi,
  Please find attached a xml objective file for exam 101 with a schema.
  I hope that it is usefull for furthur discussing and someone else will
continue the work for the other exams. It only took a few hours for me to
complete the 101 xml-file.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
LPI Instructor
SuperUsers Denmark
?xml version=1.0  encoding=utf-8?
LPIExams xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance; xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation=LPIObjectives.xsd
  Exam number=101
Topic number=101 title=System Architecture
  SubTopic number=101.1 title=Determine and configure hardware settings weight=2
DescriptionCandidates should be able to determine and configure fundamental system hardware./Description
	KeyKnowledgeAreas
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaEnable and disable integrated peripherals./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaConfigure systems with or without external peripherals such as keyboards./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaDifferentiate between the various types of mass storage devices./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaSet the correct hardware ID for different devices, especially the bootdevice./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaKnow the differences between coldplug and hotplug devices./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaDetermine hardware resources for devices./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaTools and utilities to list various hardware information (e.g. lsusb, lspci, etc.)/KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaTools and utilities to manipulate USB devices/KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaConceptual understanding of sysfs, udev, hald, dbus/KeyKnowledgeArea
	/KeyKnowledgeAreas
TermAndUtilities
  TermAndUtility/sys/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtility/proc/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtility/dev/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtilitymodprobe/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtilitylsmod/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtilitylspci/TermAndUtility
  TermAndUtilitylsusb/TermAndUtility
/TermAndUtilities
  /SubTopic
  SubTopic number=101.2 title=Boot the system weight=3
DescriptionCandidates should be able to guide the system through the booting process./Description
	KeyKnowledgeAreas
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaProvide common commands to the boot loader and options to the kernel at boot time./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaDemonstrate knowledge of the boot sequence from BIOS to boot completion./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaCheck boot events in the log files./KeyKnowledgeArea
	/KeyKnowledgeAreas
TermAndUtilities
	  TermAndUtility/var/log/messages/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilityBIOS/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilitykernel/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilitydmesg/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilitybootloader/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilityinit/TermAndUtility
	/TermAndUtilities
  /SubTopic
  SubTopic number=101.3 title=Change runlevels and shutdown or reboot system weight=3
DescriptionCandidates should be able to manage the runlevel of the system. This objective includes changing to single user mode, shutdown or rebooting the system. Candidates should be able to alert users before switching run level and properly terminate processes. This objective also includes setting the default run level. It also includes basic feature knowledge of potential replacements to init./Description
KeyKnowledgeAreas
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaSet the default runlevel./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaChange between run levels including single user mode./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaShutdown and reboot from the command line./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaAlert users before switching runlevels or other major system event./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaProperly terminate processes./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaKnowledge of basic features of systemd and Upstart./KeyKnowledgeArea
/KeyKnowledgeAreas
TermAndUtilities
	  TermAndUtility/etc/inittab/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilityinit/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilitytelinit/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilityshutdown/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtility/etc/init.d/TermAndUtility
/TermAndUtilities
  /SubTopic
/Topic
Topic number=102 title=Linux Installation and Package Management
  SubTopic number=102.2 title=Design hard disk layout weight=2
DescriptionCandidates should be able to design a disk partitioning scheme for a Linux system./Description
	KeyKnowledgeAreas
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaAllocate filesystems and swap space to separate partitions or disks./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaTailor the design to the intended use of the system./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaEnsure the /boot partition conforms to the hardware architecture requirements for booting./KeyKnowledgeArea
	  KeyKnowledgeAreaKnowledge of basic features of LVM/KeyKnowledgeArea
	/KeyKnowledgeAreas
TermAndUtilities
	  TermAndUtility/ (root) filesystem/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtility/home filesystem/TermAndUtility
	  TermAndUtilitymount 

Re: [lpi-examdev] LPI-202 LILO.

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 11 July 2012 10:33, Guillaume Allegre allegre.guilla...@free.fr wrote:
 In my experience, Lilo is much easier and quicker to teach than Grub, since 
 it uses
 the standard Linux conventions (/dev/sda1, not (hd0,1)) and simpler concepts.

 So, should it be a waste of time, it'd be a very small waste.

Well,

  Then you also have to teach the different error message from lilo
like LI or LIL when booting and lilo fails.


/Martin
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Re: [lpi-examdev] Time to launch the 305 exam

[Martin Møller Skarbiniks Pedersen]

On 13 September 2010 20:56, Daniel Curry dan...@l4smb.net wrote:
  I'm VERY excited about this test.

 Not being a fan of greylisting, I believe it should be removed.


I think that greylisting should stay in the objects.
And maybe adding something about SPF-records. Too few sites
implements and support them.

Instead consider removing the whole Messaging Services.

Regards
Martin M. S. Pedersen
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