Linux Service Management Made Easy with systemd: Advanced techniques to effectively manage, control, and monitor Linux systems and services

A comprehensive guide for teaching system administrators, developers, and security professionals how to create their own systemd units and maintain system security

Key Features

• Maintain and troubleshoot systemd services with ease
• Learn to create, modify, and reload service files and use systemd utilities
• Use cgroups to control resource usage and enhance security

Book Description

Linux Service Management Made Easy with systemd will provide you with an in-depth understanding of systemd, so that you can set up your servers securely and efficiently.This is a comprehensive guide for Linux administrators that will help you get the best of systemd, starting with an explanation of the fundamentals of systemd management.You’ll also learn how to edit and create your own systemd units, which will be particularly helpful if you need to create custom services or timers and add features or security to an existing service.

Next, you'll find out how to analyze and fix boot-up challenges and set system parameters. An overview of cgroups that'll help you control system resource usage for both processes and users will also be covered, alongside a practical demonstration on how cgroups are structured, spotting the differences between cgroups Version 1 and 2, and how to set resource limits on both.

Finally, you'll learn about the systemd way of performing time-keeping, networking, logging, and login management. You'll discover how to configure servers accurately and gather system information to analyze system security and performance.

By the end of this Linux book, you’ll be able to efficiently manage all aspects of a server running the systemd init system.

What you will learn

• Use basic systemd utilities to manage a system
• Create and edit your own systemd units
• Create services for Podman-Docker containers
• Enhance system security by adding security-related parameters
• Find important information with journald
• Analyze boot-up problems
• Configure system settings with systemd utilities

Who this book is for

This book is best suited for Linux administrators who want to learn more about maintaining and troubleshooting Linux servers. It will also be useful for aspiring administrators studying for a Linux certification exam, developers looking to learn how to create systemd unit files, and security administrators who want to understand the security settings that can be used in systemd units and how to control resource usage with cgroups. Before you dive into this book, you’ll need a solid working knowledge of basic Linux commands.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Need for systemd
2. Understanding systemd Directories and Files
3. Understanding Service, Path, and Socket Units
4. Controlling systemd Services
5. Creating and Editing Services
6. Understanding systemd Targets
7. Understanding systemd Timers
8. Understanding the systemd Boot Process
9. Setting System Parameters
10. Understanding Shutdown and Reboot Commands
11. Understanding cgroups Version 1
12. Controlling Resource Usage with cgroups Version 1
13. Understanding cgroup Version 2
14. Using journald
15. Using systemd-networkd and systemd-resolved
16. Understanding Timekeeping with systemd
17. Understanding systemd and Bootloaders
18. Understanding systemd-logind

Donald A. Tevault - but you can call him Donnie - got involved with Linux way back in 2006, and has been working with it ever since. He holds the Linux Professional Institute Level 3-Security certification, and the GIAC Incident Handler certification. Donnie is a professional Linux trainer, and thanks to the magic of the internet, teaches Linux classes literally the world over from the comfort of his living room. He's also a Linux security researcher for an IoT security company.