Admin guide skeleton structure discussion thread

[Dan Smith]

Ok folks this week it's the admin guide. I have fleshed out the
skeleton a bit from the existing admin guide. The purpose of this is
to formulate the sub topics, many of which will be easier to write
than trying to tackle the whole topic in one fell swoop. For example
instead of attempting to tackle the whole printing document many of us
in a half hour could do up the printing to PDFs sub topic. The concept
is to add and edit this rough overview of the topics/subtopics.

A good way to work this I suspect would be to use the >> diff
convention to denote suggested changes at the start of your
commments/addition. I'll try to put this in the WIKI if I EVER get my
account there straitened out. Will make it much easier to read. This
is no means exhaustive, except to read :) I've forgotten a ton of
stuff. This is just to get the ball rolling.  Next week I'll do the
same for the User/Desktop guide.


Admin guide

Undestanding the dir structure
    * The Filesystem Heirarchy
    * Locations for Software (commonly asked question)
    * Locations for Data

Working with user accounts
  Understanding Logins and Sessions
  Local user accounts
  LDAP link to LDAP section
  NIS
  Link to SAMBA doc for interaction with windoze. "Windows account interaction"
  Securing User Accounts
     Good password pracitices and tools
     No login accounts and SUDO accounts
  Groups
     Overview
     Management
  Link to VPN section, "VPN users"
  How to reset the root password (link to Rescue ops resetting root pw)

>>    * Managing User Accounts (creating, modifying and deleting)
This is specific to the tools. Local user accounts can be cover with
both GUI and CLI tools. For LDAP the process is very different than
for a local user. Best covered in the sub section in which the context
is relavent.

>>    * Managing Groups
Feel that simply groups will be more intuitive than Managing groups
which implies technical expertise. Those who have no idea what a group
is will be less inclined to click on managing groups than just plain
groups. Those seeking management tips will not be deterred by the
simplified title. By simply titling it groups it implies and overview
while managing groups implies a lack of an overview.



Permissions and Access Control
    Overview
       What they are
       Organization (ie why home dir should never be world read write)
       Numeric and alphanumeric meanings
    chmod usage
  Using ACL
    * Managing Permissions (on files and directories)
    * Understanding Access Control Lists (they have to be
acknowledged, but not
      all software actually supports them)

Managing storage and partitions
  Quick what is a parition
      Extended, logical, primary
  Common partitioning schemes
  Short description/common usage reasons and link to LVM doc
  File system types and link to mounting usage and tips
     Ext 2 & 3
     FAT
     NTFS
     Other
  Working with fstab
  Link to sub section in Samba doc "Mounting Windows shares"
      Link to Network explorer/Network manager services.
  Backups
     Overview
     Amanda and GP back up software.
     Using secondary drives as backups and links to SW used for that
        Link to Rsynch doc
     Using external media
       Link to tape drives
       CDRom/DVD backup software
  Short tutorial on using DD
  Short tutorial on using tar and gzip for copying/archiving large dir stuctures


Working with disks and removable storage
    File system types (almost redundant with partitioning but more
detail on
       Common uses and basic does and don'ts.)
    Link to LVM guide
    Link to mounting guide
    /mnt and /net purpose and use. Link to dir overview covering these 2.
    USB/flash drives
       Short overview and common usage.
       Troubleshooting FAQ
    SCSI devices
       Short overview and common usage.
       Troubleshooting FAQ
    Zip and Syquest drives
       Short overview and common usage.
       Troubleshooting FAQ
    Hot swap SATA and SCSI
       Short overview and common usage.
       Troubleshooting FAQ
    Floppies
       Short overview and common usage.
       MDOS tools
       Troubleshooting FAQ
    Link to Tape drives
       Short overview and common usage.
       Troubleshooting FAQ


Networked file systems (suggesting a change from using "the" Network file system
 Overview that includes differences, advantages and short capability comparision
   NFS4
     Configuration
     Exporting
     Mounting
     Trouble shooting
   NFS through firewalls (NFS3)
     Configuration
     Exporting
     Mounting
     Trouble shooting
   SMB Linux to Linux guide
     Configuration
     Exporting
     Mounting
     Trouble shooting
   Working with Windows shares link to SMB guide
   GFS
     Configuration
     Exporting
     Mounting
     Trouble shooting
   Link to Rsynch doc

Managing Software
 Overview
 Yum
   Yum GUIs
 RPM
   Overview
   Checking for installed software and versions
   Manual install options
   Repair and troubleshooting
 Tarballs/GZIP 2/Zip
   Extracting the files
   Type I (./configure then make)
   Type II (Binary install packages)
   Type III (other)
 Binary installations
 Apt-get


Managing Services
  GUI
  Command line
  Primitives

>>  * Managing Firewall Ports
Shouldn't this be under security? I did not cover it in my draft on
managing services because this seems to me to be a security not
services topic.


