CentOS 7 Linux is one of the most reliable Linux operating systems to be used for multiple functionalities in a computer infrastructure. It is like Pandora's box for any system administrator in that he can shape it to perform any task for his environment.
Having a CentOS 7 server in any infrastructure can help deploy a number of useful services to maintain, secure, and manage the infrastructure in a smart and automated way.
Chapter 1, Advanced User Management, teaches you how to manage users and groups on CentOS 7 to get a better understanding of how it is organized.
Chapter 2, Security, shows the best practices to secure your CentOS 7 and some of its valuable services from many attacks that could disable the services or expose some critical data.
Chapter 3, Linux for Different Purposes, enumerates and introduces a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up a list of very useful services that your computer infrastructure should have.
Chapter 4, Mail Server with Postfix, introduces you to Postfix as a common open source mail server to have it installed and configured for advanced usage.
Chapter 5, Monitoring and Logging, monitors your infrastructure and follows your machine's issues via user-friendly monitoring and logging tools.
Chapter 6, Virtualization, initiates your virtual environment and explores the possibilities and benefits all the virtual technologies can offer.
Chapter 7, Cloud Computing, explores Cloud computing by building your own Cloud environment using OpenStack and its amazing components.
Chapter 8, Configuration Management, takes your infrastructure to an advanced level where everything runs on configuration management using Puppet, as it is one of the most famous configuration management tools in this field.
Chapter 9, Some Additional Tricks and Tools, teaches you the small tricks and tools that can make your life easier when administrating the CentOS 7 server for any use.
To follow this book properly, we recommend that you have one CentOS 7 server to hold most of these services with the following characteristics:
CPU: 4 Core 3.00 GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Hard Disk: 150 GB
Network: 1 Gbit/s
Also, you will need some machines with the following characteristics to test the services on:
CPU: 2 Core 3.00 GHz
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk: 50 GB
Network: 1Gbit/s
A good Internet connection and a Gigabit network switch are also required.
If you are a Linux system administrator with an intermediate administration level, this is your opportunity to master the brand new distribution of CentOS. If you wish to possess a fully sustainable Linux server, with all its new tools and tweaks, that serves a variety of services to your users and customers, this book is ideal for you. It is your ticket to easily adapting to all the changes made in the latest shift.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."
A block of code is set as follows:
<html>
<title>
Test page
</title>
<body>
<h1>This is a test page</h1>
</body>
</html>Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
testuser:x:1001:1001::/home/testuser:/bin/bash
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Then we define the fields asked to fill Country Name, State or Province Name, Locality Name, Organization Name, Organizational Unit Name, Common Name, and Email Address."
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