2009 LPI Exam 102

2009 Exam 102: Detailed Objectives

This is a required exam for LPI certification Level 1. It covers basic skills for the Linux Professional that are common across all distributions of Linux.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: These are the current 102 objectives, which are valid effective 2009-04-01.

Each objective is assigned a weighting value. The weights range roughly from 1 to 10 and indicate the relative importance of each objective. Objectives with higher weights will be covered in the exam with more questions.

Objectives: Exam 102

Topic 105: Shells, Scripting and Data Management

105.1 Customize and use the shell environment

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to customize shell environments to meet users' needs. Candidates should be able to modify global and user profiles.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Set environment variables (e.g. PATH) at login or when spawning a new shell.
• Write BASH functions for frequently used sequences of commands.
• Maintain skeleton directories for new user accounts.
• Set command search path with the proper directory.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/profile
• env
• export
• set
• unset
• ~/.bash_profile
• ~/.bash_login
• ~/.profile
• ~/.bashrc
• ~/.bash_logout
• function
• alias
• lists

105.2 Customize or write simple scripts

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to customize existing scripts, or write simple new BASH scripts.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Use standard sh syntax (loops, tests).
• Use command substitution.
• Test return values for success or failure or other information provided by a command.
• Perform conditional mailing to the superuser.
• Correctly select the script interpreter through the shebang (#!) line.
• Manage the location, ownership, execution and suid-rights of scripts.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• for
• while
• test
• if
• read
• seq

105.3 SQL data management

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to query databases and manipulate data using basic SQL commands. This objective includes performing queries involving joining of 2 tables and/or subselects.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Use of basic SQL commands.
• Perform basic data manipulation.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• insert
• update
• select
• delete
• from
• where
• group by
• order by
• join

Topic 106: User Interfaces and Desktops

106.1 Install and configure X11

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to install and configure X and an X font server.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Verify that the video card and monitor are supported by an X server.
• Install and configure an X font server.
• Basic understanding and knowledge of the X Window configuration file.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/X11/xorg.conf
• xhost
• DISPLAY
• xwininfo
• xdpyinfo
• X

106.2 Setup a display manager

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able setup and customize a display manager. This objective covers the display managers XDM (X Display Manger), GDM (Gnome Display Manager) and KDM (KDE Display Manager).

Key Knowledge Areas

• Turn the display manager on or off.
• Change the display manager greeting.
• Change default color depth for the display manager.
• Configure display managers for use by X-stations.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/inittab
• xdm configuration files
• kdm configuration files
• gdm configuration files

106.3 Accessibility

Weight	1
Description	Demonstrate knowledge and awareness of accessibility technologies.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Keyboard Accessibility Settings (AccessX?)
• Visual Settings and Themes
• Assistive Technology (ATs)

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• Sticky/Repeat Keys
• Slow/Bounce/Toggle Keys
• Mouse Keys
• High Contrast/Large Print Desktop Themes
• Screen Reader
• Braille Display
• Screen Magnifier
• On-Screen Keyboard
• Gestures (used at login, for example gdm)
• Orca
• GOK
• emacspeak

Topic 107: Administrative Tasks

107.1 Manage user and group accounts and related system files

Weight	5
Description	Candidates should be able to add, remove, suspend and change user accounts.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Add, modify and remove users and groups.
• Manage user/group info in password/group databases.
• Create and manage special purpose and limited accounts.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/passwd
• /etc/shadow
• /etc/group
• /etc/skel
• chage
• groupadd
• groupdel
• groupmod
• passwd
• useradd
• userdel
• usermod

107.2 Automate system administration tasks by scheduling jobs

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to use cron or anacron to run jobs at regular intervals and to use at to run jobs at a specific time.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manage cron and at jobs.
• Configure user access to cron and at services.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/cron.{d,daily,hourly,monthly,weekly}
• /etc/at.deny
• /etc/at.allow
• /etc/crontab
• /etc/cron.allow
• /etc/cron.deny
• /var/spool/cron/*
• crontab
• at
• atq
• atrm

107.3 Localisation and internationalisation

Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to localize a system in a different language than English. As well, an understanding of why LANG=C is useful when scripting.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Locale settings.
• Timezone settings.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/timezone
• /etc/localtime
• /usr/share/zoneinfo
• Environment variables:
• LC_*
• LC_ALL
• LANG
• /usr/bin/locale
• tzselect
• tzconfig
• date
• iconv
• UTF-8
• ISO-8859
• ASCII
• Unicode

Topic 108: Essential System Services

108.1 Maintain system time

Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be able to properly maintain the system time and synchronize the clock via NTP.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Set the system date and time.
• Set the hardware clock to the correct time in UTC.
• Configure the correct timezone.
• Basic NTP configuration.
• Knowledge of using the pool.ntp.org service

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /usr/share/zoneinfo
• /etc/timezone
• /etc/localtime
• /etc/ntp.conf
• date
• hwclock
• ntpd
• ntpdate
• pool.ntp.org

108.2 System logging

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to configure the syslog daemon. This objective also includes configuring the logging daemon to send log output to a central log server or accept log output as a central log server.

