Administration of a Linux System

Linux, which inherits most of its design from Unix, also inherits from Unix the need for 'administration'. This means that it isn't just a system that gets installed and sits there waiting for something to go wrong. As the owner of a Linux system, you're responsible for a certain amount of maintenance. This amount depends on just how critical the system is, the number of users and services you're providing. Luckily, there is a wealth of tools to get the job done. There are tools that work on the command line as well as those with a graphical user interface. There are also web-based administration tools. First, we'll look at the traditional command line tools for system administration tasks.