Practical Linux for Network Engineers: Part 1 Online Class LinkedIn Learning, formerly Lynda com

linux for network engineers

As a result, network engineers who use Fedora enjoy a greater level of familiarity with the RHEL systems they may encounter throughout their careers. Linux is commonly preferred among network engineers—so if you’ve thought about installing it for your work, you’re not alone. Work with other server administrators to help identify and refine minimums and maximum outputs. Recommend hardware appropriate for the network and support that hardware as needed. Supports multiple protocols for downloading files from the internet.

  1. Each version of RHEL has a 10-year lifecycle, meaning that you’ll be able to use your chosen version of RHEL (and enjoy little to no compatibility issues) for years.
  2. CentOS has narrowed the hardware architectures supported to x86-64 (the most popular), aarch64, and ppc64le.
  3. Much like Fedora, CentOS Stream is a distribution that stays in line with the development of RHEL.
  4. 1) A lot of network operating systems are based on Linux, or have a Linux shell you can access, or use Linux type commands.

Network Testing and Monitoring Commands

Fedora is an open-source distribution that serves as a community equivalent to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). RHEL itself is commonly chosen as the operating system for enterprise-level systems. Yes The “iftop” or “bwm-ng” commands is use to show you the bandwidth being used by the different connections or the applications in the real time. The “arp -a” command will used to display the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) table which will maps the IP addresses to the MAC addresses for the devices onto the your local network.

For example, Fedora 33 should have support for at least through November 2021 before it is deemed end-of-life. Licensing and support—Although it is officially supported by Red Hat, a unit of IBM, Fedora is open-source and has Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) licenses. Get ready with one of these options and in the next post we’ll talk how to access your Linux box remotely and without a password (but securely) with ssh. The list will keep expanding, but for now let’s discuss how you can get your hands on a Linux box with as little cost as possible.

linux for network engineers

Debian

RHEL uses Network Manager for network interface configuration, but Netplan can be enabled and is installable with Snap. We selected five Linux server distributions based on popularity, longevity, supportability, open-source contribution, and industry momentum. In this article we review CentOS Stream 8, Debian 10.7, Fedora 33, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8, and Ubuntu 20.04. The software-package manager is one of the most distinguishing differences among Linux distributions. Loading software onto the Linux system can use RPM, APT, yum, DNF, dpkg, Flatpak, or a number of others.

Network Configuration Commands

You’ll also have access to tools like Cacti and Snort through the RPM and YUM package managers. As one of the most popular enterprise distributions, RHEL is a great option because it is robust and reinforced. Each version of RHEL has a 10-year lifecycle, meaning that you’ll be able to use your chosen version of RHEL (and enjoy little to no compatibility issues) for years.

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Also, the SSH daemon was not installed and running by default so we had to add it before we could SSH into the OS. Security—During the installation process, a root password and a standard non-privileged user account was created, and that user was not added to linux for network engineers the sudoers list. The CentOS Project doesn’t offer its own training, but there are online classes offered by third parties. CentOS is easy to download and get running in a testing environment.

Automatically gets an IP address and other network configuration details from a DHCP server. Reports the network status, manages and configures the network connections and controls the NetworkManager tool. Use case—Debian is recommended if you needed a stripped down, back-to-basics OS and preferred Debian packages. If you are already familiar with Linux and like having full control and no cruft to get in your way, then Debian is a great way to go.