Linux

Linux Zero-to-Hero

A five-tier mastery path — Foundation to Specialist — for Linux: from your first login and the command line to systemd, networking, security, the kernel, containers and running production fleets across cloud and on-prem.

Foundation → Intermediate → Advanced → Expert → Specialist ~150 hours 47 of 47 lessons ready LFCS · CompTIA Linux+ · RHCSA (EX200) · RHCE (EX294) — foundational to professional Linux
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A complete, beginner-friendly yet in-depth path through Linux, built for people who learn by doing. Foundation starts at absolute zero — what the kernel and a distribution are, the terminal, the filesystem, files and text, users and permissions, processes, packages, and the shell — every lesson with a copy-pasteable lab. Intermediate is real system administration (text processing, storage and LVM, systemd, networking, SSH, scheduling, the boot process and logs). Advanced is security and automation (PAM/sudo, firewalls, SELinux, advanced storage, performance, troubleshooting, bash, hardening, backup/DR). Expert goes under the hood (kernel modules, namespaces and cgroups, containers, KVM virtualization, advanced networking, next-gen filesystems, eBPF, high availability). Specialist runs it in production — fleet management, Linux in the cloud, enterprise identity, web and database hosting, patching, compliance and incident response — plus Troubleshooting, Architecting, Certification and Job-Ready tracks.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Work confidently at the Linux command line — navigate the filesystem, manage files and text, and drive the shell with pipes, redirection and the environment
  • Administer a Linux server end to end: users and permissions, processes, packages, storage and LVM, systemd services, networking, SSH, scheduling, the boot process and logging
  • Secure and harden Linux with sudo/PAM, firewalls, SELinux/AppArmor, CIS benchmarks, auditing and tested backup/DR
  • Understand Linux under the hood — the kernel, namespaces and cgroups, containers, KVM virtualization, eBPF observability and high availability
  • Run Linux in production and at fleet scale across cloud and on-prem, with enterprise identity, web/database hosting, patching, compliance and incident response
  • Be ready for LFCS, CompTIA Linux+, RHCSA and RHCE, and for real sysadmin / SRE / platform-engineering work

Prerequisites

  • No prior Linux experience required — Tier 1 starts at your first login
  • A machine where you can run Linux for the hands-on labs: a VM (VirtualBox/VMware), WSL2 on Windows, a container (docker run -it ubuntu bash), or a free-tier cloud VM

Who it’s for

Complete beginners taking their first steps on the command line, Windows/cloud engineers who need real Linux fluency, aspiring sysadmins/SREs/DevOps and platform engineers, and anyone preparing for LFCS, CompTIA Linux+, RHCSA (EX200) or RHCE.

Curriculum

Tier 1 · Foundation — Linux Basics (LFCS / Linux+ / RHCSA on-ramp)

Start at absolute zero and build the mental model: what Linux is, the terminal and getting help, the filesystem, managing files and text, users and permissions, processes, packages, and the shell. Every lesson carries a copy-pasteable hands-on lab.

  1. 1 Linux Fundamentals: The Kernel, GNU, Distributions & the Shell — How It All Fits Together 35 min read
  2. 2 Getting Started: Your First Login, the Terminal, the Prompt & Getting Help (man, --help, tldr) 30 min read
  3. 3 The Filesystem Hierarchy (FHS) & Navigation: /, /etc, /var, /home, Absolute vs Relative Paths 34 min read
  4. 4 Managing Files & Directories: cp, mv, rm, mkdir, touch, ln, find & locate 43 min read
  5. 5 Viewing & Editing Text: cat, less, head/tail, nano — and Surviving vim 34 min read
  6. 6 Users, Groups & Permissions: the rwx Model, chmod, chown, umask & sudo 37 min read
  7. 7 Processes & Jobs: ps, top/htop, signals, kill, nice & Foreground/Background Control 41 min read
  8. 8 Installing Software: apt, dnf/yum, rpm/dpkg, Repositories & Building the Mental Model 38 min read
  9. 9 Shell Basics: Pipes, Redirection, Globbing, Aliases, History & the Environment (PATH) 40 min read

Tier 2 · Intermediate — System Administration (RHCSA / LFCS)

Administer a real Linux server end to end: the text-processing toolkit, disks and filesystems, LVM, systemd and journald, networking and SSH, job scheduling, logging and the boot process — the RHCSA/LFCS core, every lesson hands-on.

