RH401 Red Hat Enterprise Deployment, Virtualisation & Systems Management

Overview:

RH401 now has expanded deployment and monitoring coverage! Clustering material moved to RH436 The RH401 course has been modified to focus more closely on deployment and systems management. As a result, course material on clustering has been removed from this course and moved to RH436. RH401 now includes expanded material on the use of the Red Hat Network Satellite Server, including expanded coverage of the Red Hat Network Proxy Server; new material on monitoring using the Red Hat Network Satellite Server; and the use of DHCP and PXE boot for deployment. In addition, the RH401 course now includes a technology preview of the Xen virtualization system using Fedora Core 5. These changes are now in effect in North America. For the expected dates of changes in other locations, please contact your local Red Hat office. People interested in clustering should enroll in RH436 Red Hat Enterprise Clustering and Storage Management.

Description:

Goal:

RH401 is designed to train people with RHCE level competency on skills required to deploy and manage Red Hat systems to enterprise standards of reliability, availability, scalability and manageability.

Central to the course is hands-on training in the use of the Red Hat Network Satellite Server for deployment, provisioning, and monitoring of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.

Persons taking RH401 will learn how to implement and manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments efficiently and effectively in ways that make the entire enterprise deployment manageable by a team. They will learn to install and deploy a Red Hat Network Satellite Server and use this server to keep a range of systems up to date; to provision new systems; to monitor existing systems. With the satellite server, they will learn to create custom software channels and custom configuration channels. They will learn to use the Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) to create their own RPMs, and manage the RPMs using CVS and using the Red Hat Satellite Server. Finally, they will learn to create a netdump server that collects kernel core dumps from many systems, saving them to a single system.

Also part of this course is a technology preview of Xen virtualization on Fedora Core 5. Xen is a method for virtualizing a computer, allowing multiple host operating systems to run on a single hardware platform.

Note:The Xen Technology Preview will be taught using Fedora Core 5. As of this writing, the Xen virtualization system is not available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Audience:

RH401 is aimed at senior Red Hat Enterprise Linux system administrators and other IT professionals working in enterprise environments and mission-critical systems.

Prerequisites:

RH401 requires RHCE-level skills. The RHCE certificate on 7.1 or higher is recommended but not required. Prerequisite skills can be evidenced by passing the RHCE Exam in either RH302, RH300, or by taking RH253 or comparable skills and knowledge.

Note: Persons should not enroll in RH401 without meeting the above prerequisites. All prospective course participants who do not possess RHCE certification are strongly advised to contact Red Hat Global Learning Services for a skills assessment when they enroll.

What you will learn:
Essential System Management
System management tasks
Standardization, centralization, and scalability
Provisioning and automation
Red Hat tools for system managment 

Installing a Red Hat Network Satellite Server
Features and advantages of the RHN Satellite Server
Types of RHN Satellite Servers
RHN Satellite Server hardware requirements
Understanding software channels
Installing an RHN Satellite Server
Populating an RHN Satellite Server
Troubleshooting an RHN Satellite Server installation 

Building RPMs
Building open source software
Using RPM macros
Writing custom spec files
Using rpmbuild to create and sign RPMs
Guidelines for custom RPMs 

Use of CVS to Manage Configuration Files
Basics of CVS for system administrators
Creating local and remote repository access
Structuring a CVS project
Using CVS to track, log, and reverse configuration changes 

Managing the Red Hat Network Satellite Server
Preparing a client to use an RHN Satellite Server
Creating and managing custom channels 

Red Hat Network Management and Provisioning
Types of RHN service
Elements of a deployment system
Use of custom channels in a deployment system
Using configuration channels to maintain system configuration
Automating installations through kickstart 

Red Hat Network Proxy Server
Hosted RHN versus Proxy Server
Proxy Server software and hardware requirements
Installing RHN Proxy Server
Configuring clients to use a RHN Proxy Server 

Monitoring Systems with RHN
RHN monitoring architecture
RHN monitoring components
Probes and notifications 

Network Kernel Crash Dumps and netdump
Saving crash signatures over the network
Saving crash dumps over the network
Configuring netdump servers
Configuring netdump clients 

DHCP and PXE boot
DHCP server design and configuration
Preboot Execution Environment
Setup PXE and PXELINUX
Kickstart and DHCP

Xen Technology Preview
Understanding virtualization
Xen terminology
Hardware requirements
Xen tools
Creating and bootstrapping a domain
Accessing and monitoring a domain
The art of Xen security
Note:The Xen Technology Preview will be taught using Fedora Core 5. As of this writing, the Xen virtualization system is not available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.