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Linux for Network Engineers: Practical Linux with GNS3 (Udemy.com)

Linux for Networking Engineers (CCNA, CCNP, CCIE etc). Practical Linux with GNS3 = network programmability & automation

Created by: David Bombal

Last updated January 2023

Our take

Based on the ratings of 5,096 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2023. No course pays to be reviewed.

David Bombal's Linux course is aimed at network engineers who know basic networking but have never used Linux. It starts with why Linux matters for automation, SDN and modern network operating systems, then moves through text editors, file systems, users, permissions and software installs. Later sections have students build TFTP, DNS and DHCP servers and a Linux switch inside GNS3. About 194,000 students have enrolled, and the 5,096 reviews average 4.5 stars.

Reviewers like the calm, clear teaching and the hands-on labs. A pen tester says it helped them set up a home lab, and one reviewer assigned it to every engineer on their team who lacked Linux skills. The complaints are consistent too. The SDN section, covering Open vSwitch and OpenDaylight, is called disorganized and thin on why those tools matter. A couple of beginners say the pace is fast. Others say the configs and software versions are out of date, and the last update was January 2023. One reviewer felt the GNS3 material is padding shared with free videos.

Close to half the runtime, about six hours, is GNS3 install and setup, and one reviewer called the setup brutal and says Ubuntu or Windows on bare metal works best. The core Linux basics sections run about three hours. Treat it as a lab-based first look at Linux for network people, and expect to check newer software versions yourself. It suits CCNA-level engineers well. A general Linux learner would be better served elsewhere.

Best forNetwork engineers with CCNA-level basics who have never touched Linux and want GNS3 labs.
Skip it ifYou need current tooling versions, or just want Linux basics without hours of GNS3 setup.

Pros

  • Calm, clear teaching that reviewers say makes Linux concepts easy to follow
  • Builds real DNS, DHCP and TFTP servers and a Linux switch in GNS3 labs
  • Covers users, permissions, file systems and text editors from zero
  • Reviewers say it helps with home lab setup, including for pen testers

Cons

  • Configs and software versions are called outdated; last update was January 2023
  • The SDN section is called disorganized and light on why each tool is used
  • About six hours of the runtime is GNS3 install and setup, which some found painful
This course was a great introduction to Linux and I assigned it to all my network engineers who did not already know Linux.
Michael A Wynston, a student

Suits CCNA-level or basic networking knowledge, but a couple of beginners found the pace fast.

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What you will learn

  • Learn foundational Linux skills
  • Learn how to practically use Linux in your networks
  • Build Linux networks using GNS3

Course content

22 sections · 125 lectures · 13 hours of video 6 articles

  1. 1Welcome 1 free preview3 lectures · 13 min
  2. 2Course layout1 lecture · 1 min
  3. 3Why should you learn Linux? 1 free preview6 lectures · 30 min
  4. 4GNS3 Linux Networks Part 111 lectures · 43 min
  5. 5Linux Fundamentals: Which Linux distro?3 lectures · 10 min
  6. 6Linux Fundamentals: Text Editors5 lectures · 19 min
  7. 7Linux Fundamentals5 lectures · 22 min
  8. 8Linux Fundamentals: File Systems5 lectures · 26 min
  9. 9Linux Fundamentals: Files, tools, owners, permissions4 lectures · 19 min
  10. 10Linux Fundamentals: Copy, move, delete3 lectures · 13 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Network Engineers
  • Network Architects
  • Anyone who want to learn about Linux from a networking perspective

What you need before you start

  • CCNA or basic networking knowledge

How it compares

Against the other 124 rated Udemy courses in Linux on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 53% of them
  • Reviews5,096#15 of 125 by number of reviews
  • Length13.2 hourslonger than 82% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2023earlier than 56% of them

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Course Description

It is important for you as a network engineer to learn Linux!

Why? There are many reasons including:

1) A lot of network operating systems are based on Linux, or have a Linux shell you can access, or use Linux type commands. I'll show you an example using Cisco, Arista and Cumulus Linux.

2) Network Automation tools such as Ansible don't run the command node on Windows. You are probably going to use Linux with tools such as Ansible, Netmkio, NAPALM and other network automation tools.

3) SDN controllers such as OpenDaylight, ONOS, RYU and APIC-EM run on Linux.You will find that many SDN tools require Linux.

4) DevOps tools such as git work best with Linux.

5) IoT devices typically run Linux

6) A new breed of network devices from companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Cumulus Linux use Linux.

