If LPIC-1 proves that you administer one machine running Linux, LPIC-2 proves that you administer small and medium-sized mixed networks — DNS, email, web, file sharing, centralized authentication, and the infrastructure that ties it all together. It is the step that separates junior from mid-level professionals on the certification track offered by the Linux Professional Institute. Our series covers the entire track: Linux Essentials → LPIC-1 → LPIC-2 → LPIC-3, plus LPI DevOps Tools Engineer.
How the exam works
There are two exams — a 201 and the 202 — with 60 questions in 90 minutes each, with multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, available in Portuguese. The prerequisite is an active LPIC-1, and the certification is valid for 5 years. The difficulty rises noticeably: less “which command lists files” and more “which BIND directive solves this scenario.”.
What is on exam 201
- Capacity planning: measure resource usage, forecast growth, diagnose bottlenecks with
iostat,vmstat,sar; - Linux kernel: compile, configure, manage modules, and apply parameters at runtime;
- System boot: in-depth systemd, advanced GRUB, recovery of systems that will not boot;
- Filesystems and devices: filesystem maintenance, tuning, and creation,
udev; - Advanced storage: software RAID (
mdadm), LVM in full and disk access tuning; - Network configuration: interfaces, routes, diagnostics, and troubleshooting;
- System maintenance: compile programs from source, backups, and communication with users.
What is on exam 202
- DNS: configure and secure a BIND server, zones, and delegation;
- Web services: Apache (virtual hosts, HTTPS), proxying with Squid, and Nginx as a reverse proxy;
- File sharing: Samba and NFS;
- Network client management: DHCP, PAM, and LDAP authentication;
- Email services: Postfix, local delivery, and Dovecot for IMAP/POP3;
- System security: routing and firewall (iptables/nftables), secure FTP, advanced SSH, OpenVPN, and intrusion detection.
How to train
LPIC-2 calls for a real lab: set up two or three networked VMs and build the complete infrastructure — because that is what the exam describes in its scenarios:
# laboratório LPIC-2: um mini-datacenter em VMs
# VM1: DNS autoritativo + DHCP VM2: web + e-mail VM3: cliente
named-checkconf /etc/bind/named.conf
mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/vdb /dev/vdc
postconf mydestination
Here the blog posts become supporting material: we have the history of Postfix, the history of Dovecot and the Linux server series — the same services covered by exam 202.
Where to start
If your foundation in the terminal, systemd, LVM, and networking is still shaky, strengthen it first with the Linux course by Gabriel (Toca do Tux) and earn your LPIC-1 — a formal prerequisite for LPIC-2. After that, set up the lab and bring up one service at a time until the exam feels routine. 🐧