Book Image

Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure

By : Frederik Vos
Book Image

Hands-On Linux Administration on Azure

By: Frederik Vos

Overview of this book

Azure’s market share has increased massively and enterprises are adopting it rapidly, while Linux is a widely-used operating system and has proven to be one of the most popular workloads on Azure. It has thus become crucial for Linux administrators and Microsoft professionals to be well versed with managing Linux workloads in an Azure environment. With this guide, system administrators will be able to deploy, automate, and orchestrate containers in Linux on Azure. The book follows a hands-on approach to help you understand DevOps, monitor Linux workloads on Azure and perform advanced system administration. Complete with systematic explanations of concepts, examples and self-assessment questions, the chapters will give you useful insights into Linux and Azure. You’ll explore some of Linux’s advanced features for managing multiple workloads and learn to deploy virtual machines (VMs) in Azure. Dedicated sections will also guide you with managing and extending Azure VMs’ capabilities and understanding automation and orchestration with Ansible and PowerShell DSC. In later chapters, you’ll cover useful Linux troubleshooting and monitoring techniques that will enable you to maintain your workload on Azure. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to make the most out of Azure’s services to efficiently deploy and manage your Linux workloads.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)

Systemd

After the Linux kernel boots, the first Linux process starts the first process. This process is known as an init process. In modern Linux systems, this process is systemd:

Systemd is responsible for starting all processes in parallel during the boot process, except the processes that are created by their kernel. After that it's activating services among other things on demand. It also tracks and manages mount points, and it manages system-wide settings such as the hostname.

Systemd is an event-driven system. It communicates with the kernel and will react to an event such as a point in time or a user that introduces a new device or presses Ctrl + Alt + Del.

Working with units

Systemd works with units, entities...