  1. 10 Text Processing at Work: grep, sed, awk, cut, sort, uniq, tr & Regular Expressions 46 min read
  2. 11 Storage: Disks, Partitions, Filesystems (ext4/xfs), Mounting & /etc/fstab 48 min read
  3. 12 LVM in Depth: Physical Volumes, Volume Groups, Logical Volumes, Resizing & Snapshots 42 min read
  4. 13 systemd, In Depth: Units, Services, Targets, systemctl & journald Logging 41 min read
  5. 14 Linux Networking: IP Addressing, ip/nmcli, Routing, DNS & ss/ping Troubleshooting 51 min read
  6. 15 SSH Mastery: OpenSSH, Key-Based Auth, ~/.ssh/config, Tunnels & Server Hardening 44 min read
  7. 16 Scheduling Jobs: cron, crontab, at, anacron & systemd Timers 39 min read
  8. 17 Logs & Monitoring: journald, rsyslog, logrotate, dmesg & Where to Look When Things Break 46 min read
  9. 18 The Linux Boot Process: BIOS/UEFI, GRUB2, initramfs, systemd & Rescue Mode 40 min read

Tier 3 · Advanced — Security, Networking & Automation (RHCE / LFCE)

Harden and automate: PAM and sudo, firewalls (firewalld/nftables/iptables), SELinux/AppArmor, CIS hardening, advanced storage (RAID/NFS/Samba/iSCSI), performance analysis and tuning, bash scripting for real automation, backup and recovery, and a systematic troubleshooting method — the RHCE/LFCE skill set.

  1. 19 Advanced User Security: PAM, sudoers in Depth, Password Policy & Account Lifecycle 47 min read
  2. 20 Linux Firewalls: firewalld, nftables & iptables — Zones, Rules, NAT & Troubleshooting 48 min read
  3. 21 SELinux & AppArmor: Mandatory Access Control, Contexts, Booleans & Fixing Denials 46 min read
  4. 22 Server Hardening: CIS Benchmarks, SSH & Kernel Hardening, auditd, fail2ban & Attack-Surface Reduction 47 min read
  5. 23 Advanced Storage: Software RAID (mdadm), NFS, Samba/CIFS, autofs & iSCSI 55 min read
  6. 24 Performance Analysis & Tuning: CPU, Memory, Disk I/O, the USE Method, tuned & sysctl 53 min read
  7. 25 Bash Scripting for Sysadmins: Variables, Conditionals, Loops, Functions & Robust Automation 52 min read
  8. 26 Backup & Recovery: tar, rsync, restic/borg, Snapshots, the 3-2-1 Rule & Tested Restores 49 min read
  9. 27 Systematic Linux Troubleshooting: A Repeatable Method for Boot, Disk, Network, Service & Permission Failures 54 min read

Tier 4 · Expert — Kernel, Containers, Virtualization & Infrastructure

Go under the hood: kernel modules and /proc/·/sys, the namespaces and cgroups that make containers, Podman/rootless containers, KVM virtualization and cloud-init, advanced networking (bonding/VLAN/bridges/veth), next-gen CoW filesystems (ZFS/Btrfs), eBPF observability, and high-availability clustering with Pacemaker.

