Linux Roadmap: From Basics to System Administrator

Learn Linux in the right order with 17 stages and 87 skills covering commands, permissions, networking, security, Bash, containers, RHCSA and more.

I’ve been writing about Linux for 14 years, and the biggest problem I see is not learning commands but learning them in the right order, so I made this roadmap to fix that by showing you what to learn in the right order.

Stages

Skills

Free chapters

Free chapters
Members chapters
Coming soon
Updated October 2026

Stage 01

Start Here

Build the Linux foundation and get comfortable with the terminal.

What Linux is: kernel, distributions, licensing Choosing your first distribution Set up a practice lab in VirtualBox The terminal and the shell prompt Reading man, info and help

Supporting chapter links

Choosing your first distribution

Ubuntu Mint Zorin elementary Fedora Debian

Stage 02

Files and Directories

Navigate, create, move, search, and edit files confidently.

Filesystem hierarchy Creating, copying, moving, deleting Searching and finding files Editing files: vim and nano

Supporting chapter links

Creating, copying, moving, deleting

ls cd pwd mkdir cp mv rm touch tree stat

Searching and finding files

find locate fd

Stage 03

Text Processing

Filter, transform, and combine text from the command line.

Pipes, redirection and I/O streams Filtering with grep Cutting, sorting and counting

Supporting chapter links

Pipes, redirection and I/O streams

cat less echo tee

Filtering with grep

grep egrep fgrep

Cutting, sorting and counting

head tail cut tr sort uniq wc xargs sdiff

Stage 04

Users and Permissions

Control users, groups, permissions, ownership, and access.

Users and groups Permissions, ownership and sudo Account management in depth PAM, ACLs and disk quotas

Supporting chapter links

Users and groups

useradd usermod chage who w last

Permissions, ownership and sudo

chown chattr

Stage 05

Processes, Boot and Services

Understand processes, boot, systemd, logs, and scheduled jobs.

Processes and jobs The boot process GRUB and startup services systemd services and logs Scheduling with cron and timers

Supporting chapter links

Processes and jobs

ps top kill lsof fuser

systemd services and logs

systemctl journalctl dmesg

Scheduling with cron and timers

cron at

Stage 06

Package Management

Install, update, and manage packages and repositories.

APT and DNF basics Repositories and dependency handling Hosting a local repository

Supporting chapter links

APT and DNF basics

apt dpkg dnf rpm yum

Hosting a local repository

Ubuntu mirror

Stage 07

Storage and Filesystems

Work with disks, filesystems, LVM, RAID, encryption, and shares.

Disks, partitions and swap Mounting and fstab LVM: create, resize, extend Software RAID and backups Encrypted filesystems with LUKS Network shares: NFS and Samba Archiving and compression

Supporting chapter links

Disks, partitions and swap

df du lsblk fdisk parted fsck

Archiving and compression

tar gzip zcat dd shred

Stage 08

Networking

Understand Linux networking, routing, DNS, and diagnostics.

Networking fundamentals IP addressing and subnets IPv4 and IPv6 configuration DNS, ports and firewall checks Static and dynamic routing Bonding and bridge devices Capturing and scanning traffic

Supporting chapter links

Networking fundamentals

ping ip ss netstat traceroute

IP addressing and subnets

classes binary

DNS, ports and firewall checks

dig nslookup host whois

Static and dynamic routing

route

Capturing and scanning traffic

nmap curl wget nc

Stage 09

Remote Access with SSH

Manage remote systems securely using SSH and file transfers.

SSH and file transfers, end to end How SSH actually works Keys and ssh-keygen Hardening sshd Port forwarding and tunnels Bastion hosts and ProxyJump MFA, certificates and Zero-Trust

Supporting chapter links

How SSH actually works

ssh scp sftp rsync

Keys and ssh-keygen

~/.ssh/config sshd_config

Hardening sshd

fail2ban ssh-audit

Port forwarding and tunnels

local remote dynamic

MFA, certificates and Zero-Trust

CA Teleport

Stage 10

Running Services

Run and maintain web, database, DNS, and file services.

Web servers and self-hosting Databases: MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL DNS and file services Server setup end to end

Supporting chapter links

Web servers and self-hosting

self-host

Databases: MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL

admin mysqldump

DNS and file services

NFS FTP

Stage 11

Security and Hardening

Harden Linux systems and reduce attack surface.

Security basics for a new server Hardening data and the system Firewalls: firewalld, iptables, ufw SELinux and AppArmor Network security hardening Kernel runtime parameters

Supporting chapter links

Hardening data and the system

Ubuntu basics

Firewalls: firewalld, iptables, ufw

RHEL ufw

SELinux and AppArmor

both

Stage 12

Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Observe systems, diagnose issues, and monitor infrastructure.

Watching a server in real time Reading basic system metrics CPU, processes and resource limits System usage and troubleshooting Monitoring a fleet with Icinga 2

Supporting chapter links

Watching a server in real time

htop atop btop nmon

Reading basic system metrics

uptime free history

System usage and troubleshooting

logs

Monitoring a fleet with Icinga 2

web alerts agents Director

Stage 13

Scripting and Automation

Automate routine work with Bash, Git, Ansible, and Go.

Your first Bash script Variables, input and globbing Conditionals and loops Reading files and arrays A real health-check script Version control with Git Ansible: inventories and playbooks Go for ops tooling

Supporting chapter links

Your first Bash script

what is it first script

Variables, input and globbing

types globbing substitution

Conditionals and loops

for/while until/case

Reading files and arrays

IFS arrays

Version control with Git

Git over SSH

Ansible: inventories and playbooks

control node inventory playbooks templates roles vault

Go for ops tooling

REST APIs packages

Stage 14

Containers and Cloud

Work with containers, virtualization, cloud, and CI/CD.

Getting started with Docker Podman and Skopeo on RHEL VMs and containers together Cloud fundamentals CI/CD and deployment environments Kubernetes

Supporting chapter links

VMs and containers together

VirtualBox, KVM

Cloud fundamentals

scaling serverless costs

CI/CD and deployment environments

environments DevOps basics

Stage 15

AI for Sysadmins

Use AI tools safely for Linux operations and troubleshooting.

AI inside Bash scripts AI tools in the terminal Running models locally Claude Code on a server Safety before cleverness Skills and MCP servers

Supporting chapter links

AI inside Bash scripts

Python env

AI tools in the terminal

ShellGPT TerminalGPT Aichat Warp

Running models locally

offline logs

Claude Code on a server

how it works logs systemd debug

Safety before cleverness

audit logging

Skills and MCP servers

first skill MCP custom MCP

Stage 16

Certification

Prepare for Linux Foundation and Red Hat certifications.

LFCA: entering IT LFCS: working admin RHCSA EX200: the one most asked for RHCE EX294: automation at scale

Stage 17

Getting Hired

Turn Linux skills into projects, interviews, and job readiness.

Interview preparation Portfolio projects in Go Final administration project

Supporting chapter links

Interview preparation

basics users, storage networking security scripting

Portfolio projects in Go

commit finder task manager markdown HTTP server system monitor