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LPIC-1 102-500 study materials
LPIC-1 102-500 study resources

LPIC-1 102-500: Essential System Services

LPIC-1 102-500 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Essential System Services

What the exam tests

Essential System Services covers time synchronization, logging, mail transfer agents, and CUPS printing. The exam tests where services are configured, how to inspect them, and how to perform common administrative actions.

Core rules

  • Time: chronyd or ntpd disciplines the clock; timedatectl shows NTP synchronization, chronyc sources or ntpq -p checks peers. hwclock --systohc writes the system time to the RTC. Configuration is /etc/chrony.conf or /etc/ntp.conf.
  • Logging: rsyslog uses /etc/rsyslog.conf with facility.severity selectors such as authpriv.* and *.info; syslog-ng uses /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf. systemd-journald stores the journal; journalctl -u ssh -b --since today filters by unit, boot, or time. Storage=persistent in /etc/systemd/journald.conf keeps logs across reboots. logrotate rotates files using /etc/logrotate.conf and /etc/logrotate.d/.
  • Mail: an MTA such as Postfix, Exim, or Sendmail accepts and routes mail. mailq shows the queue, newaliases rebuilds /etc/aliases, and ~/.forward redirects a user's mail. alternatives can select the MTA.
  • Printing: CUPS manages queues; lp or lpr submits jobs, lpstat -p -d lists printers and the default, lpadmin -p name -E -v URI -m model adds or changes a queue, cancel removes jobs, and lpmove moves jobs between queues.

Worked example

Add a network printer reachable at ipp://printer.lab/ipp/print, enable it, and make it default: lpadmin -p labprinter -E -v ipp://printer.lab/ipp/print -m everywhere lpadmin -d labprinter lpstat -p labprinter -d Reasoning: -p names the queue, -E enables and accepts jobs, -v sets the device URI, and -m everywhere uses driverless IPP discovery. The second command sets the default; lpstat verifies state.

Traps

Without persistent journal storage, journalctl may lose logs after reboot. rsyslog selector order and ; matter. mailq shows queued messages, not delivered mail. CUPS queue names are case-sensitive; lpadmin -d sets the default but does not enable a disabled queue. NTP configuration changes need a service reload.