LPIC-1 exam prep: the second exam
You study the topics of the second LPIC-1 exam, the shell and scripts, admin tasks, essential services, networking and security, hands-on on real servers.
Level 201 · 22 lessons · 18 practice labs
Lessons
Shell, scripts and the desktop
- Customising the shell environment
- Writing simple scripts
- The graphical interface: X11, Wayland and desktop environments
- Accessibility options
- Short task: make a script that shows a system summary at every login
Administrative tasks
- User and group accounts
- Scheduling jobs: cron, at and systemd timers
- Localisation, character encoding and time zones
- Short task: open a temporary worker’s account with an expiry and close it
Essential system services
- System time and time synchronisation
- System logging: rsyslog and the journal
- Mail transfer agent basics
- Printers and printing
- Short task: send logs to a remote log server
Networking and security
- Internet protocol fundamentals
- Persistent network configuration
- Basic network troubleshooting
- Client-side DNS
- Security administration: SUID files, open ports, limits
- Host security: turning off needless services
- Protecting data with SSH and GPG
- Capstone: apply the second exam’s topics in one scenario
Practice labs
- Define shared aliases and functions for a team: You define two aliases and a shell function for all users under /etc/profile.d and try them in a new session.
- Why is the variable missing in some sessions?: You find which startup file a PATH addition belongs in when it shows in a login shell but vanishes when called from a script, and fix it.
- Set up a ready environment template for new users: You put shell settings, a directory layout and editor configuration into /etc/skel and verify a newly created account comes with them.
- Add a user to a secondary group and verify: You add a user to the project group without disturbing the primary group and show the membership applies in a new session.
- Read and set password age from shadow fields: You interpret the /etc/shadow fields and bring three accounts' minimum, maximum and warning days in line with policy.
- Create accounts in bulk from a file and check consistency: You create accounts in bulk from a twenty-person list, check the account files with pwck and grpck and fix the error they find.
- Schedule a one-off job with at: You queue a clean-up command to run once tonight with at, see it with atq and try removing it with atrm.
- Limit who may schedule jobs: With cron.allow and at.deny you let only two accounts schedule jobs and show another account is refused.
- Move a cron line to a systemd timer: You convert a cron job that doesn't catch up on missed runs into an equivalent service and timer unit and test it with persistent scheduling.
- Filter yesterday's errors from the journal: With journalctl you filter one service's records of error priority and above from yesterday and export them to a file.
- Route one application's records to a separate file: You add an rsyslog rule writing messages on the local4 facility to a separate file and test it with logger.
- Write a rotation policy for a growing log: You write a logrotate rule that rotates the application log weekly, compresses it, keeps eight copies and signals the service afterwards, and test it with a forced run.
- Forward root's mail to an administrator: With local mail aliases you forward messages for root to an administrator account and verify with a test message.
- Inspect and clear mail stuck in the queue: You find why messages in the local mail queue aren't leaving, delete those with invalid recipients and flush the rest.
- Manage a print queue from the command line: You define a virtual printer in CUPS, send jobs, cancel a stuck one and disable and re-enable the queue.
- List open ports and SUID files: You list the listening ports and SUID files on a server and mark the two unexpected entries.
- Solve a client-side DNS problem with host and dig: On a client that can't resolve short names you find and fix the search domain and name server settings and verify with both tools.
- Encrypt with GPG and move it with the SSH agent: You encrypt a report with the recipient's public key, copy it to a remote server through ssh-agent without a passphrase-less key and decrypt it there.
About this course
You study the topics of the second LPIC-1 exam, the shell and scripts, admin tasks, essential services, networking and security, hands-on on real servers.
What you will learn
- Shell, scripts and the desktop
- Administrative tasks
- Essential system services
- Networking and security
Prerequisites
Finishing the level 101 courses of the same path, or knowing those topics, is enough.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal in the browser, connected to a private lab network. Nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at level 201; it assumes you know the topics of the lower-level courses.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.