Over 40 recipes to help you set up and configure Linux networks
This book is targeted at Linux systems administrators who have a good basic understanding and some prior experience of how a Linux machine operates, but want to better understand how various network services function, how to set them up, and how to secure them. You should be familiar with how to set up a Linux server and how to install additional software on them.
Linux can be configured as a networked workstation, a DNS server, a mail server, a firewall, a gateway router, and many other things. These are all part of administration tasks, hence network administration is one of the main tasks of Linux system administration. By knowing how to configure system network interfaces in a reliable and optimal manner, Linux administrators can deploy and configure several network services including file, web, mail, and servers while working in large enterprise environments.
Starting with a simple Linux router that passes traffic between two private networks, you will see how to enable NAT on the router in order to allow Internet access from the network, and will also enable DHCP on the network to ease configuration of client systems. You will then move on to configuring your own DNS server on your local network using bind9 and tying it into your DHCP server to allow automatic configuration of local hostnames. You will then future enable your network by setting up IPv6 via tunnel providers.
Moving on, we'll configure Samba to centralize authentication for your network services; we will also configure Linux client to leverage it for authentication, and set up a RADIUS server that uses the directory server for authentication.
Toward the end, you will have a network with a number of services running on it, and will implement monitoring in order to detect problems as they occur.
This book is packed with practical recipes and a task-based approach that will walk you through building, maintaining, and securing a computer network using Linux.
