Welcome to the world of Linux networking! This book will be your guide to perfecting your Linux network management skills. In this chapter, we will go over what's needed to get your environment up and running. We'll talk about several Linux distributions that are of interest to enterprise networking, the things to keep in mind while setting up an environment in your home or office so you can follow along with this book, and some best practices for setting up a few Linux installations that we'll use throughout this book. Basically, we'll lay the groundwork that you'll use to develop your skills.
In this chapter, we will cover:
- Getting started
- Distributions to consider
- Physical machines versus virtual machines
- Setting up and configuring VirtualBox
- Acquiring and installing Debian 8
- Acquiring and installing CentOS 7
Network management in Linux is a fun, diverse field that is always changing. While the core components typically remain the same throughout the years (such as the TCP/IP protocol), how these services are managed have evolved in each generation, such as the rise of systemd. Linux is definitely exciting.
In this chapter, we'll see how to set up your environment. Depending on your experience level, you can skip directly to Chapter 2, Revisiting Linux Networking Basics. If you're already comfortable setting up a distribution or two on a physical or virtual machine, you already have the knowledge needed to get started. Here, we'll discuss how to install a few distributions of interest for the exercises in this book and some general pointers.
In a nutshell, the more Linux installations you have to work with, the better. While practicing networking concepts, it's a good idea to have as many nodes as possible, so you can test how your configuration changes, will affect your environment. If you are already comfortable installing Linux, feel free to set up some nodes and then I'll meet you in the next chapter.