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Managing and Troubleshooting System Services and Processes

In this hands-on lab, you will be investigating process activity and managing services on a development system. You use the `ps` and `top` commands to review process activity and locate the `PID` for a specific process. You will use this information to kill an active process that shouldn't be running. To ensure the process isn't restarted by the service, you will use the `systemctl` command to mask the service so it doesn't start automatically and cannot be manually started by an administrator. *This course is not approved or sponsored by Red Hat.*

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Beginner
Duration
Clock icon 30m
Last updated
Clock icon Sep 03, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    View Process Information Using the PS and TOP Commands

    • Use top to view process activity.
    • Use grep to filter ps output for mariadb.

  2. Challenge

    Cycle the Problematic Service

    • Use the systemctl command to cycle the mariadb.
    • Confirm mariadb service is running using the systemctl command.

  3. Challenge

    Identify the PID and KILL the Problematic Process

    • Use the ps command to identify the PID for the mariadb process.
    • Use the kill command to terminate the mariadb using the SIGKILL parameter.

  4. Challenge

    Stop and Mask the Problematic Service to Prevent It from Restarting

    • Check the mariadb service status using systemctl.
    • Use systemctlto stop the mariadb service.
    • Mask the mariadb service using systemctl.
    • Attempt to start the mariadb service to confirm it is properly masked.
Pluralsight Skills - Labs - Pluralsight
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Pluralsight Skills

Pluralsight Skills gives leaders confidence they have the skills needed to execute technology strategy. Technology teams can benchmark expertise across roles, speed up release cycles and build reliable, secure products. By leveraging our expert content, skill assessments and one-of-a-kind analytics, keep up with the pace of change, put the right people on the right projects and boost productivity. It's the most effective path to developing tech skills at scale.

What's a lab?

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

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Follow along with the author’s guided walkthrough and build something new in your provided environment!

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