Modifying the Startup Process
    * Understanding Boot Loaders
    * Advanced Boot Options
    * Managing Kernels
    * Running Commands on Startup


Using the Common UNIX Printing System
  CUPs
    Overview
      Adding a Printer
         local
         Network Linux
         Network Windows
      Link to printers supported by Fedora
      Sharing a printer
      Managing Print Jobs
    Creating a print server
    LPR and CLI tools
    Print ques
    Printing to PDFs


Modifying the X Window Graphics System
   Understanding the X Window System
   Overview of desktop managers
   Overveiew of desktops
      link to KDE doc
      link to Gnome doc
      link to XFCE doc
      link to Beyrl doc
      Window maker Sawfish and others
   Switching between desktop managers and adding new ones.
      Switchdesk
   Remotely controlling a Linux machine
      Link to SSH tunneling
          Link to X11fowarding
      Link to VNC
         Tunneling VNC through SSH
      Isn't there a new third way?
   Remotely controlling a windows machine
      Link to VNC
      Rdesktop
   Consoles overview and usage
   Adding the X Window System (after installation)
   Configuring Graphics Hardware (system-config-display)
      Location of files and what they do
      Common modifications
      Resolution
      Dual heads

Networking
  Configuring your nic cards
     DHCP
     Static
  Hosts
  Configuring DNS/bind
  Configuring in Linux to be Master browser in Windows network


    * Selecting Graphical Desktops (switching between them, and adding new ones)
 >>   * Configuring Remote Desktop Access
You mean as in X11 forwarding, VNC, etc? To me sounds confusing. I
broke those out into separate sub topics.

>>    * Attaching a Remote Desktop
Isn't that part of the specific method for connecting remotely? Since
all of the remote desktop methods are going to be referenced in other
sections I feel it'd be better to give them their own topic page.
These are also topics people will directly search for and it would be
helpful to have them up at a higher level.


Monitoring the System
  Logs
    /var/log
      messages
      dmesg
      secure
      others
         Default locations for HTTPD, MySQL, Postgress and other log files.
   Link to SELinux troubleshooter
   RCP
   Top, Htop, Ntop and related tools
   Sysguard
   ps
   GUI log tools
   Systat and related tools
   Link to Tripwire, AIDE and other IDS systems
   Using tail and related tools
   Enabling E-mail Reports
   Configuring Advanced Logging (setting up a log analyzer,
redirecting syslog
     to a separate server)
   Link to nmap guide
   Network monitors
     CLI tools
     GUI tools like etherape
   Network manager guide
SchedulingTasks
   Understanding cron and anacron
   GUI cron and anacron tools
   Scheduling a Task
   Using crontab Schedules
Note that /etc/cron.* directories are sufficient for most tasks, but
crontab ought to be mentioned for more precise control.

File sharing
  Setting up shared dirs
  Using groups for file sharing
  Collaboration software

Security
   Firewalls
   Link to securing a Fedora system best practices
   Patching your system
   Ports
      Link to common ports list
      link to Nmap
      Link to RCP
   Permissions from a security context
    SELinux
      Understanding SELinux
      Adjusting the SELinux Policy (using system-config-securitylevel)
      Repairing File Contexts with fixfiles
   Rootkits
      Rootkit hunter
   Shells from a security perspective
      Link to jail shells
      Link to no login shells
   User accounts
      Philosophy
      Link to security subsection of user section.
   Deny hosts and other log watchers
   IDS systems
   Vulnerability scanners
   Password best practices guide
   Links to Linux security resources
   Why to not use RSH, Telnet and FTP
   Link to external securing apache tips
   VPNs Link to vpn section

>>To me it seems logical to move LVM out to it's own doc since it is
likely to be referenced from several documents.

LVM (Logical Volume Management) is the default for Fedora systems.

    * Understanding LVM (overview, see Installation Guide)
    * Adding a Drive (includes formatting partitions)
    * Resizing LVM Partitions
    * LVM Snapshotting

The LVM HOWTO provides detailed information:
      http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/


Managing Software

 >>     Understanding Software Packages (link to the separate yum tutorial)
Wouldn't under managing software be a good home for yum? Where else
would it be referenced or searched for?

>    * Managing Scripts and Web Applications (same principles apply to both)
Confused by this title. Are you talking about installing Firefox
extensions and enabling Java script installation when you mean web
applications? When it comes to scripts those are fairly rare today.
How many packages do you install that are not either an RPM or a type
I tarball or a binary (which is sometimes a script but to the end user
looks like an executable) ?

>    * Working with Source Code
But people know it as tarballs. The words source code will strike fear
into many. Probably best to call them tar balls as that is the common
usage and also a gentler term for the technophobic.




>>    * Exporting a Directory (as an NFS share) * Mounting a Remote Directory
But is that NFS4 or NFS? Lots of people keep NFS 3 around because it's
there, it works and why change something that isn't broken? What are
the advantages/disadvantages of NFS4 vrs NFS3? They clearly work in
different ways. So I broke that up into NFS and NFS4 sections.