Book Image

Linux Service Management Made Easy with systemd

4.5 (2)
Book Image

Linux Service Management Made Easy with systemd

4.5 (2)

Overview of this book

Linux Service Management Made Easy with systemd will provide you with an in-depth understanding of systemd, so that you can set up your servers securely and efficiently.This is a comprehensive guide for Linux administrators that will help you get the best of systemd, starting with an explanation of the fundamentals of systemd management.You’ll also learn how to edit and create your own systemd units, which will be particularly helpful if you need to create custom services or timers and add features or security to an existing service. Next, you'll find out how to analyze and fix boot-up challenges and set system parameters. An overview of cgroups that'll help you control system resource usage for both processes and users will also be covered, alongside a practical demonstration on how cgroups are structured, spotting the differences between cgroups Version 1 and 2, and how to set resource limits on both. Finally, you'll learn about the systemd way of performing time-keeping, networking, logging, and login management. You'll discover how to configure servers accurately and gather system information to analyze system security and performance. By the end of this Linux book, you’ll be able to efficiently manage all aspects of a server running the systemd init system.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Section 1: Using systemd
12
Section 2: Understanding cgroups
16
Section 3: Logging, Timekeeping, Networking, and Booting

Understanding systemd-boot

The first thing to note here is the name, systemd-boot. It's shocking, I know. We have a systemd component whose name does not end in the letter d. But seriously, systemd-boot is a component of systemd that has some cool features. Compared to GRUB2, it's lighter-weight, easier to configure, boots faster, and works well with the modern implementations of Secure Boot. Contrary to popular belief, systemd-boot is a boot manager, not a bootloader. It can automatically probe for other operating systems on the machine and add them to the boot menu. (GRUB2 only does this when you first install the operating system, while systemd-boot does this each time you boot the machine.) Once you've booted the machine and have chosen your desired boot option, systemd-boot hands the boot operation over to a real bootloader.

So, why isn't it more widely used? Well, it's just that systemd-boot only works on EFI/UEFI systems. There are still a lot of...