Lab Questions

Several of these labs involve installation exercises. You should do these exercises on test machines only. The instructions in these labs delete all of the data on a system. As suggested earlier, one option is to use a virtual machine that can simulate a computer inside your operating system. An example of this is VMware, available from www.vmware.com; or Xen, which is included with RHEL 5.

Lab 1

1. 

You need to test Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a replacement for your current RHL 9 installed Web server. But you do not want to lose the current RHL 9 Web setup just yet. You just want to test RHEL 5 using the Web pages and CGI scripts to see if they will work. What can you do? (Note: Fresh installations from Red Hat Linux to RHEL 5 are recommended.)

Answers

1. 

Scenario 1: Buy a new disk and add it to the system. Then do a custom install to create a new installation of RHEL to partitions on the new disk, adding an entry to /boot/grub/grub.conf to provide a boot option to both versions of Linux.

Scenario 2: No space on server. Hmm…. You've got to get creative and either find a test computer on which you can do the test install or back up everything on the main server after taking it off line. Perform a new installation of RHEL. Copy your httpd.conf configuration file and see how it works. If it fails, you can restore everything back to the way it was. Note: Test your backups first before overwriting an existing operating system.

Lab 2

2. 

You want to practice network installations. To do so, set up an FTP installation server on a different Linux computer using the instructions described earlier in this chapter. These instructions also work if you want to create an FTP installation server on Fedora Core.

If you don't have another Linux computer, you can set up an FTP server on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP Professional/2003/Vista for this purpose.

For the purpose of this exercise, assume that you've been asked to install a Web server, a DNS server, an FTP server, and a mail server during the RHEL installation process.

Answers

2. 

As described earlier in this chapter, the standard Red Hat FTP server is vsFTP; the default location for download files is the /var/ftp/pub directory. You'll want to specify a subdirectory to copy the files from the root directory of the installation CDs.

As this is a book on RHEL, I do not describe the steps needed to create an alternative FTP server on a Microsoft Windows computer.

To install a Web server, a DNS server, an FTP server, and a mail server during the RHEL installation process, you need to select the DNS Name Server, Web Server, FTP Server, and Mail Server package groups.

Lab 3

3. 

You want to practice network installations. To do so, set up an HTTP installation server on a Linux computer using the instructions described earlier in this chapter. These instructions also work if you want to create an FTP installation server on Fedora Core.

If you don't have another Linux computer, you can set up an HTTP server on Microsoft Windows 2000/XP Professional/2003/Vista for this purpose.

For the purpose of this exercise, assume that you've been asked to install a Samba server and a print server, and you will need to recompile the kernel.

Answers

3. 

As described earlier in this chapter, the standard Red Hat HTTP server is Apache. The default location for download files is the /var/www/html directory. You'll want to specify a subdirectory to copy the files from the root directory of the installation CDs.

As this is a book on RHEL, I do not describe the steps needed to create an alternative HTTP server on a Microsoft Windows computer.

To install a Samba server, a print server, and the packages associated with recompiling the kernel during the RHEL installation process, you need to select the Windows File Server, Printing Support, and Kernel Development package groups.

Lab 4

4. 

In this lab, you will distribute your filesystem over more than just one partition-as a workstation. You will need to create the partitions on a 20GB or larger PATA/IDE hard disk (see Table 2-5). If your hard drive is larger, don't use the extra space. If your system has a SATA or SCSI drive, substitute device names (e.g., sda2 for hda2) accordingly.

1. Create a Linux boot CD from the boot.iso image file, and then reboot the system.

2. Select manual partitioning at the appropriate step.

3. Use Disk Druid to reconfigure the partition table.

4. Delete all partitions.

5. Create the first partition with 100MB of disk space, ext3, and assign to /boot.

6. Create the next primary partition, hda2, as Linux Swap, and assign to ID 83.

7. Create a third partition with about 5500MB of disk space, ext3, and assign it to the root directory, /.

8. Create an extended partition containing all the rest of the disk space. Make it growable.

9. Create the first logical partition, fifth in number, with about 4GB, and assign it to /var.

10. Create two more logical partitions, hda6 and hda7. Split the remaining space between these two partitions (about 5GB each). Set it up with to a software RAID filesystem.

11. Make a RAID 1 device from the two new software RAID partitions, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /home.

    On the Job 

    In the real world, you should never configure different parts of a RAID array on the same hard drive. If you do this, the failure of any single hard drive can lead to the loss of all of your data on that array. However, you may have to do so if the computer on your exam has only one physical hard drive.

12. Continue with the installation process, using your best judgment.

13. When asked to select packages, make sure that the Office/Productivity, Graphics, Graphical Internet, and Games package groups are selected.

14. Finish the installation normally.

15. Reboot the computer and log in as the root user.

Table 2-5: Custom Installation as a Workstation (No Other OS), 1.2 GHz Pentium, 20GB Single Disk, 256MB of Memory

Partition	Size	Use	Comment
hda1	100MB	/boot	Maintains boot files
hda2	512MB	swap	Plenty of space
hda3	5.5GB	/	The root directory
hda4	14GB	Extended partition	Solely a container for logical partitions
hda5	4GB	/var	For print spool files
hda6	5GB	/home	User directories-RAID 1
hda7	5GB	/home	User directories-RAID 1

Answers

4. 

