First lab: open the terminal, get to know the server
You enter a real Kali Linux server and learn who and where you are, the server’s name, system, memory, disk, how long it has been up and what runs on it, read the commands’ help, and at the end prepare the server’s identity card yourself.
Level 101 · 35 min
You have just joined the company and been given a Linux server. Your first job is to get to know it: who are you, where are you, what is the server called, what does it run, how much memory and disk does it have?
The black window on the right is the terminal: the place where you talk to the computer by typing. Instead of clicking, you type a command, press Enter, and the server writes its answer right below.
This server belongs only to you and closes after 15 minutes without activity. Don't worry about breaking anything: "Reset environment" at the top right builds it all again.
In the first steps I give you every command; the "Type in terminal" button types it for you and you just press Enter. From the middle of the lesson you type the commands yourself, and in the last step you only see the goal.
What you will do in this lesson
- Your first words to the terminal: echo
- Who are you? whoami and id
- Where are you? pwd and ls
- Know your server: hostname, uname and os-release
- Memory and disk: free and df
- How long has it been up? uptime and date
- What runs on it? ps
- Getting help: --help
- Save your findings: your first report
- The server identity card
- Short quiz
Skills you will earn
- Printing text with echo
- Checking your identity with whoami
- Reading user and groups with id
- Finding your folder with pwd
- Listing files, hidden ones too, with ls
- Getting the server name with hostname
- Seeing the kernel version with uname
- Identifying the distribution with /etc/os-release
- Reading files with cat
- Reading memory use with free
- Reading disk use with df
- Reading a server’s uptime and load (uptime)
- Checking the server’s clock (date)
- Listing running processes (ps aux)
- Reading a command’s help (--help)
- Redirecting output to a file with > and >>
Linux quick start · Know your identity: whoami, id and groups →
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