Interview Questions for Linux Administrator

The following are some questions which I faced from the interview board for the post of Linux Administrator. This will be update when I get more resources.

1.When do you need a virtual hosting ?

The term Virtual Host refers to the practice of maintaining more than one server on one machine, as differentiated by their apparent hostname. For example, it is often desirable for companies sharing a web server to have their own domains, with web servers accessible as www.company1.com and www.company2.com, without requiring the user to know any extra path information.

2.In which port telnet is listening?

23

3.How to get the listening ports which is greater than 6000 using netstat ?

4.How to block and openrelay ?

Open relays are e-mail servers that are configured to accept and transfer e-mail on behalf of any user anywhere, including unrelated third parties.

The qmail-smtpd daemon will consult the rcpthosts control file to determine valid destination addresses, and reject anything else.

5.What is sandwitch configuration in qmail ?

Qmail + Clam + Spamassassin- This is normally called Sandwitch configuration in qmail.

6.Advantages of Qmail ?

More secure, better designed, modular, faster, more reliable, easier to configure, don't have to upgrade it every few months or worry about being vulnerable to something due to some obscure feature being enabled

qmail supports host and user masquerading, full host hiding, virtual domains, null clients, list-owner rewriting, relay control, double-bounce recording, arbitrary RFC 822 address lists, cross-host mailing list loop detection, per-recipient checkpointing, downed host backoffs, independent message retry schedules, etc. qmail also includes a drop-in ``sendmail'' wrapper so that it will be used transparently by your current UAs.

7.What is the difference between POP3 and IMAP ?

The Difference

POP3 works by reviewing the inbox on the mail server, and downloading the new messages to your computer. IMAP downloads the headers of the new messages on the server, then retrieves the message you want to read when you click on it.

When using POP3, your mail is stored on your PC. When using IMAP, the mail is stored on the mail server. Unless you copy a message to a "Local Folder" the messages are never copied to your PC.

Scenarios of Use

POP3

· You only check e-mail from one computer.

· You want to remove your e-mail from the mail server.

IMAP

· You check e-mail from multiple locations.

· You use Webmail.

8.How to drop packets using iptables ?

Iptables -A INPUT -s xx.xx.xx.xx -d xx.xx.xx.xx -j DROP

9.Daily routines of Linux Administrators ?

*.Check the health of servers

*.Check for updates

*.Check the Backup

*.Check with the trouble ticketing system for any unread ticket.

*.Troubleshoot if there any problem

*.Installation of new servers, if needed.

*.Report to the Boss

10.How to take the Dump of a MySQL Database ?

Mysqldump databasename > dumpname

11.How to know the CPU usage of each process ?

Top, uptime

12.How to bind another IP in a NIC ?

Copy the contents eth0 to eth1, and change the ipaddress. Restart the network. .

13.Transparently proxy all web-surfing through Squid box

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to

14.Transparently redirect web connections from outside to the DMZ web server.

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -d 192.168.1.1 -dport 80 -j DNAT –to

15 Howto Activate the forwarding

echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

16.Kill spoofed packets

for f in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/*/rp_filter; do

echo 1 > $f

done.

$iptables -A LDROP --proto tcp -j LOG --log-level info \ --log-prefix “TCP Drop”