About this course
Course Overview
Troubleshooting is both an art and a science. An instinct and a technique. In Linux Troubleshooting Techniques and Tools (RH142), system administrators will learn techniques for troubleshooting a Linux system and how to use the troubleshooting tools available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This course is a four-day, heavily lab-oriented class designed to help learn or improve troubleshooting skills. Students will gain troubleshooting experience by debugging live systems.
Target Audience
- Linux system administrators who understand how to install and configure a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and who wish to deepen their understanding of troubleshooting on Linux.
Course Objectives
- Introduction to troubleshooting techniques
- Troubleshooting boot issues: working with advanced GRUB features, rescue and GRUB CDs, advanced ext2/ ext3 filesystem repair, rescuing RAID and LVM volumes
- Troubleshooting hardware: listing, testing, and analyzing devices
- Troubleshooting applications: diagnosing performance problems and investigating application/OS interactions
- Troubleshooting the network: configuration, testing, and diagnosing problems with basic and advanced configurations
- Security: working effectively with (and not against) security tools, including SELinux, SSL, and authentication
- Making the most of Red Hat support resources
Course Content
Unit 1 - Troubleshooting TechniquesAn introduction to troubleshooting methods, best practices, and tools.
Analysing log files; monitoring file changes; Rebuilding the RPM database.
Working with advanced GRUB features; rescue and GRUB CDs; advanced ext2/ext3 filesystem repair; rescuing RAID and LVM volumes.
An example to track configuration changes with a revision control system.
Preempting hardware failures (looking for the signs); protecting against hardware failures; redundant configurations; tools to help identify hardware failures and intermittent problems.
An overview of tools and techniques for troubleshooting applications. Some common application problems and how to solve them.
Manual configuration of network cards, troubleshooting advanced setups (bonded interfaces, virtual interfaces); connectivity issues; network diagnostic tools.
Working effectively with (and not against) security tools, including SELinux, SSL, and authentication.
Support options; Knowledgebase; certified training; initiating support calls; TAM support; developer support; bugzillas; support workflow; diagnostic and information-gathering tools
Course Prerequisites
- Red Hat System Administration I and II or RHCSA Rapid Track Course
- RHCSA certification holder or equivalent experience
- System administration knowledge under Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
This knowledge includes: installation, service management (using service and chkconfig, for example), basic system monitoring (using ps and top, and perhaps meminfo and the /proc filesystem), filesystem management (using fdisk and mkfs), and basic troubleshooting (including managing log files and perhaps the use of hardware probing tools such as ethtool and lspci).