Linux Administration

and OS File systems

Management
Prepared by Nanjappa S Nagarajashetty

Linux
Developed

in 1991 by Linus Torvalds

Used in most of the computers, ranging from
super computers to embedded system
Multi user
Multi tasking
Time sharing
Monolithic kernel
Latest stable version of linux kernel 2.6.28,
released on 24-Dec-2008

Kernel types
Monolithic

All OS related code are stuffed in a single module

Available as a single file
Advantage : Faster functioning
Micro

OS components are isolated and run in their own address space

Device drivers, programs and system services run outside kernel memory space
Supports modularity
Lesser in size

Linux Distributions
Linux distributions
Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, CentOS, openSUSE, Arch Linux
and Gentoo,
Linux Enterprise Server distributions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE

Applications

smartphones, Android, which is built on top of the Linux kernel,

Largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems
mainframe computers and virtually all fastest supercomputers
network routers,
facility automation controls,
televisions (Smart TV)
video game consoles,
smartwatches.
Home theater PC
Digital security
System rescue
In space
Education
Mail Servers
File Servers

etc...

Linux file system and directory structure

File Management Commands

mkdir

- creating directory

mkdir dirname
rmdir

removing directory and its contents

rmdir dirname
cd

Change directory

cd dirpath
cp

Copying files

cp file1 file2
mv

Moving or renaming files

mv oldfile newfile

Commands

Help about commands

man, pinfo, info (man <<cmd name>>)

Viewing files content

cat <<filename>>

Viewing users, processes

who List all Users
who am I List the current user
pstree displays all processes running in the system in tree format
ps displays processes owned by the current user

Changing file permission/owner

chmod changes file permission
chown changes file owner

Commands

Checking CPU and Memory utilization

top

Viewing the IP-Address

Ifconfig
Listing files in a directory
ls Lists all files in a directory
ls a Lists all files (including hidden files)
ls l Lists files in a directory along with owner information, permission etc

Commands
halt
This command shuts down the operating system, but can only be run by the root user.
reboot
This command shuts down and restarts the operating system. It also can only be run by root.
#reboot
[will perform simple reboot]
#reboot -f
[will perform fast reboot ]
init 0
This command also shuts down the operating system, and can only be run by root.
init 6
This command restart the operating system. It also can only be run by root.

Commands
man
This command opens the manual page for the command or utility specified. The man utility is a
very useful tool. If you are unsure how to use any command, use man to access its manual page.
For example, you could enter man ls at the shell prompt to learn how to use the ls utility.
#man ls
whoami
This command displays the username of the currently logged-in user.
netstat
This command displays the status of the network, including current connections, routing tables,
etc.

VI Editor
Popular text editor
Just type vi <<filename>> at the prompt and hit the enter key.
A new file will be opened
Type the contents needed and save
To save, press the Esc Key and then press : (colon) w q and then enter
To quit with out saving Esc + : + q and then enter
Navigation
Left - h
Down
-j
Up - k
Right- l
Top of the screen H (shift + h) //caps lock will not work
Middle of the screen M (shift + m)
Bottom of the screen L (shift + l)
$ - End Key, 0 Home Key
Edit Commands
Cut X, x
Copy yy, yw
Paste P, p

Redirection and Pipes

Redirection
- Input redirection
wc < file1 Content of file 1 is given as input for wc command that counts
no of lines, words and characters in a file

- Output redirection
cat file > newfile Copies files content to newfile. Over writes the existing
content
cat file >> newfile Appends the new content to the existing content

Pipes
Output of first command is input for the second and so on
who | wc l Number of lines in the output of who command will be displayed

the

File systems

Linux Extended Filesystem - ext2, ext3, ext4

Windows FAT16/32 --> File Allocation Table
NTFS -> New Technology File System
AIX JFS --> Journaled File System or JFS is a 64-bit journaling file system created by IBM.
VMWARE vmfs --> Virtual Machine File System

How to Create, configure and mount a new Linux file system

1) Create one or more partitions using fdisk:

fdisk /dev/sdb
N (new partition)
p (primary partition)
Accept default initial and end blocks if you want to create a single partiton with the whole disk
w (write the information and quit)
2) check the new partition
[root@vmractest3 root]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdb: 21.4 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot
/dev/sdb1

Start
1

End Blocks Id System

2610 20964793+ 83 Linux

3) Format the new partition as an ext3 file system type:

/sbin/mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1
4)Assigning a Label with e2label
Once you have created and formated a partition,
you should assign it a label using the e2label command. This allows you
to add the partition to /etc/fstab using a label instead of using a
device path, thereby making the system more robust.
To add a label to a partition, type the following command as root:
/sbin/e2label /dev/s db1 /oradisk
5) Then add the new partition to /etc/fstab, this way it will be mounted at reboot:
To check the label use this command:
[root@vmractest3 root]# /sbin/tune2fs -l /dev/sdb1 |grep volume
Filesystem volume name: /oradisk
vi /etc/fstab and add the following line:
LABEL=/oradisk

/oradisk

ext3

defaults

12

6) Mount the new file system:

First create the base directory and assign it to the user that will own it
[root@vmractest3 root]# mkdir /oradisk
[root@vmractest3 root]#chown oracle:dba /oradisk
Then mount it
[root@vmractest3 root]# mount /dev/sdb1 /oradisk
And check it
[root@vmractest3 root]# df -k
Filesystem
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda1
none
/dev/sdb1

1K-blocks

Used Available Use% Mounted on

8064304 2181296 5473352 29% /

101089
513748
20635700

9272
0

86598 10% /boot

513748 0% /dev/shm

32828 19554636 1% /oradisk

How to Create, configure and mount a new Window file system