LPIC-2

LPIC-2: Linux Certified Engineer Study Guide

LPIC is a distribution-neutral Linux based certification. If you’re studying towards LPIC-2, then you may find this page helpful.

A Brief Introduction to LPIC-2

LPIC-2 is an Advanced Level Linux Certification. You must have an active LPIC-1 certification to receive LPIC-2 certification, but the LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 exams may be taken in any order. To pass LPIC-2 you should be able to:

  1. perform advanced system administration, including common tasks regarding the Linux kernel, system startup and maintenance;
  2. perform advanced management of block storage and file systems as well as advanced networking and authentication and system security, including firewall and VPN;
  3. install and configure fundamental network services, including DHCP, DNS, SSH, Web servers, file servers using FTP, NFS and Samba, email delivery; and
  4. supervise assistants and advise management on automation and purchases.

This page is based on the latest version 5.0 of the LPIC-1 exams.

Objectives and Study Resources

Exam Objectives (Version 5.0) and Study Guide

LPI 117-201 exam objectives: https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/exam-201-objectives
LPI 117-202 exam objectives: https://www.lpi.org/our-certifications/exam-202-objectives

Self-study Material

  1. LPIC-2 Exam Prep free material can be found on http://lpic2.unix.nl. Weblink to a PDF version: http://lpic2.unix.nl/lpic2.pdf.
  2. LPIC-2 Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide by Roderick W. Smith, 654 pages, May 2011.
  3. LPIC-2: Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide: Exam 201 and Exam 202 2nd Edition by Christine Bresnahan, 768 pages, October 2016.

LPI 201 Exam Topics Priorities and Weighting

Topics Priorities

200.1: Capacity Planning (6)

  • Measure and Troubleshoot Linux CPU Resource Usage
  • Measure and Troubleshoot Linux Memory Resource Usage
  • Measure and Troubleshoot Linux Disk I/O Resource Usage
  • Measure and Troubleshoot Linux Network I/O Resource Usage
  • Measure and Troubleshoot Firewalling and routing throughput
  • Measure and Troubleshoot Map client bandwidth usage
  • Match / correlate system symptoms with likely problems
  • Estimate throughput and identify bottlenecks in a system including networking
  • Installing Zabbix 1.8.19 From Source on Debian Wheezy

200.2: Predict Future Resource Needs (2)

  • Use monitoring and measurement tools to monitor IT infrastructure usage.
  • Predict capacity break point of a configuration
  • Observe growth rate of capacity usage
  • Graph the trend of capacity usage
  • Awareness of monitoring solutions such as Icinga2, Nagios, collectd, MRTG and Cacti

201: Linux Kernel (9)

  • Compile and Install Linux Kernel 3.12.5 on Debian Wheezy
  • Install Gentoo Linux from Debian Wheezy

202: System Startup (9)

  • Exploring Linux Runlevels and Their Purposes (SysVinit)
  • GRUB2 Rescue Mode

203: Filesystem and Devices (9)

  • Tune Up Arch Linux Installation on Raspberry Pi (creating and enabling a SWAP file)
  • Extend an Encrypted LUKS Partition (resize a partition)
  • Using Smartctl, Smartd and Hddtemp on Debian

204: Advanced Storage Device Administration (8)

  • Setup Linux Software RAID10 to Store MySQL Data Files and Databases
  • Using Linux LVM on Amazon EC2 Ubuntu Server
  • Oracle Linux iSCSI Installation and Configuration
  • iSCSI Target and Initiator Configuration on RHEL 7

205: Networking Configuration (11)

  • Manually and Automatically Configure Network Interfaces on Linux
  • Connect to WPA/WPA2 Secured Wireless Network on Debian Wheezy Using Command Line
  • Finding Open Ports and Listening Services on Linux: Nmap, Netstat, lsof and ss
  • Create and Attach a Second Elastic Network Interface with EIP to EC2 VPC Instance (with Routing)
  • Setup DHCP Server on CentOS 6
  • Configure fault-tolerance Network Bonding on Oracle Linux
  • Setup CentOS 6 Linux Server as a Router Using Iptables
  • Configure Aggregated Network Links on RHEL 7: Bonding and Teaming

206: System Maintenance (6)

  • Build and Install Dahdi Framework on Switchvox (CentOS 5) (installing from source)
  • My Linux Bash Script to Upload Encrypted MySQL Backups to Remote FTPS Server (backups)

LPI 202 Exam Topics Priorities and Weighting

Topics Priorities

207: Domain Name Server (8)

  • Configure BIND as a Catching-only DNS Server on Debian Wheezy
  • Setup BIND DNS Server on CentOS 6
  • Caching-only DNS Server on RHEL 7

208: Web Services (11)

  • Set Up LAMP on Arch Linux (Raspberry Pi)
  • Nginx Reverse Proxy for Apache2 (LAMP) with TLS/SSL on Debian Wheezy
  • Advanced Apache Configuration with SELinux on RHEL 7
  • Install and Configure Squid3 Caching Proxy on Debian Wheezy
  • Configure Squid for OpenLDAP Authentication

209: File Sharing (8)

  • Install and Configure Samba Server on Debian Wheezy
  • Samba Server on RHEL 7
  • Install NFS and Configure Shares on Debian Wheezy
  • Setup NFS Server on CentOS 6
  • Setup NFS Server on CentOS 7 and Configure Client Automount
  • Kerberised NFS Server on RHEL 7

210: Network Client Management (11)

  • Fundamentals of Internet Protocols (IPv4)
  • Install and Configure an OpenLDAP Server with SSL on Debian Wheezy
  • Setup LDAP Authentication on CentOS 7
  • OpenLDAP with SSL and NFS for User Home Directories on CentOS 7

211: E-Mail Services (8)

  • Postfix + Courier IMAP + MySQL + SASL + TLS on Debian Wheezy
  • Setup Postfix to Relay Mail to an External SMTP Server on CentOS 6
  • Configure RHEL 7 to Forward All Email to a Central Mail Server

212: System Security (14)

  • Configure Iptables Firewall on a Debian Wheezy PC
  • Firewalld Rich and Direct Rules: Setup RHEL 7 Server as a Router
  • Setting Up ProFTPd on Debian Wheezy with Explicit FTPS and Alternate mod_auth_file File
  • OpenSSH Server Installation and Configuration
  • Finding Open Ports and Listening Services on Linux: Nmap, Netstat, lsof and ss
  • OpenVPN Server Setup on Linux
  • OpenVPN Client Setup on Linux