DevOps Specific Linux Commands with
Examples and Practice Exercises
1. Check System Resource Usage
$ top
Real-time view of system processes and resource usage.
$ htop
Interactive process viewer (may need to install: `sudo apt install htop`).
$ free -m
Display memory usage in megabytes.
$ vmstat 1 5
Show system performance metrics at 1-second intervals (5 times).
Practice Exercise:
Run each command and note the CPU, memory usage, and top processes on your system.
2. Troubleshoot Network Connectivity
$ ping google.com
Check if the host is reachable.
$ curl -I https://yourdomain.com
Check HTTP response headers.
$ ss -tuln
List active listening ports and sockets.
$ traceroute google.com
Trace route to a domain.
$ telnet smtp.gmail.com 587
Check connectivity to a specific port.
$ dig yourdomain.com
Check DNS resolution and records.
Practice Exercise:
Try pinging, using curl, and tracerouting a public domain like example.com. Observe the
outputs.
3. Check Disk Space and Inodes
$ df -h
Show human-readable disk space usage.
$ du -sh /var/log/*
Show sizes of each directory under /var/log.
$ lsblk
List all block devices.
$ find / -xdev -type f -size +100M
Find files larger than 100MB.
$ stat /var/log/syslog
Show file metadata.
Practice Exercise:
Identify which directories are consuming the most disk space.
4. Monitor Logs and File Changes
$ tail -f /var/log/syslog
Live monitor system logs.
$ grep -i error /var/log/nginx/error.log
Search for 'error' (case-insensitive).
$ less +F /var/log/messages
Scrollable real-time file viewer.
$ watch -n 2 ls -l /tmp/myfile
Watch a file for changes.
$ journalctl -u nginx
View logs for nginx service.
Practice Exercise:
Monitor a log file in real-time while generating events (like restarting a service).
5. Check Running Processes
$ ps aux | grep java
Find all Java processes.
$ pgrep -fl nginx
Find nginx process details.
$ pstree -p
Visualize process tree with PIDs.
$ kill -9 1234
Forcefully kill a process by PID.
Practice Exercise:
Start a background process and locate it using ps/pgrep, then terminate it.
6. Manage Services
$ systemctl status nginx
Check status of nginx service.
$ systemctl restart nginx
Restart nginx service.
$ systemctl is-enabled nginx
Check if nginx starts on boot.
Practice Exercise:
Stop and start a service on your system and verify its status using systemctl.
7. Boot and Shutdown History
$ uptime
Show system uptime.
$ last reboot
List previous reboot events.
$ who -b
Display last boot time.
$ dmesg | tail
Show last few kernel ring buffer messages.
Practice Exercise:
Check when your system was last rebooted and find any recent hardware/kernel messages.
8. Docker/Container Troubleshooting
$ docker ps -a
List all containers.
$ docker logs <container_id>
View logs of a container.
$ docker exec -it <container_id> bash
Access shell inside a container.
$ docker inspect <container_id>
View container metadata.
Practice Exercise:
Create a simple container, inspect it, and check its logs.
9. File Permissions and Ownership
$ ls -l /var/www/
List permissions of files and directories.
$ chmod 755 /var/www/html
Change permissions.
$ chown nginx:nginx /var/www/html
Change ownership.
$ getfacl /var/www/html
View ACL-based permissions.
Practice Exercise:
Create a file, change its permissions and ownership, then verify.
10. Package and Library Issues
$ which python3
Find path of the binary used.
$ ldd /usr/bin/curl
Check shared libraries used.
$ strace -p 1234
Trace system calls of a running process.
$ dpkg -l | grep nginx
Check if nginx is installed (Debian/Ubuntu).
$ yum list installed | grep nginx
Check if nginx is installed (RHEL/CentOS).
Practice Exercise:
Trace a running process using `strace` and find library dependencies using `ldd`.