  1. 28 The Kernel Up Close: Modules, /proc, /sys, sysctl, dmesg & Kernel Parameters 52 min read
  2. 29 Namespaces & cgroups: How Linux Containers Actually Work Under the Hood 54 min read
  3. 30 Running Containers on Linux: Podman, Docker, Buildah, Rootless Containers & Quadlet/systemd 50 min read
  4. 31 Virtualization on Linux: KVM, QEMU, libvirt/virsh, virt-manager & cloud-init Golden Images 51 min read
  5. 32 Advanced Linux Networking: Bonding/Teaming, VLANs, Bridges, veth, Namespaces & Policy Routing 48 min read
  6. 33 Next-Gen Filesystems: ZFS, Btrfs & Stratis — Snapshots, Subvolumes, Compression & Data Integrity 57 min read
  7. 34 Deep Observability: perf, ftrace, eBPF, bcc & bpftrace for Production Debugging 55 min read
  8. 35 High Availability on Linux: Pacemaker/Corosync Clusters, keepalived/VRRP, Fencing & Shared Storage 57 min read

Tier 5 · Specialist — Production, Fleet, Cloud & the Capstone

Run Linux in production and at scale: fleet management (cloud-init/Ansible/golden images), Linux in the cloud (EC2/Azure VM/GCE), enterprise identity (LDAP/SSSD/AD), a production web stack (nginx/TLS), hosting databases, patching & live-kernel-patch orchestration, compliance & audit (auditd/OpenSCAP), and the incident-response & forensics capstone.

  1. 36 Managing a Linux Fleet: cloud-init, Golden Images, Ansible, Config Drift & Immutable Infrastructure 55 min read
  2. 37 Linux in the Cloud: EC2 / Azure VM / GCE — Images, cloud-init, Instance Metadata, SSH/SSM & Patching at Scale 51 min read
  3. 38 Enterprise Identity on Linux: LDAP, SSSD, Kerberos & Joining Active Directory (realmd/adcli) 51 min read
  4. 39 Running a Production Web Stack: nginx/Apache, TLS/Let's Encrypt, Reverse Proxy & systemd Hardening 54 min read
  5. 40 Hosting Databases on Linux: PostgreSQL & MySQL — Install, Storage Layout, OS/Kernel Tuning & Backups 60 min read
  6. 41 Patching & Lifecycle: Update Strategy, Live Kernel Patching, Reboot Orchestration & EOL Management 48 min read
  7. 42 Compliance & Audit on Linux: auditd, OpenSCAP, CIS/STIG Scanning, Remediation & Evidence 52 min read
  8. 43 Incident Response & Forensics on Linux: Live Triage, Evidence Capture, Timelines & the Chain of Custody 61 min read

Track · Troubleshooting (Easy → Complex)

The diagnosis skill that runs through the whole course, capped here. The Tier-2/3 lessons build the method and the per-layer playbooks (boot, disk, network, service, permission); this capstone applies it to hard, cross-layer incidents where the symptom and the root cause live in different layers.

  1. 44 Complex Root-Cause Analysis: Debugging Multi-Layer Linux Incidents Where the Symptom Isn't the Cause 58 min read

Track · Architecting (Easy → Complex)

Design judgement: how a Linux system climbs from one server to an immutable, highly-available fleet, and which rung a given workload actually needs. Ties together the systemd, web-stack, database, HA, fleet and cloud lessons into a single progression with the trade-offs at each step.

  1. 45 The Linux Architecting Ladder: From a Single Server to an Immutable, Highly-Available Fleet 51 min read

Track · Certification Center

Turn the course into a pass: exam maps for LFCS, CompTIA Linux+, RHCSA (EX200) and RHCE (EX294), a lesson-by-objective mapping, a big bank of exam-style hands-on tasks with worked solutions, and the performance-exam strategy (persist everything — they reboot your box).

  1. 46 Linux Certification Prep: LFCS, CompTIA Linux+, RHCSA (EX200) & RHCE (EX294) — Exam Maps, Practice Tasks & Strategy 51 min read

Track · Job-Ready — Portfolio Projects & Interview

Prove you can do it. A ladder of six hands-on builds — from a hardened web server to an immutable cloud fleet — each mapped to the course lessons, with a definition of done, resume framing and the interview questions to expect.

  1. 47 The Linux Portfolio Projects Ladder: Six Hands-On Builds That Get You Hired 55 min read
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