Fsarchiver is a free software utility that let us create file-level backups of one or multiple filesystems in a single archive. One big advantage of this kind of backup is that we can restore it on a filesystem smaller than the original one (but of course large enough to contain all the files); this is usually impossible when performing block-level backups, using tools like partclone or dd. In this article we will learn how to install and use the application and its main features.
filesystem
Install ARCH Linux on ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 with encrypted filesystem and UEFI
In this article we will be installing Arch Linux on ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 Laptop. This tutorial contains installation instructions, basic configuration as well as some post-install tuning of Arch Linux to get you started.
Most of the instructions are Arch Linux installation generic hence with a simple modifications this tutorial can be used for any UEFI system installations. However, some points are specific to ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 therefore basic Linux Administration skills are required in case you are installing Arch Linux PC/Laptop other then ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7.
This guide will only get you started. If you have some additional tips and tricks on how to improve performance please use the comments below so we can incorporate them into this guide.
Thank you.
After completing this tutorial you will end up with:
- Installed Arch Linux with GNOME desktop
- Encrypted
/directory usingluksencryption - Configured Linux boot loader using
systemd-boot - Created Logical Volumes and partitions to host your
swapand/directory - Configured EFI parition for your
/bootdirectory - Basic System configuration and fine-tuning
- Ability to use wireless to connect to your WiFi from GNOME desktop
- Functioning Bluetooth and Thunderbolt controller
- Ability up upgrade a firmware on your ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7
Using LVM to manage physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes – RHCSA Objective Preparation
As part of the RHCSA exam preparation, we already learned how to manage partitions on disk. Partitions are useful to separate disk space (for example, separating database-related files from webserver-related files), but we have a much more flexible solution that can separate or aggregate storage space.
This solution is called LVM, the Logical Volume Manager. LVM allows us to see multiple disks as one filesystem, thus overcoming the limitations of a physical disk’s site. We can also create software mirroring on disks to protect or data written to the filesystem. In this tutorial we’ll cover the basics: we’ll manage the three layers of LVM, physical volumes, volume groups and logical volumes.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to create and remove physical volumes
- How to assign physical volumes to volume groups
- How to create and delete logical volumes
Configure systems to mount file systems at boot by universally unique ID (UUID) or label – RHCSA Objective Preparation
While in the desktop world we rarely change our hard drive – and that mostly indicated by hardware failure – in the server world it isn’t uncommon for the underlying storage environment to change over time.
In a SAN (Storage Area Network) environment, for High Availability, a server can reach it’s storage trough many paths, in reality distributed and mirrored to multiple disks in the storage network. If some paths change, the server needs to identify the “disk” again. That’s why it is recommended to use special identifiers set on the device, and mount by these identifiers, not by device name which may change. In this part of RHCSA exam preparation tutorial, we’ll add a new disk to our test machine, and configure mounting by UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) and by label.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to get UUID of a given device
- How to get and set label of a device
- How to mount device by UUID
- How to mount device by label
Create hard and soft links – RHCSA Exam Preparation
In this part of RHCSA exam preparation we will turn our attention to links. There are two types of link, hard links and soft links. In this article we will talk about how to create and remove links and will also discuss some basic background behind both, the hard links and the soft links.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- What are symbolic (soft) links
- What are hard links
- How to create a symbolic link
- How to create a hard link
- How to remove link
Boot systems into different targets manually – RHCSA Objective Preparation
In this part of RHCSA exam preparation you will learn how to manually change into a different boot targets. This article will also teach you how to set a default boot targets to automatically boot into graphical or multi-user target on Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to check default boot target
- How to manually switch between different targets
- How to set default boot to multi-user target
- How to set default boot to graphical target
How to list, create, delete partitions on MBR and GPT disks – RHCSA Objective Preparation
Disk partitions are the basis of storing our data on disks. To be able to handle partitions, in this part of RHCSA exam preparation tutorial we will add an empty disk to our test RHEL 8 system, and create, list, and delete a new partition on it. First we will use the classic MBR (Master Boot Record) setup, then we’ll do the same on GPT (GUID Partitioning Table) setup. GPT is a more advanced partitioning technique that allows large partitions, whereas MBR is limited to 2 TB disk space per partition. So if that doesn’t seem like a very limiting size at the moment, think of the trend of disk usage, which may be not that much from the end user perspective, but certainly it is from the Linux system administration job perspective.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to create a new MBR partition using fdisk
- How to list classic partitions using fdisk
- How to delete partition using fdisk
- How to create GPT partition using gdisk
- How to list GPT partitions
- How to delete GPT partitions
How to increase swap size on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8
On a system with memory-intense workload with common peak loads, a large swap memory can be useful to store large memory contents not needed at the moment. While using swap instead of memory will certainly have great impact on performance, sometimes this is preferable over adding more memory to the machine, as disk space is much cheaper. Sometimes there is simply no more memory, maybe a physical machine that is out of free slots, and there isn’t any larger memory modules on the market. At other times the slower performance on peak loads may be preferable over the application crashing with out of memory error.
In some cases swap memory needs to be increased, a live example could be expanding the memory in the machine, and so also expanding the swap space to match the double of the new memory size.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to check swap space.
- How to identify swap volume.
- How to extend swap volume.
- How to add another swap volume.
RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 recover root password
This article provides step by step instructions on how to recover/reset lost or forgotten RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Linux root administrative password. To recover the root password you will first boot to the GRUB menu and perform a break at early stage of the boot process. Afterwards, you will remount the sysroot directory with read & write access and change the root password on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 by using the passwd command to set the new root password.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to perform a break at an early stage of the boot process.
- How to remount root partition with read/write access.
- How to change root password.
- How to force filesystem relabeling.
How to Save Space with Symlinks and Mount Points
When you’re stuck with limited storage space, there’s always the option of purchasing more storage, but what if you can’t. Devices like Chromebooks and some laptops are fairly limited. Thankfully, Linux has a few tricks to help to make your Linux system administration job easier. Because Unix-like systems treat everything as a file, you can easily use symbolic links and mounted partitions to maximize space.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to Use Symbolic Links at /home
- How to Use Symlinks Elsewhere
- How to Extend Your Storage with Mount Points
- How to Make Effective Use of Networked Drives
Linux Filesystem Navigation Basics
This article explains basic commands for navigation within Linux file system. The diagram below represents (part of) a Linux file system know as Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. A line from one node to a node on its right indicates containment. For example, the student directory is contained within the home directory.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to use
pwdcommand - How to use
cdcommand - How to navigate to user home directory
- Difference between relative vs absolute
- What is a parent directory
How to install ntfs-3g on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8
NTFS is not supported by default on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8. To make our system able to read and write block devices formatted with this proprietary filesystem, we need to install the ntfs-3g software, which usually in provided by third party repositories like Epel. At the time of writing, however, a version of this software source for Rhel8 doesn’t already exist, therefore we will see how to install it from source in few easy steps.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to build ntfs-3g from source
- How to install ntfs-3g
- How to mount a block device formatted with ntfs-3g
- How to format a block device with the ntfs filesystem
- How to check the ntfs filesystem integrity using ntfsfix
The manpage of ntfs-3g on Rhel 8