Projects to Learn Linux
 

Good Morning,

I am looking for a link or ideas for Linux projects. I just recently took over a linux admin position managing RHEL 5 and 6 for my company. We now have some down time, and I'd like to continue to grow my knowledge in linux. What kind of projects can I work on to expand my exposure?

Ideas I had were:

Build a RHEL satellite server.
Bulid an apache, FS ,and database server

thank you for your input.

Not sorted, just a collection. Some are harder than others.

Storage servers
container servers (though that might require RH 7 or CentOS 7)
distributed management software (there are a number available, consider writing a comparison white paper).
Kerberos (network based identity authentication - and can work with smart cards...)
LDAP servers for directory services
A repository server (for local distribution use to cut down network traffic)

Depending on the amount of time you have to invest, if you want to learn the nuts and bolts of Linux you could install Gentoo Linux on a spare drive. You will come out of that with a good working understanding of Linux in general. Be forewarned, it is not an easy task and is quite time consuming.

Honestly, what kind of 'exposure' are you looking for? If you're managing RHEL 5 servers, the first thing I'd do is put a plan in place to get RID of them. RHEL5 is very old, and most versions are totally unsupported/unpatched and will receive NO bug fixes ore security updates ever again. Putting a solid migration plan in place (with costs, downtimes, affected areas, rollback positions if something fails, etc.), will be good for your exposure at your company. As far as the two ideas you have posted here....I'd say there is little point. RHEL satellite isn't free, and even if you do purchase it, the RHEL5 servers will get ZERO benefit from it, since there's nothing the satellite would ever do, aside from shoveling out packages you write in-house. And wouldn't your company already HAVE web servers, database servers, and file servers???

If you're talking about setting these things up in a lab, I'd suggest spacewalk instead of satellite (free vs. cost), and learning how to configure things isn't bad at all. But bear in mind, these things you mentioned have LOTS of already-written how to guides...just following instructions won't be too much of a feather in your cap.

If you're looking for projects, the best thing I would suggest is to talk with your boss(es) and co-workers. Ask them what NEEDS they have. Do they need a better monitoring system for project xxxx? Build one. Need better auditing procedures? Figure out how to make those things happen. Problems with program yyyy? Troubleshoot and fix them. Become the person they go to when they need something accomplished, and do it RIGHT. THAT is how you get exposure, and REALLY learn. Writing your own tools/procedures, and figuring out the steps you need to take to accomplish something CUSTOM will get you more knowledge than following a how-to guide, and make you more valuable to your employer.

You can setup a PXE boot server using TFTP to install linux on a new computer without a live DVD or usb.

Or better yet, setup a clonezilla sever to deploy an image filesystem on multiple computers.

BTW, if these servers are in production i.e serving applications and services to the company, I wouldn't do this on them. Practice this or any other linux projects on your own computers at home or on test beds systems if your company has them.

Make a Luks encrypted USB stick.
Learn iptables and build a firewall.
Automate admin tasks using bash scripts.
Write a password policy for users of the system.
Get really good at games.
Plow through /usr/bin and read the corresponding man pages.

There are an infinite number of possibilities!

My advice, buy a cheap tower computer from ebay. You can get i3 based towers for under a hundred bucks. Take it home.
Download CentOS, install it on your new cpu.
Hook the tower to your home network, learn how to hook up and administer the linux server "remotely" (ssh).
Put a useful app like mediawiki or something on the server and learn how it can be used by workstations in your network.
Force failures a few times and learn how to put it back in operation.

You'll end up with a good overview of your linux server, and with luck a useful machine to have at home (I keep all my tech notes on an internal mediawiki wiki, for example).