LINUX PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTELPI BSD Specialist
The LPI BSD Specialist certification validates your ability to administer FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems with confidence. It is designed for system administrators who need to manage BSD-based environments of any kind, covering installation, software management, storage, networking, and core Unix skills. Earning it proves you can work across the three major BSD operating systems using standard tools and command-line practices.
648 practice questions · Updated 2026-07-30
5Domains
28Objectives
203Concepts
648Questions
BSD-SPECIALIST Curriculum
Every domain, objective, and concept the BSD-SPECIALIST exam measures.
- FreeBSD default installation
- NetBSD default installation
- OpenBSD default installation
- FreeBSD system upgrade
- NetBSD system upgrade
- OpenBSD system upgrade
- Determine OS type and version
- BSD package management overview
- Binary package installation
- Binary package querying
- Binary package uninstallation
- Ports collection structure
- Port compilation and installation
- Port uninstallation and cleanup
- Upgrade management
- Security vulnerability checking
- BSD Boot Process Overview
- Bootloader Role and Stages
- Using rc Scripts for Service Management
- Configuring Services at Boot Time
- Starting and Restarting the System
- Entering Single-User Mode
- Hardware inventory commands
- Boot-time probing analysis
- PCI device manipulation
- ATA device management
- SCSI device management
- Kernel module viewing
- Kernel module loading
- Kernel module unloading
- Module availability across BSDs
- Kernel MIB concept
- Viewing MIBs
- Runtime MIB modification
- Permanent MIB modification
- BSD securelevels concept
- Securelevel restrictions
- Raising securelevel
- Lowering securelevel
- Disk slice tables
- Disk labels
- Viewing disk slice tables and labels
- Creating and editing disk slice tables
- Editing the master boot record
- Disk label editing procedures
- Create UFS file systems
- Create ZFS file systems
- Determine disk space usage
- Check UFS filesystem consistency
- Check ZFS pool health
- Understand ZFS snapshots
- Identify mounted file systems
- Mount and unmount UFS file systems
- Mount and unmount ZFS file systems
- Configure boot-time mounts
- Resolve mount errors
- Traditional Unix permission model
- Symbolic permission notation
- Octal permission notation
- Using chmod
- SUID bit
- SGID bit
- Sticky bit
- Default permissions and umask
- Viewing ownership
- Modifying ownership with chown
- Modifying group ownership with chgrp
- Hard Links vs. Symbolic Links
- Creating Hard Links
- Creating Symbolic Links
- Viewing Links
- Removing Links
- BSD directory layout
- Utilities for finding binaries, source, manpages, and files
- Updating the locate database
- Using find with basic criteria
- Using find with time-based criteria
- Using find with size and permission criteria
- Using find with text pattern search
- Create user accounts
- Modify user accounts
- Remove user accounts
- Create system accounts
- Modify system accounts
- Remove system accounts
- Create groups
- Modify groups
- Remove groups
- Manage group membership
- Lock user accounts
- Unlock user accounts
- Change user passwords
- Change default shell
- Change other user properties
- Control home directory template files
- Verify account and group changes
- Periodic system scripts overview
- Configuring periodic scripts
- Manual execution of periodic scripts
- System crontab vs user crontabs
- Crontab fields
- Using crontab editor
- Controlling crontab access
- NTP Fundamentals
- NTP Configuration
- Manual Time Synchronization
- System logging overview
- Viewing log files
- Monitoring ongoing logs
- Log rotation configuration
- Log rotation by size
- Role of MTA
- Identifying the MTA
- Creating email aliases in Sendmail
- Creating email aliases in Postfix
- Configuring Sendmail relay
- Configuring Postfix relay
- Viewing the mail queue
- Flushing the mail queue
- mbox vs maildir formats
- BSD lpr printing system overview
- Understanding /etc/printcap entries
- Viewing the print queue
- Manipulating print jobs
- Identify current system users
- Determine last user login times
- IPv4 Addressing Fundamentals
- IPv4 Subnetting
- IPv6 Addressing Fundamentals
- IPv6 Subnetting
- Subnet Mask Notation Conversion
- Network Address and Host Range Determination
- TCP Features
- UDP Features
- ICMP Features
- Temporary IP configuration
- Permanent IP configuration
- DHCP lease basics
- Viewing DHCP lease information
- Releasing and renewing DHCP leases
- Overriding DHCP-provided settings
- Interface aliases
- IPv6 SLAAC
- DHCPv6
- Determine current IP configuration
- Troubleshoot IPv4 connectivity
- Troubleshoot IPv6 connectivity
- Determine open TCP and UDP ports
- Verify TCP/IP service availability
- DNS theory basics
- Resource record types
- Reverse DNS lookups
- DNS server types
- Querying DNS records
- Name resolution order
- Recursive DNS server configuration
- DNS troubleshooting techniques
- BSD shell differences
- Using sh, csh, or tcsh
- Environmental variables
- Input/output redirection
- Wildcard specifications
- Manpage sections and usage
- Shell behavior modification
- Command aliases
- Command repetition with varying arguments
- cp command basics
- mv command basics
- rm command basics
- recursive copy
- recursive removal
- file type identification
- backup utilities
- Load average interpretation
- Virtual memory monitoring
- Process viewing and CPU usage
- Common Unix signals
- SIGTERM vs SIGKILL
- Sending signals to processes
- Ending processes and changing priority
- Background and foreground job control
- Pattern Matching Basics
- Character Classes
- Literal Characters
- Repetition Operators
- Metacharacters
- Inverse Filters
- vi modes and basic navigation
- vi text insertion and deletion
- vi search and replace
- vi save and quit commands
- modifying a read-only file
- exiting vi without saving
- Bourne vs. csh vs. bash scripting trade-offs
- Shebang line and script execution
- Comments in scripts
- Positional parameters
- Special parameters
- Wildcards in scripts
- Quoting and escaping
- Conditional statements
- Loop constructs
- Script troubleshooting techniques
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Percentages reflect share of the current practice bank, not official exam weightings — no structured per-skill weight is published for BSD-SPECIALIST, so none is invented.