LABS

During the Red Hat exams, the tasks will be presented electronically. Therefore, this book presents most of the labs electronically as well. For more information, see the Lab Questions section toward the end of Chapter 11. Most of the labs for this chapter are straightforward and require a very few commands or changes to one or two configuration files.

Lab 1

The intent of this lab is to demonstrate a little of the capabilities of the files in the /etc/sysconfig directory. It's an opportunity for you to experiment, to see how such files can be used to modify how a service is started.

In this lab, you'll work with the /etc/sysconfig file associated with the Apache web server, httpd. As with any other configuration file, you should back it up before making any changes. If you haven't yet installed the Apache web server, follow the instructions described earlier in this chapter or related instructions in the body of Chapter 1.

1. Back up the current version of /etc/sysconfig/httpd.

2. Make sure the Apache Web server is running; you can restart it with the service httpd restart command. (The apachctl restart command is explained in Chapter 14.)

3. Review currently running Apache processes with the ps aux | grep httpd command. How many Apache processes are currently running?

4. Open the /etc/sysconfig/httpd file, and add the following directive:

OPTIONS=-l

5. Review the httpd man page. What do you think this option will do?

6. Restart the Apache web server. What happens?

7. Are there any Apache processes currently running?

8. Restore the original version of the /etc/sysconfig/httpd file.

9. Be brave. Assuming you've saved the backup of the /etc/sysconfig/httpd configuration file, try using another option, based on Steps 4 through 8.

Lab 2

In this lab, you'll set up public/private key-based authentication between two RHEL 6 systems. Any two systems will work for this purpose. Just be prepared to use the same two systems in Labs 3, 4, and 5. In preparation for this lab, make sure that each system has a regular user named hawaii. Use the following passphrase:

I love Linux!

Lab 3

Repeat Lab 2, with two differences. Set up DSA authentication, and set up a user named tonga on the client, configured to connect to user hawaii's account on the server.

Lab 4

In this lab, you'll set up user-level security on an SSH server. Use the same systems configured for Labs 2 and 3. Limit access to the user hawaii set up in Lab 2, and then try to access a different account on the SSH server. Try access again to the root administrative account on the SSH server.

Lab 5

In this lab, you'll set up the SSH server configured in earlier labs on port 8022. Once complete, reload the service. Try connecting locally. Set up the systems so that you can also connect from a remote system.

Lab 6

In this lab, you'll configure the /virtual/web directory with the same SELinux file types as the /var/www directory. In addition, configure the /virtual/web/cgi-bin directory with the same SELinux file types as the /var/www/cgi-bin directory.