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Lab Options & Ideas For Linux+
I wrote a blog post that can be found by clicking the link in my sig. I will cut and paste here though. Just a few ideas for when setting out to create a lab environment for studying the Linux+
Because this is a Linux certification it is very easy and very free to set-up a lab and study. I will gloss over a few options to help you get started.
Hardware based lab:
For a hardware based lab you will need two physical machines. They can be any old laptop or desktop PC's that you have laying around.
You will only be running a minimal server install so you won't need much in regards to specs.
You will need a switch as well so you can get the machines(servers) to talk to each other from a networking perspective.
For example when learning about SSH and SFTP you will need the machines to be talking to each other
Virtual Machines:
Probably the most commonly used approach. Just set-up a couple of VM's and away you go. Very simple and very effective.
You can use VirtualBox if you would like the free option.
You also have other options such as VMware and Parrallels if you are willing to shell out a bit of cash.
Buy a virtual private server:
You can easily buy yourself a VPS for $5 a month and use that for your studies. There are plenty of $10 coupons for digital ocean out there as well which will get you 2 free months.
Alternatively you can pay by the hour and bring up and tear down your VPS as you need it and you could probably stretch the $10 coupon to last your entire study time for the Linux+
How it would work is you create an account and make a droplet or multiple droplets.
They have 1 click installs for Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS and Fedora so you can easily bring up and tear down your server as required for your studies.
A really great service and a way for you to get some real world experience managing your own server.
VirtualBox & vagrant combination
I would recommend the digital ocean option or this one.
The digital ocean option gives you some real world experience.
Using vagrant and virtualbox is the easiest option if you are using Linux as your main OS.
Because this is a Linux certification it is very easy and very free to set-up a lab and study. I will gloss over a few options to help you get started.
Hardware based lab:
For a hardware based lab you will need two physical machines. They can be any old laptop or desktop PC's that you have laying around.
You will only be running a minimal server install so you won't need much in regards to specs.
You will need a switch as well so you can get the machines(servers) to talk to each other from a networking perspective.
For example when learning about SSH and SFTP you will need the machines to be talking to each other
Virtual Machines:
Probably the most commonly used approach. Just set-up a couple of VM's and away you go. Very simple and very effective.
You can use VirtualBox if you would like the free option.
You also have other options such as VMware and Parrallels if you are willing to shell out a bit of cash.
- Allocate some of your computers resources to the virtual machine
- Download the Linux distribution's ISO that you wish to use
- Load the ISO into your VM DVD drive and boot the VM
Buy a virtual private server:
You can easily buy yourself a VPS for $5 a month and use that for your studies. There are plenty of $10 coupons for digital ocean out there as well which will get you 2 free months.
Alternatively you can pay by the hour and bring up and tear down your VPS as you need it and you could probably stretch the $10 coupon to last your entire study time for the Linux+
How it would work is you create an account and make a droplet or multiple droplets.
They have 1 click installs for Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS and Fedora so you can easily bring up and tear down your server as required for your studies.
A really great service and a way for you to get some real world experience managing your own server.
VirtualBox & vagrant combination
I would recommend the digital ocean option or this one.
The digital ocean option gives you some real world experience.
Using vagrant and virtualbox is the easiest option if you are using Linux as your main OS.
- Install virtualbox and install vagrant. This will vary depending on your operating system. I use Ubuntu so I just installed it using my package manager.
- Once installed create a new directory called vagrant that will store your vagrant files and change to that directory.
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]mkdir ~/vagrant[/FONT][/SIZE]
cd ~/vagrant
- Go to A list of base boxes for Vagrant - Vagrantbox.es
- There a lots of available boxes here with various operating systems and configurations. Copy to your clip board the URL for the box you wish to load.
- Go back to your command line that should still be in your ~/vagrant directory.
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]vagrant init CentOS_Lab [URL]https://github.com/2creatives/vagrant-centos/releases/download/v6.5.3/centos65-x86_64-20140116.box[/URL][/FONT][/SIZE]
- That will go and create the vagrant file. Where I entered CentOS_Lab you can enter whatever you would like to name your VM.
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]vagrant up[/FONT][/SIZE]
- That will go and download the box from the link you provided and store it in your vagrant directory. You will only need to download once.
vagrant status
- That shows you what vagrant boxes you have installed and if they are running or not.
[SIZE=2][FONT=arial]vagrant ssh CentOS_LAB[/FONT][/SIZE]
- That will log you into your vagrant VM. You are now inside your VM from within your main OS's terminal. This makes it extremely easy to study and you won't ever need to go through the VirtualBox GUI interface.