Day 1 – OS Administration Basics
Introduction to Debian ecosystem (releases, repositories, package management philosophy)
Installation and initial configuration of Debian OS
Understanding Linux filesystem hierarchy (FHS)
User and group management (adduser, usermod, passwd, /etc/passwd)
Permissions and ownership (chmod, chown, umask)
Process management (ps, top, kill, systemctl)
Hands-on Lab: Create and manage users, control processes, service management
Day 2 – Disk & Storage Management
- Partitioning basics (fdisk, parted)
- Filesystem creation and management
(mkfs, tune2fs, fsck)
- Mounting and automount (mount,
/etc/fstab, systemd-mount)
- Swap management (creation, enabling,
disabling)
- LVM (Logical Volume Manager) basics
and resizing
- Disk quota management for
users/groups
Day 3 – Network Management
- Network configuration in Debian
(/etc/network/interfaces, systemd-networkd, NetworkManager)
- IP addressing, routes, gateways, DNS
- Testing and troubleshooting (ping,
traceroute, ss, netstat, tcpdump)
- Configuring firewall (UFW, nftables)
- SSH configuration and hardening
- Hands-on Lab: Configure static/dynamic IP, firewall rules, secure SSH
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Day 4 – Patching & OS Upgrades
- Package management using APT
(apt, apt-get, dpkg)
- Repository management (sources.list,
adding/removing repos)
- Applying security patches and
updates
- Kernel updates and rollbacks
- Automating updates with
unattended-upgrades
- OS upgrade
process (e.g., Debian 11 → 12)
- Hands-on Lab: Patch system, configure unattended-upgrades, simulate version upgrade
-
Day 5 – Scripting & Automation
- Shell scripting fundamentals (Bash
basics, variables, conditionals, loops)
- Writing reusable administration
scripts
- Task automation (backups, log
rotation, monitoring scripts)
- Introduction to cron jobs and
systemd timers
- Error handling and logging in
scripts
- Capstone Lab: Write a script to
automate system health checks & patch reporting
