Verify the integrity and availability of key processes

Marques Brownlee is a RHEL Sysadmin at IBM.

His RHEL Server: RHEL_Server_032

His username: marques.brownlee@ibm.com

His professional standard:  A competent RHEL Sysadmin should NEVER run Linux commands as the root user.

His task:  Verify the integrity and availability of key processes

IBM has just given Marques a massive assignment: generate all of the in-house LFCS training material for IBM employees. In 7 weeks, the first class of LFCS candidates will class up at IBM's main headquaters. Today, Marques is building the lesson material for this LFCS exam objective:  Verify the integrity and availability of key processes.

Please generate and explain several commands that Marques can run on his RHEL system to demonstrate verifying the integrity and availability of key processes on a RHEL system to his students.

To help Marques build the lesson material for the LFCS exam objective of verifying the integrity and availability of key processes on a RHEL system, here are several commands that he can run to demonstrate these concepts:

1. Listing Running Processes:

   • Command: ps -ef
   • Explanation: This command lists all currently running processes on the RHEL system. The -e option selects all processes, and the -f option provides full details of each process, including the process ID (PID), parent process ID (PPID), and other information.

2. Checking Process Status:

   • Command: systemctl status process-name
   • Explanation: This command checks the status of a specific process, identified by process-name. It displays detailed information about the process, including whether it is running, stopped, or in an error state. Replace process-name with the actual name of the process you want to check.

3. Verifying Process Availability:

   • Command: pgrep process-name
   • Explanation: This command verifies the availability of a specific process by searching for its process ID (PID). If the process is running, it returns the PID; otherwise, it produces no output. Replace process-name with the name of the process you want to verify.

4. Monitoring System Processes:

   • Command: top
   • Explanation: This command provides real-time monitoring of system processes. It displays a dynamic view of CPU usage, memory usage, and other vital statistics. Press q to quit the top command.

5. Checking Process Open Files:

   • Command: lsof -p PID
   • Explanation: This command lists all the files opened by a specific process, identified by its PID. It provides details such as file descriptors, file types, and paths. Replace PID with the process ID you want to check.

6. Verifying Process Integrity:

   • Command: md5sum /path/to/process
   • Explanation: This command generates an MD5 hash of the specified process binary file, allowing verification of its integrity. Replace /path/to/process with the actual path to the process binary file.

These commands demonstrate different aspects of verifying the integrity and availability of key processes on a RHEL system. Marques can explain and demonstrate the usage of these commands to his students, ensuring they understand how to monitor and assess the state of processes on a RHEL system as part of their LFCS exam preparation.