Candidates should be able to perform the tasks listed below:
 
Use utilities such as vmstat, iostat, mpstat, sar, gnome-system-monitor, top, and others to analyze and report system behavior.
Configure graphical SNMP client utilities, such as MRTG and RRDtool.
Use the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) mechanism to implement restrictions on critical system resources.
Use /proc/sys, sysctl, and /sys to examine, modify, and set kernel runtime parameters.
Use utilities such as dmesg, dmidecode, x86info, and sysreport to profile system hardware configurations.
Analyze system and application behavior using tools such as ps, strace, top, Oprofile, and Valgrind.
Configure systems to run SystemTap scripts.
Alter process priorities of both new and existing processes.
Configure systems to support alternate page sizes for applications that use large amounts of memory.
Given multiple versions of applications that perform the same or similar tasks, choose which version of the application to run on a system based on its observed performance characteristics.
Configure disk subsystems for optimal performance using mechanisms, such as software RAID, swap partition placement, I/O scheduling algorithm selection, file system layout, and others.
Configure kernel behavior by altering module parameters.
Calculate network buffer sizes based on known quantities, such as bandwidth and round-trip time, and set system buffer sizes based on those calculations.