Common administrative commands in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and 7

https://access.redhat.com/articles/1189123

Common administrative commands in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and 7

Updated April 12 2017 at 11:20 AM -

English

System basics

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
View subscription information	/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid	/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid  subscription-manager identity	subscription-manager identity
Configure subscription	rhn_register  subscription-manager 1	rhn_register  rhnreg_ks  subscription-manager	subscription-manager2  rhn_register 3
View RHEL version information	/etc/redhat-release
View system profile	sosreport  dmidecode  hwbrowser	sosreport  dmidecode  lstopo  lscpu

Basic configuration

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Graphical configuration tools	system-config-*		gnome-control-center
Text-based configuration tools	system-config-*-tui
Configure printer	system-config-printer
Configure network	system-config-network		nmcli  nmtui  nm-connection-editor
Configure system language	system-config-language		localectl
Configure time and date	system-config-date  date		timedatectl  date
Synchronize time and date	ntpdate  /etc/ntp.conf		timedatectl  /etc/chrony.conf  ntpdate
Configure keyboard	system-config-keyboard		localectl
Configure SSH	/etc/ssh/ssh_config  /etc/ssh/sshd_config  ~/.ssh/config ssh-keygen

Jobs and services

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
List all services	chkconfig --list  ls /etc/init.d/		systemctl -at service  ls /etc/systemd/system/*.service  ls /usr/lib/systemd/system/*.service
List running services	service --status-all		systemctl -t service --state=active
Start/stop service	service name start  service name stop		systemctl start name.service  systemctl stop name.service
Enable/disable service	chkconfig name on  chkconfig name off		systemctl enable name.service  systemctl disable name.service
View service status	service name status		systemctl status name.service
Check if service is enabled	chkconfig name --list		systemctl is-enabled name
Create new service file or modify configuration	chkconfig --add		systemctl daemon-reload  /etc/systemd/system/*.service
View run level/target	runlevel  who -r		systemctl get-default  who -r
Change run level/target	/etc/inittab  init run_level		systemctl isolate name.target systemctl set-default
Configure logging	/etc/syslog.conf	/etc/rsyslog.conf	/etc/rsyslog.conf  /etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf  /var/log/journal  systemd-journald.service
View logs	/var/log		/var/log  journalctl
Configure system audit	add audit=1 to kernel cmdline  auditctl  /etc/audit/auditd.conf  /etc/audit/audit.rules  authconfig  /etc/pam.d/system-auth  pam_tty_audit kernel module
View audit output	aureport /var/log/faillog
Schedule/batch tasks	cron  at  batch
Find file by name	locate
Find file by characteristic	find
Create archive	tar  cpio  zip

Kernel, boot, and hardware

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Single user/rescue mode	append 1 or s or init=/bin/bash to kernel cmdline		append rd.break or init=/bin/bash to kernel cmdline
Shut down system	shutdown
Power off system	poweroff		poweroff  systemctl poweroff
Halt system	halt		halt  systemctl halt
Reboot system	reboot		reboot  systemctl reboot
Configure default run level/target	/etc/inittab		systemctl set-default
Configure GRUB bootloader	/boot/grub/grub.conf		/etc/default/grub  grub2-mkconfig  grub-set-default
Configure kernel module	modprobe
View hardware configured	hwbrowser	lshw (in EPEL)
Configure hardware device	udev
View kernel parameters	sysctl -a  cat /proc/cmdline
Load kernel module	modprobe
Remove kernel module	modprobe -r
View kernel version	rpm -q kernel  uname -r

Software management

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Install software	yum install  yum groupinstall		yum install  yum group install
View software info	yum info  yum groupinfo		yum info  yum group info
Update software	yum update
Upgrade software	yum upgrade
Configure software repository	subscription-manager repos  /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo
Find package owning file	rpm -qf filename  yum provides filename-glob
View software version	rpm -q packagename
View installed software	rpm -qa  yum list installed

User management

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Graphical user management	system-config-users
Create user account	useradd
Delete user account	userdel
View/change user account details	usermod  /etc/passwd  vipw  id
Create user group	groupadd
Delete user group	groupdel
Change group details	groupmod  /etc/group
Change user password	passwd
Change user permissions	usermod  visudo
Change group permissions	groupmod  visudo
Change password policy	chage
View user sessions	w

