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Unit-V (Operating System)

The document discusses the role and responsibilities of a Linux system administrator. It outlines 15 important directories in the Linux file hierarchy structure that a system administrator should understand, such as /bin, /boot, /dev, /etc, /home, /lib, /mnt, /opt, /proc, /root, /sbin, /srv, /tmp, and /usr. As a Linux system administrator, it is important to have knowledge of Linux file systems like Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4 and how to perform tasks like partitioning disks and configuring file system permissions.

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25 views

Unit-V (Operating System)

The document discusses the role and responsibilities of a Linux system administrator. It outlines 15 important directories in the Linux file hierarchy structure that a system administrator should understand, such as /bin, /boot, /dev, /etc, /home, /lib, /mnt, /opt, /proc, /root, /sbin, /srv, /tmp, and /usr. As a Linux system administrator, it is important to have knowledge of Linux file systems like Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4 and how to perform tasks like partitioning disks and configuring file system permissions.

Uploaded by

zakir hussain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIT-V

Linux System Administrations

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Linux System Administration:


Linux is a major strength in computing technology. Most web servers, mobile phones,
personal computers, supercomputers, and cloud servers are powered by Linux. The job of a Linux
systems administrator is to manage the operations of a computer system like maintaining, enhancing,
creating user accounts/reports, and taking backups using Linux tools and command-line interface tools.
Most computing devices are powered by Linux because of its high stability, high security, and open-
source environment. There are some of the things that a Linux system administrator should know and
understand.

Linux File Systems


A Linux system administrator should have a solid knowledge and understanding of the various Linux
file systems used by Linux like Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4. Understanding the difference between these file
systems is important so that one can easily perform tasks and partition disks or configure Linux file
system permissions.

Linux File Hierarchy Structure

The Linux File Hierarchy Structure or the File system Hierarchy Standard (FHS) defines the directory
structure and directory contents in Unix-like operating systems. It is maintained by the Linux
Foundation.

 In the FHS, all files and directories appear under the root directory /, even if they are stored on
different physical or virtual devices.
 Some of these directories only exist on a particular system if certain subsystems, such as the X
Window System, are installed.
 Most of these directories exist in all UNIX operating systems and are generally used in much the
same way; however, the descriptions here are those used specifically for the FHS and are not
considered authoritative for platforms other than Linux.

1. / (Root): Primary hierarchy root and root directory of the entire file system hierarchy.
 Every single file and directory start from the root directory.
 The only root user has the right to write under this directory.
 /root is the root user’s home directory, which is not the same as /
2. /bin: Essential command binaries that need to be available in single-user mode; for all users, e.g.,
cat, ls, cp.

 Contains binary executables.


 Common linux commands you need to use in single-user modes are located under this directory.
 Commands used by all the users of the system are located here e.g. ps, ls, ping, grep, cp

3. /boot: Boot loader files, e.g., kernels, initrd.


 Kernel initrd, vmlinux, grub files are located under /boot
 Example: initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic, vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic

4. /dev: Essential device files, e.g., /dev/null.


 These include terminal devices, usb, or any device attached to the system.
 Example: /dev/tty1, /dev/usbmon0

5. /etc: Host-specific system-wide configuration files.


 Contains configuration files required by all programs.
 This also contains startup and shutdown shell scripts used to start/stop individual programs.
 Example: /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/logrotate.conf.

6. /home: Users’ home directories, containing saved files, personal settings, etc.

 Home directories for all users to store their personal files.


 example: /home/kishlay, /home/kv

7. /lib: Libraries essential for the binaries in /bin/ and /sbin/.


 Library filenames are either ld* or lib*.so.*
 Example: ld-2.11.1.so, libncurses.so.5.7

8. /media: Mount points for removable media such as CD-ROMs (appeared in FHS-2.3).
 Temporary mount directory for removable devices.
 Examples, /media/cdrom for CD-ROM; /media/floppy for floppy drives; /media/cdrecorder for
CD writer

9. /mnt: Temporarily mounted file systems.


 Temporary mount directory where sysadmins can mount filesystems.

10. /opt: Optional application software packages.

 Contains add-on applications from individual vendors.


 Add-on applications should be installed under either /opt/ or /opt/ sub-directory.

11. /sbin : Essential system binaries, e.g., fsck, init, route.

 Just like /bin, /sbin also contains binary executables.


 The linux commands located under this directory are used typically by system administrators, for
system maintenance purposes.
 Example: iptables, reboot, fdisk, ifconfig, swapon

12. /srv : Site-specific data served by this system, such as data and scripts for web servers, data offered
by FTP servers, and repositories for version control systems.

 srv stands for service.


 Contains server specific services related data.
 Example, /srv/cvs contains CVS related data.

13. /tmp :Temporary files. Often not preserved between system reboots and may be severely size
restricted.

 Directory that contains temporary files created by system and users.


 Files under this directory are deleted when the system is rebooted

14. /usr : Secondary hierarchy for read-only user data; contains the majority of (multi-)user utilities
and applications.

 Contains binaries, libraries, documentation, and source-code for second level programs.
 /usr/bin contains binary files for user programs. If you can’t find a user binary under /bin, look
under /usr/bin. For example: at, awk, cc, less, scp
 /usr/sbin contains binary files for system administrators. If you can’t find a system binary
under /sbin, look under /usr/sbin. For example: atd, cron, sshd, useradd, userdel
 /usr/lib contains libraries for /usr/bin and /usr/sbin
 /usr/local contains user’s programs that you install from source. For example, when you install
apache from source, it goes under /usr/local/apache2
 /usr/src holds the Linux kernel sources, header-files and documentation.

15. /proc: Virtual filesystem providing process and kernel information as files. In Linux, it corresponds
to a procs mount. Generally, automatically generated and populated by the system, on the fly.

 Contains information about system process.


 This is a pseudo filesystem that contains information about running processes. For example:
/proc/{pid} directory contains information about the process with that particular pid.
 This is a virtual filesystem with text information about system resources. For example:
/proc/uptime

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