Key Knowledge Areas

• syslog configuration files
• syslog
• standard facilities, priorities and actions

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• syslog.conf
• syslogd
• klogd
• logger

108.3 Mail Tranfer Agent (MTA) basics

Weight	3
Description	Candidates should be aware of the commonly available MTA programs and be able to perform basic forward and alias configuration on a client host. Other configuration files are not covered.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Create e-mail aliases.
• Configure e-mail forwarding.
• Knowledge of commonly available MTA programs (postfix, sendmail, qmail, exim) (no configuration)

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ~/.forward
• sendmail emulation layer commands
• newaliases
• mail
• mailq
• postfix
• sendmail
• exim
• qmail

108.4 Manage printers and printing

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to manage print queues and user print jobs using CUPS and the LPD compatibility interface.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Basic CUPS configuration (for local and remote printers).
• Manage user print queues.
• Troubleshoot general printing problems.
• Add and remove jobs from configured printer queues.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• CUPS configuration files, tools and utilities
• /etc/cups
• lpd legacy interface (lpr, lprm, lpq)

Topic 109: Networking Fundamentals

109.1 Fundamentals of internet protocols

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should demonstrate a proper understanding of TCP/IP network fundamentals.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Demonstrate an understanding network masks.
• Knowledge of the differences between private and public "dotted quad" IP-Addresses.
• Setting a default route.
• Knowledge about common TCP and UDP ports (20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 53, 80, 110, 119, 139, 143, 161, 443, 465, 993, 995).
• Knowledge about the differences and major features of UDP, TCP and ICMP.
• Knowledge of the major differences between IPv4 and IPV6.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/services
• ftp
• telnet
• host
• ping
• dig
• traceroute
• tracepath

109.2 Basic network configuration

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to view, change and verify configuration settings on client hosts.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manually and automatically configure network interfaces
• Basic TCP/IP host configuration.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/hostname
• /etc/hosts
• /etc/resolv.conf
• /etc/nsswitch.conf
• ifconfig
• ifup
• ifdown
• route
• ping

109.3 Basic network troubleshooting

Weight	4
Description	Candidates should be able to troubleshoot networking issues on client hosts.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Manually and automatically configure network interfaces and routing tables to include adding, starting, stopping, restarting, deleting or reconfiguring network interfaces.
• Change, view, or configure the routing table and correct an improperly set default route manually.
• Debug problems associated with the network configuration.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ifconfig
• ifup
• ifdown
• route
• host
• hostname
• dig
• netstat
• ping
• traceroute

109.4 Configure client side DNS

Weight	2
Description	Candidates should be able to configure DNS on a client host.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Demonstrate the use of DNS on the local system.
• Modify the order in which name resolution is done.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/hosts
• /etc/resolv.conf
• /etc/nsswitch.conf

Topic 110: Security

110.1 Perform security administration tasks

Weight	3
Description	Candidates should know how to review system configuration to ensure host security in accordance with local security policies.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Audit a system to find files with the suid/sgid bit set.
• Set or change user passwords and password aging information.
• Being able to use nmap and netstat to discover open ports on a system.
• Set up limits on user logins, processes and memory usage.
• Basic sudo configuration and usage.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• find
• passwd
• lsof
• nmap
• chage
• netstat
• sudo
• /etc/sudoers
• su
• usermod
• ulimit

110.2 Setup host security

Weight	3
Description	Candidates should know how to set up a basic level of host security.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Awareness of shadow passwords and how they work.
• Turn off network services not in use.
• Understand the role of TCP wrappers.

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• /etc/nologin
• /etc/passwd
• /etc/shadow
• /etc/xinetd.d/*
• /etc/xinetd.conf
• /etc/inet.d/*
• /etc/inetd.conf
• /etc/inittab
• /etc/init.d/*
• /etc/hosts.allow
• /etc/hosts.deny

110.3 Securing data with encryption

Weight	3
Description	The candidate should be able to use puplic key techniques to secure data and communication.

Key Knowledge Areas

• Perform basic OpenSSH 2 client configuration and usage.
• Understand the role of OpenSSH? 2 server host keys
• Perform basic GnuPG configuration and usage.
• Understand SSH port tunnels (including X11 tunnels).

The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:

• ssh
• ssh-keygen
• ssh-agent
• ssh-add
• ~/.ssh/id_rsa and id_rsa.pub
• ~/.ssh/id_dsa and id_dsa.pub
• /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key and ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
• /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key and ssh_host_dsa_key.pub
• ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
• /etc/ssh_known_hosts
• gpg
• ~/.gnupg/*