Last Updated : 15 Jul, 2025
A Linux System Administrator manages the operations such as maintaining proper software, observing them, and even taking care of backup and hardware systems. It is recommended that before reading this article please go through the article What is Linux System Administration. Here we have some basics of Linux System Administration.
Some Basic ConfigurationsSet the Hostname: Open terminal and enter the following command in order to change the hostname.
sudo hostname your_hostname
Replace "your_hostname" with the hostname that you want to keep.
Setting up the time zone: Move to /usr/share/zoneinfo/your_zone and then link the zone file with /etc/localtime to set the time zone.
sudo ln -sf Kolkata /etc/localtimeFile System and Management
Managing files is the most important task in Linux as all devices, directories, and packages are just a type of file in Linux.
1. To know about File system read the article File System in Linux.
Below is the list of some file management commands in Linux:
Command Description cd Used to change the current directory ls Used to list the directories and files in a directory vi A good text editor to edit files touch Used to create new files nano A good text editor to edit files cp Used to copy files and directories. mv Used to move files and directories. rm Used to remove files and directories. fdisk Used to partition disks and to work with file systems mount Used to mount a file system or a deviceYou can also read the file management in Linux from the article https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/linux-unix/file-management-in-linux/
Networking CommandsNetworking commands play an important role in system Administration and a good system Administrator must have good hands-on networking commands. Here is a list of such commands that are mostly used for networking in Linux.
Command Description route used to view and manipulate ip routing tables. ping Used to send some packets to a server and receive them back in case of a good network connection. traceroute Used to trace the path taken by the traffic. nslookup Used for querying the Domain Name System to obtain domain name or IP address mapping, or other DNS records. ifconfig Used to view and change the configuration of the network interfaces on your system tracepath Used to traces path to destination discovering MTU along this path ssh Provides a secure encrypted connection between two hosts over an insecure network telnet Used to test if a port is open and even to work with telnet protocol. curl Used to transfer data to or from a server, using any of the supported protocols. scp Used to securely copy files and directories between two locations over a network. w Provides a quick summary of every user logged into a computer netcat used for performing any operation in Linux related to TCP, UDP, or UNIX-domain sockets nmap Used for network exploration and security auditing netstat Used for monitoring network connections both incoming and outgoing as well as viewing routing tables, interface statistics, etc ip Used to assign an address to a network interface and/or configure network interface parameters on Linux operating systems Managing Users and Group in LinuxA system administrator has to manage the users working on the system. Users are the accounts which are logged in to your system or may log in to the system. Each user in Linux has a unique UID to identify the user. All information of the users is stored in /etc/passwd file and all hashed passwords are stored in /etc/shadow file. There are basically 2 types of user in Linux on the basis of their rights to access.
Each user may or may not be a part of a group which is a collection of users. To learn more about users in Linux go through the article Users in Linux System Administration. Here is a list of commands that are used to manage users.
Command Description usermod Used to modify users and their respective settings useradd Used to add a new user su and sudo Used to change the user and work with root change Used to change the user's aging/expiry information groupdel Used to delete a group gpasswd Used to change password of group groupmod Used to modify group and its settings groupadd Used to add a new groupTo learn more about how to manage users read the article User Management in Linux
To learn more about how to manage groups read the article Group Management in Linux
System Diagnostics/Monitor PerformanceA System Administrator should be able to diagnose problems in a system and even to monitor the performance of the system so that it may be improved. Here is the list of some useful commands for the same.
Command Description top Used to display the running processes. vmstat Used to get information about processes, memory, paging, block IO, disk, and CPU scheduling lsof Used to check list of open files. htop Used to determine the cause of load of each process iostat Used to monitor IO devices loading nmon It displays performance about the CPU, MEMORY, NETWORK, DISKS, FILE SYSTEM, NFS, TOP PROCESSES, RESOURCES, AND POWER MICRO-PARTITION Reading and Analysing LogsA good system Administrator must have an idea of how to read and manage logs as they give a lot of crucial and required information.
Command Description dmesg Used to print the message buffer of the kernel tail Used to print details from the log files located in the folder /var/log journalctl Used to read systemd logsRetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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