File systems, volumes, and disks

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Default file system	ext3	ext4	xfs
Create/modify disk partitions	fdisk  parted		fdisk  gdisk  parted  ssm create
Format disk partition	mkfs.filesystem_type (ext4, xfs)  mkswap		mkfs.filesystem_type (ext4, xfs)  mkswap  ssm create
Defragment disk space	copy data to new file system  fsck (look for 'non-contiguous inodes')	copy data to new file system  fsck (look for 'non-contiguous inodes')  xfs_fsr
Mount storage	mount  /etc/fstab		mount  /etc/fstab  ssm mount
Mount and activate swap	/etc/fstab  swapon -a
Configure static mounts	/etc/fstab
View free disk space	df
View logical volume info	lvdisplay  lvs  vgdisplay  vgs  pvdisplay  pvs
Create physical volume	pvcreate		pvcreate  ssm create (if backend is lvm)
Create volume group	vgcreate		vgcreate  ssm create (if backend is lvm)
Create logical volume	lvcreate		lvcreate  ssm create (if backend is lvm)
Enlarge volumes formatted with default file system	vgextend  lvextend  resize2fs		vgextend  lvextend  xfs_growfs  ssm resize
Shrink volumes formatted with default file system	resize2fs  lvreduce  vgreduce		XFS cannot currently be shrunk; copy desired data to a smaller file system.
Check/repair file system	fsck		fsck  ssm check
View NFS share	showmount -e  mount
Configure NFS share	/etc/exports  service nfs reload		/etc/exports  systemctl reload nfs.service
Configure on-demand auto-mounts	/etc/auto.master.d/*.autofs  /etc/auto.*
Change file permissions	chmod  chown  chgrp  umask (future file creation)
Change file attributes	chattr
Change access control list	setfacl

Networking

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Configure name resolution	/etc/hosts  /etc/resolv.conf		/etc/hosts  /etc/resolv.conf  nmcli con mod
Configure hostname	/etc/sysconfig/network		hostnamectl  /etc/hostname  nmtui
View network interface info	ip addr  ifconfig  brctl		ip addr  nmcli dev show  teamdctl  brctl  bridge
Configure network interface	/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*		/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*  nmcli con [add|mod|edit]  nmtui  nm-connection-editor
View routes	ip route
Configure routes	ip route add  system-config-network  /etc/sysconfig/route-iface		ip route add  nmcli  nmtui  nm-connection-editor  /etc/sysconfig/route-iface
Configure firewall	iptables and ip6tables  /etc/sysconfig/ip*tables	iptables and ip6tables  /etc/sysconfig/ip*tables  system-config-firewall	firewall-cmd  firewall-config
View ports/sockets	ss  lsof  netstat		ss  lsof

Security and identity

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Configure system security	/etc/selinux/config  chcon  restorecon  semanage  setsebool  system-config-selinux
Report on system security	sealert
LDAP, SSSD, Kerberos	authconfig  authconfig-tui  authconfig-gtk
Network users	getent

Resource management

Task	RHEL5	RHEL6	RHEL7
Trace system calls	strace
Trace library calls	ltrace
Change process priority	nice  renice
Change process run location	taskset
Kill a process	kill  pkill  killall
View system usage	top  ps  sar  iostat  netstat  vmstat  mpstat  numastat	top  ps  sar  iostat  netstat  ss  vmstat  mpstat  numastat  tuna	top  ps  sar  iostat  ss  vmstat  mpstat  numastat  tuna
View disk usage	df	df  iostat

1. Be aware of potential issues when using subscription-manager on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/129003. ↩

2. subscription-manager is used for Satellite 6, Satellite 5.6 with SAM and newer, and Red Hat's CDN. ↩

3. RHN tools are deprecated on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. rhn_register should be used for Satellite server 5.6 and newer only. For details, see: What's the difference between management services provided by Red Hat Network (RHN) Classic and Red Hat Customer Portal Subscription Management/RHSM?, Transition of Red Hat Network Classic Hosted to Red Hat Subscription Management, and Satellite 5.6 unable to register RHEL 7 client system due to rhn-setup package not included in Minimal installation↩

Attachments

• rhel_5_6_7_cheatsheet_24x36_0417_jcs.pdf
• rhel_5_6_7_cheatsheet_11x17_0417_jcs.pdf

• rhel_5_6_7_cheatsheet_8.5x11_0417_jcs.pdf
• rhel_5_6_7_cheatsheet_a3_0417_jcs.pdf
• rhel_5_6_7_cheatsheet_a4_0417_jcs.pdf