Assessment Worksheet vLab-1

1. During the Minimal install, NTP (Network Time Protocol) server was not installed. From a security perspective, why is it important for a system to keep accurate time? The Time protocol provided a server's notion of time in a machine readable format, and there is also an ICMP Timestamp message UNIX systems base their notion of time on interrupts generated by the hardware clock. Delays in processing these interrupts because UNIX systems clocks to lose time slowly but erratically. These small changes in timekeeping are what the time scientist call jitter. 2. During the install, you set a password for the root user. What is the root user, and when is it appropriate to use this account? The root user is the administrator of the account. You will use this account only when you are making important changes in the system. 3. The Minimal installation process that was used in the lab did not include an X-Window interface. Why is it best practice not to run X-Window in a production environment? During Linux installation, deselecting X Window packages, especially the base packages, will return errors concerning failed dependencies. You can safely deselect all of these applications, in addition to X itself. 4. What partitioning options are available when installing CentOS? EXT2 & EXT4 5. Why is it important to put the swap file on a separate partition from the root (/) partition? It effects the File system and server if poorly configured 6. What is the significance of the swap partition in a Linux system? A swap partition is used as memory overflow. When the memory required is greater than the physical memory available, a portion of the hard drive (ie the swap partition) is used instead. It acts in a similar manner to a windows pagefile 7. How is the passwd file used, and what fields make up its content? Explain. /etc/passwd, a. The /etc/passwd is a text file that contains a list of the system's accounts, giving for each account some useful information. There are 7 fields: Username, password, User ID, Group ID, user id info, home directory, and command/shell 8. Why create a Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partition? Security, Performance, Backup and Recovery, and Stability and efficiency.