Book Image

Linux for Networking Professionals

By : Rob VandenBrink
1 (1)
Book Image

Linux for Networking Professionals

1 (1)
By: Rob VandenBrink

Overview of this book

As Linux continues to gain prominence, there has been a rise in network services being deployed on Linux for cost and flexibility reasons. If you are a networking professional or an infrastructure engineer involved with networks, extensive knowledge of Linux networking is a must. This book will guide you in building a strong foundation of Linux networking concepts. The book begins by covering various major distributions, how to pick the right distro, and basic Linux network configurations. You'll then move on to Linux network diagnostics, setting up a Linux firewall, and using Linux as a host for network services. You'll discover a wide range of network services, why they're important, and how to configure them in an enterprise environment. Finally, as you work with the example builds in this Linux book, you'll learn to configure various services to defend against common attacks. As you advance to the final chapters, you’ll be well on your way towards building the underpinnings for an all-Linux datacenter. By the end of this book, you'll be able to not only configure common Linux network services confidently, but also use tried-and-tested methodologies for future Linux installations.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Linux Basics
4
Section 2: Linux as a Network Node and Troubleshooting Platform
8
Section 3: Linux Network Services

Chapter 11: Packet Capture and Analysis in Linux

In this chapter, we'll be discussing packet capturing using Linux. In many respects, packets are the closest thing to the truth in the data center; the proverb that's frequently quoted is Packets Don't Lie. No matter what policies or convoluted configuration exists on hosts or firewalls, the host and application packets will always reflect what's happening. This makes packet capture and, more importantly, the analysis of those packets a key problem-solving and troubleshooting skill in the toolbox of a network administrator.

In particular, we'll cover the following topics:

  • Introduction to packet capturing – the right places to look
  • Performance considerations when capturing
  • Capturing tools
  • Filtering captured traffic
  • Troubleshooting an application – capturing a VoIP telephone call

Let's get started!