Introduction

Welcome to the Red Hat Linux System Administration Primer.

The Red Hat Linux System Administration Primer contains introductory information for new Red

Hat Linux system administrators. It will not teach you how to perform a particular task under Red

Hat Linux; rather, it will provide you with the background knowledge that more experienced system

administrators have learned over time.

This guide assumes you have a limited amount of experience as a Linux user, but no Linux system

administration experience. If you are completely new to Linux in general (and Red Hat Linux in

particular), you should start by reading the Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide.

More experienced system administrators should skim the Red Hat Linux System Administration

Primer for overall concepts, and then concentrate on using the Red Hat Linux Customization Guide

for assistance in performing specific tasks in a Red Hat Linux environment. Administrators requiring

more in depth, factual information should refer to the Red Hat Linux Reference Guide.

HTML and PDF versions of the Official Red Hat Linux manuals are available on the Red Hat Linux

Documentation CD and online at http://www.redhat.com/docs/.

Note

Although this manual reflects the most current information possible, you should read the Red Hat

Linux Release Notes for information that may not have been available prior to our documentation

being finalized. They can be found on the Red Hat Linux CD #1 and online at:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux

1. Changes to This Manual

This version of the Red Hat Linux System Administration Primer includes the following changes:

All chapters have been restructured to have three main sections:

Generic overview material   This section discusses the topic of the chapter without going into

details about to a specific operating system, technology, or methodology.

Red Hat Linux specific material   This section addresses aspects of the topic related to Linux in

general and Red Hat Linux in particular.

Additional resources for further study   This section includes pointers to other Red Hat Linux

manuals, helpful websites, and books containing information applicable to the topic.

By adopting a consistent structure, readers can more easily read the Red Hat Linux System Adminis 

tration Primer in whatever way they choose. For example, an experienced system administrator with

little Red Hat Linux experience could skim only the sections that specifically focus on Red Hat Linux,

while a new system adminstrator could start only with the generic overview sections.

2. Document Conventions

When you read this manual, you will see that certain words are represented in different fonts, type 

faces, sizes, and weights. This highlighting is systematic; different words are represented in the same

style to indicate their inclusion in a specific category. The types of words that are represented this way

include the following: