CentOS Stream: Enterprise Linux Administration and Infrastructure Modernization Training Course

CentOS Stream Architecture and Release Philosophy

• Exploring the CentOS Stream rolling-release model in contrast to point-release distributions.
• Understanding the relationship between CentOS Stream and Red Hat Enterprise Linux upstream development.
• Naming conventions, stream repositories, and content versioning strategies.
• Selecting and switching between multiple streams to ensure application compatibility.

Installation and Automated Deployment

• Walkthrough of the interactive Anaconda graphical and text-based installers.
• Using Kickstart files for fully automated, unattended installations.
• PXE network boot and TFTP-based network installation workflows.
• Containerized and cloud-init-based provisioning for cloud deployments.
• Partitioning strategies and filesystem selection, including Btrfs and XFS defaults.

Package Management and Module Streams

• Advanced DNF operations, transaction management, and dependency resolution.
• Utilizing module streams for flexible software versions and language runtimes.
• Repository configuration, GPG signature verification, and creating custom repositories.
• Content views and errata tracking for enterprise update management.

System Service Management with systemd

• Understanding systemd targets, units, and the dependency graph.
• Creating, enabling, and troubleshooting custom service units.
• Journal logging, log rotation, and persistent log storage.
• Resource control using systemd slices and resource manager policies.
• Configuring kdump crash dumps and handling kernel panics.

Modern Network Configuration

• Essential NetworkManager CLI and CUI configurations.
• Configuring interface bonding, bridging, VLANs, and teaming.
• Firewalld rich rules, zones, services, and port forwarding.
• IPv6 routing, firewall rules, and DNS resolution via systemd-resolved.
• Network debugging tools and packet capture techniques.

Container and Pod Infrastructure

• Podman vs Docker: Fundamentals of daemonless container workflows.
• Creating container images with Buildah without relying on Dockerfiles or daemons.
• Rootless container deployment and user namespace mappings.
• Red Hat Universal Base Images and Alpine-based lightweight containers.
• Storage drivers, volume mounts, and inter-container network communication.
• Container lifecycle management and monitoring using skopeo and crun.

Security Hardening

• Configuring SELinux enforcing mode, managing policies, and auditing issues.
• Designing hardened Firewalld zones and composing robust rules.
• SSH hardening, key-based authentication, and bastion host setup.
• Password policies, PAM modules, and privilege escalation via sudo.
• FIPS 140-2/140-3 compliance configuration and validation.
• Kernel live patching and CVE remediation workflows.

Storage and Filesystem Management

• LVM2 logical volume management for dynamic capacity planning.
• Btrfs snapshots, subvolume management, and auto-decompression.
• Configuring NFS and Samba file sharing services.
• Multipath I/O for SAN storage redundancy and failover.
• Disk encryption using LUKS and automated unlocking via initramfs.

System Monitoring and Kernel Management

• Performance monitoring using sar, top, and perf profiling.
• Debugging system services with strace, ltrace, and GDB.
• Kernel updates, bootloader configuration, and GRUB2 customization.
• System state management and crash analysis.

Automation and Infrastructure as Code

• Designing Ansible inventories for CentOS Stream host management.
• Workflows for automated patching and compliance drift detection.
• IaC modules for large-scale configuration management.
• Provisioning playbooks and deployment orchestration strategies.