No special solutions are required for these labs; they're simply intended to help you practice installing Linux in a variety of different situations. The more you practice different configurations, the faster you can set up Linux during the Installation and Configuration portion of your exam.

Lab 5

5. 

In this lab, you will install RHEL to create a basic server. You will need to create the partitions on a 10GB or larger hard disk (see Table 2-6). If your hard drive is larger, don't use the extra space. If your system has a SATA or SCSI drive, substitute device names (e.g., sda2 for hda2) accordingly.

Table 2-6: Custom Installation as a Server, 2 GHz Pentium, 10GB Single Disk, 256MB RAM

Partition	Size	Use	Comment
hda1	100MB	/boot	Maintains boot files
hda2	500MB	swap	Probably plenty of space
hda3	5GB	/	The root directory
hda4	4500MB	Extended partition	Solely a container for logical partitions
hda5	500MB	/var	For print spool files
hda6	1000MB	/var/www	Web services
hda7	2000MB	/home	No interactive users
hda8	1000MB	/usr	Additional network services

1. Create a Linux installation USB from the diskboot.img image file or a boot CD from the boot.iso file, and then reboot the system.

2. Make sure to boot from the new media.

3. Select custom partitioning at the appropriate time.

4. Delete all partitions.

5. Create the first partition with 100MB of disk space, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /boot.

6. Create the next primary partition, hda2, with about 500MB of disk space, as Linux Swap.

7. Create the third partition with about 5GB disk space, Linux Native, and assign to the root directory, /.

8. Create an extended partition containing all the rest of the disk space, 4500MB.

9. Create the first logical partition, hda5, with about 500MB, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /var.

10. Create the next logical partition, hda6, with about 1000MB, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /var/www.

11. Create the next logical partition, hda7, with about 2000MB, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /home.

12. Create the next logical partition, hda8, with about 1000MB, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /usr.

13. Continue with the installation process, using your best judgment.

14. Choose to customize the package groups to be installed. On an exam, you may see a requirement to install a number of different services such as a Web server, communication with Windows PCs, and an FTP server, as well as servers for DNS and DHCP.

15. Finish the installation normally.

16. Reboot when prompted and log in as the root user.

Answers

5. 

No special solutions are required for these labs; they're simply intended to help you practice installing Linux in a variety of different situations. The more you practice different configurations, the faster you can set up Linux during the Installation and Configuration portion of your exam.

Lab 6

6. 

In this exercise, you will install RHEL to configure the partitions for an imaginary database server. You will need to create the partitions on a 25GB or larger hard disk (see Table 2-7). The main use for such a system is as a database, file, and print server, with few interactive users. If your hard drive is larger, don't use the extra space. If your system has a SATA or SCSI drive, substitute device names (e.g., sda2 for hda2) accordingly.

1. Create a Linux installation USB from the diskboot.img image file (assuming you can boot from the USB key) or a boot CD from the boot.iso file, and then reboot the system.

2. Make sure to boot from the new media.

3. Select custom partitioning at the appropriate time.

4. When prompted, select Disk Druid to edit partitions.

5. Delete all partitions.

6. Create the first partition with 100MB of disk space, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /boot.

7. Create the next primary partition, hda2, with about 1000MB of disk space, as Linux Swap.

8. Create the third partition with about 10GB disk space, Linux Native, and assign it to / (root).

9. Create an extended partition containing all the rest of the disk space, about 14GB.

10. Create the first logical partition, hda5, with about 3GB, formatted to ext3, and assign it to /var.

11. Create the next two logical partitions, hda6 and hda7, with about 3.5GB each. Format each to the software RAID filesystem.

    On the Job 

    In the real world, you should never configure different parts of a RAID array on the same hard drive. If you do this, the failure of any single hard drive can lead to the loss of all of your data on that array. However, it may be necessary to do so if the test computer you're using has only one physical hard drive.

12. Use the Make RAID option to set up a RAID 1 array from these two partitions. Format it to ext3 and assign it to /opt.

13. Create the next two logical partitions, hda8 and hda9, with about 2GB each. Format each to the software RAID filesystem.

14. Use the Make RAID option to set up a RAID 0 array from these two partitions. Format it to ext3 and assign it to /usr.

15. Continue with the installation process, using your best judgment.

16. When asked to select packages, make sure to include the MySQL Database Server package group.

17. Finish the installation normally.

18. Reboot and log in as the root user.

Table 2-7: Custom Installation as a Server (No Other OS), 2.4 GHz Pentium II, 25GB Single Disk, 512MB RAM

Partition	Size	Use	Comment
hda1	100MB	/boot	Maintains boot files
hda2	1000MB	swap	Probably plenty of space
hda3	10GB	/	The root directory
hda4	14GB	Extended partition	Solely a container for logical partitions
hda5	3GB	/var	For print spool files
hda6	3.5GB	/opt	Database system using RAID 1
hda7	3.5GB	/opt	Database system using RAID 1
hda8	2GB	/usr	File services using RAID 0
hda9	2GB	/usr	File services using RAID 0

Answers

6. 

No special solutions are required for these labs; they're simply intended to help you practice installing Linux in a variety of different situations. The more you practice different configurations, the faster you can set up Linux during the Installation and Configuration portion of your exam.