Introduction

Welcome to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide contains information on how to customize your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to fit your needs. If you are looking for a step-by-step, task-oriented guide for configuring and customizing your system, this is the manual for you. This manual discusses many intermediate topics such as the following:

• Setting up a network interface card (NIC)

• Performing a Kickstart installation

• Configuring Samba shares

• Managing your software with RPM

• Determining information about your system

• Upgrading your kernel

This manual is divided into the following main categories:

• Installation-Related Reference

• File Systems Reference

• Package Management

• Network Configuration

• System Configuration

• System Monitoring

This guide assumes you have a basic understanding of your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. If you need help installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide. For more general information about system administration, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Introduction to System Administration. If you need more advanced documentation such as an overview of file systems, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Reference Guide. If you need security information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Guide.

1. Changes To This Manual

This manual has been reorganized for clarity and updated for the latest features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Some of the changes include:

Updated Kernel Modules and Manually Updating the Kernel Chapters

The Kernel Modules and the Upgrading the Kernel Manually chapters include updated information in regards to the 2.6 kernel. Special thanks to Arjan van de Ven for his hard work in helping to complete this chapter.

An Updated Network File System (NFS) Chapter

The Network File System (NFS) chapter has been revised and reorganized to include NFSv4. Special thanks to Steve Dickson for his hard work in helping to complete this chapter.

An Updated OProfile Chapter

The OProfile chapter has been revised and reorganized to include updated information in regards to the 2.6 kernel. Special thanks to Will Cohen for his hard work in helping to complete this chapter.

An Updated X Window System Chapter

The X Window System chapter has been revised to include information on the X11R6.8 release developed by the X.Org team.

Before reading this guide, you should be familiar with the contents of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide concerning installation issues, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Introduction to System Administration for basic administration concepts, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide for general customization instructions, and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Guide for security related instructions. This guide contains information about topics for advanced users.

HTML, PDF, and RPM versions of the manuals are available on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation CD and online at https://www.redhat.com/docs/.

Note

Although this manual reflects the most current information possible, read the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Notes for information that may not have been available prior to our documentation being finalized. The Release Notes can be found on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD #1, online at https://www.redhat.com/docs/, or in the /usr/share/doc/redhat-release-4<product>/ directory after installation, where <product> is AS, ES, WS, or Desktop.