Become a Linux Network Engineer

When I worked full-time as a network engineer, my Linux skills helped me with the tasks of design, implementation, and support of enterprise networks. Here is a list of some of the command-line utilities I recommend to network engineers. If you want to be the MacGyver of your network, you must know the basics of netcat. If you use it in client mode, it’s similar to telnet, and you can create a TCP connection to a specific port and send anything that you type.

You can also use it to open a TCP/IP port and read from standard input. Another use case is testing whether your firewall is blocking certain traffic. For example, execute netcat in server mode on a host behind your firewall and then execute netcat in client mode from outside the firewall.

Network Engineers and Linux

Tcpdump is a great utility to troubleshoot network and application issues. For example, at remote sites connected with IPsec tunnels back to the main site, I was often able to figure out why some applications would make it through the tunnel and some wouldn’t. Specifically, I noticed that applications using the entire IP payload and also enabling the DF (don’t fragment) setting, would fail. Fedora is an open-source distribution that serves as a community equivalent to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

• Although, there are many factors that influence salary such as location, job level, years of experience, company size and more.
• The UDP iperf test can also be used to generate multicast traffic and test your PIM infrastructure.
• For example, at remote sites connected with IPsec tunnels back to the main site, I was often able to figure out why some applications would make it through the tunnel and some wouldn’t.
• Please feel free to share with us which other Linux command line utilities are in your toolbox.

With Nmap you can, for example, scan and identify open and filtered TCP/IP ports, check what operating system is running on a remote host, and perform a ping sweep on an IP subnet or range. This course is designed specifically to introduce both new and experienced professional network engineers to the Linux operating system and environment. This course will fully prepare attendees to continue on to the Shell Scripting Fundamentals for Network Engineers course. With different flavors called “distributions or distros,” there are currently more than 2 hundred in the industry!

Linux for Network Engineers: Practical Linux with GNS3

You can pick between TCP or UDP traffic and set the destination port, bandwidth rate (if UDP is selected), DSCP marking, and TCP window size. With iperf you can also generate multicast traffic and test your PIM infrastructure. I hope this blog post provided some useful Linux tricks that will make your life easier. If you have other Linux command line utilities in your linux network engineer toolbox, please feel free to share them in the comment section below. I’ve used iperf many times to troubleshoot bandwidth issues, verify whether the ISP would honor the DSCP marking, and estimate the jitter value of VoIP traffic. The CCNP Enterprise certification can help you prove your skills in the ever-changing landscape of the enterprise network technologies.

• Job growth for network engineering and administration in all technologies including Linux is expected to grow 4-5% in the next ten years.
• If you use it in client mode, it’s similar to telnet; you can create a TCP connection to a specific port and send anything that you type.
• Another use case is testing whether your firewall is blocking certain traffic.
• I hope this blog post provided some useful Linux tricks that will make your life easier.
• Debian is a widely-renowned Linux distribution known for being incredibly stable and high-performance.
• The cause was that some traffic that used the entire IP payload without accounting for the IPSec header had the DF bit set.
• Network Engineers observe and troubleshoot their systems to keep them running smoothly.