Glossary





Last Updated on 06/19/2013 by dboth

This Glossary is very incomplete. It will grow over time as the other parts of the DataBooks do.

Application Level User A user account that is required by an application such as WebSphere or BMC to run.
CENTOS Community ENTerprise Operating System. CENTOS is a repackaging of RHEL that is binary compatible. The only difference is that CENTOS removes Red Hat logos and does not charge for either the software or for service and support. However commercial, enterprise level support is available from third parties.
Distribution A distribution of Linux consists of the Linux kernel and the GNU Utilities along with programs chosen by the packagers of the distribution to meet the design requirements of the distribution. There are many different distributions, each of which has a different set of programs and utilities which were selected to meet a particular set of needs.
Fedora A community based Linux distribution, Fedora is strongly supported by Red Hat. In fact, Fedora is used by Red Hat as a proving ground for many new features and programs. This makes Fedora a bit more leading edge than Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), so it is less attractive to businesses.
Filesystem This term explicitly refers to the data structure created on a partition or logical volume by the mkfs (Make Filesystem) command. This includes, in Linux Extended filesystems for example, the top level directory for that filesystem which always includes a lost+found directory, space for directory data, inodes which contain information about the files, and data space in which the files are stored.
GUI Graphical User Interface. An interface that allows users to interact with the computer system using a graphical desktop metaphor, a mouse to manipulate objects on the desktop and a keyboard with which to type textual data.
HMC Hardware Management Console. A hardware console that provides both local and remote console access to administrators.
ILO Integrated Lights Out Management. A remote access method to allow administrators to perform all server management tasks for which physical access would normally be required.
Mount point A directory used specifically for the purpose of mounting a filesystem.
Patch Code applied to a program that fixes a known bug.
Regular User A human user; one who logs into a Linux computer through a text or graphical user interface.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux A distribution of Linux created by Red Hat Inc. It is designed for use in enterprise environments where stability and support are important. RHEL is the basis for many other distributions.
RHEL Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
System Level User A user required to run system level programs such as SSHD, Webalizer and Apache. These programs are usually run as Daemons or are launched by the xinetd service.
Update Code applied to a program that adds new functionality.
Upgrade A process that replaces existing program or operating system code to move from one version to another, such as from Fedora 12 to Fedora 13. This can be accomplished in one of at least a couple ways, either upgrading directly from repositories on the Internet or using a DVD to perform the upgrade.




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