There are even more reasons, but make sure you don't get left behind! You as a network engineer start learning Linux.

This course teaches foundational Linux knowledge without assuming that you have any Linux experience. Learn practically with GNS3!

Learn how to configure Linux networking, how to create users and assign permissions, how to install and run Linux services such as DNS and DHCP.

The course uses various GNS3 topologies with devices such as:

1) Linux Docker containers

2) Linux GNS3 QEMU virtual machines

3) Traditional Linux virtual mahcines

4) Network devices - you could use Cisco, Arista, Cumulus Linux or others

Do you want to see something else added to the course? Just let me know. I like to get your feedback on ways I can improve the course and add more content that you think is relevant.

Networking is changing. Make sure you keep up to date!

All the very best!

David

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Instructor Details

David Bombal

David Bombal (CCIE  #11023 Emeritus) passed his Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Routing and Switching exam in January 2003 and is one of a small percentage of Cisco Engineers that pass their CCIE labs on their first attempt. 

David qualified as a  Cisco Certified Systems Instructor (CCSI #22787) many years ago! He has been training Cisco  courses for over 20 years and has delivered instructor led courses in various  countries around the world covering a wide range of Cisco topics from CCNA to  CCIE. 

David is very active on social media and has over 2 million YouTube subscribers and has posted over 1,000 free videos.

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Reviews

4.5

5,096 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Matthew Renne on 11/3/2025

Putting the Majority of the learning behind additional paid for services is pretty terrible. You otherwise make great content, but I spent hours working on configurations to simply be able to complete none of the learning lessons.

By Omkar Bane on 6/26/2022

Thank you for preparing this wonderful course on Linux. After the completion, I feel more confident while interacting with Linux OS (Significance of CLI Shell commands) and its features. Linux VM integration within GNS3 software has been described well taking into consideration different types of network topologies, and by using software images from various other vendors. Very helpful course for any Network engineer who wants to improve their Linux skills.

By S W on 3/21/2022

This is definitely a great course for not just network engineers, as a pen tester, this has been wonderful for really getting hands on in terms of setting up a home lab for testing. I'm usually in the habit of listening to a lecture and then going through a second time and then doing the hands on labs, and this course is really tailored for someone like me, with the lab setup at the end. Now that my lab is set up, I can't wait to go through this a second time and probably catch some things I may have missed the first time around. Excellent course. Thank you.

By Abdelrahman Elsherbiny on 3/29/2021

This is an amazing course for beginners. I am a new Linux user and was looking for a good course to learn the fundamentals of Linux. I found some courses online but most of them were complicated but this one really exceeded my expectations. David is a very good instructor and has a way of delivering information that really sticks. In addition to offering this course for free, I would recommend this course for anyone who wants to learn Linux fundamentals.

By Wajeeh Rehman on 11/8/2020

Respected Sir David This was an exceptional introductory Linux course and just what I needed to start my learning journey as I struggled to learn Linux watched a couple of videos and read a few documentation but was not able to grasp the concepts until I've watched your course, it gave me the necessary background to learn more about Linux for network administration and I will design my own home-labs for more better understanding. Once again I thank you for the hard work you put into this course Regards WajeehRehman

By Vitalii Zavoritnii on 9/17/2020

Linux part of the course is mostly good. There is some useful material here. There are however many occasions when you have to jump around different videos in random order just because some configuration is explained elsewhere. Many videos are just copy-paste from Youtube and the whole course is missing references. There were many occasions when "links under the video" were mentioned, but we have none attached in Udemy. Many videos have inexplicably long intros and outros which means this course could have been much shorter.

By Seyed Farshid Miri on 5/17/2020

This course helps you to get a detailed insight into how GNS3 works, including various GNS3 appliances and interesting Linux systems and Cisco IOS devices, OpenFlow, OpenDaylight and SDN... just the sequence of videos about vSwitch and open flow controller is a bit not ordered properly, I would say! First check the open daylight videos to see how to install and configure them, then check the other videos showing how to use them. Overall great course and great instructor! I recommend it to everyone who is interested in SDN subjects.

By Raviraj Halarnekar on 2/18/2020

I like the way he explains even a simple concept with minute details. His videos hax helped me understand some of the core networking concepts like STP,etc. I have been using David Bombal's courses since i started preparing for my CCNA 200-125 which made me very comfortable with his teaching style. I have enrolled for this course because i want to learn Linux from a Network Engineer's prospective and not as a System Admin. So far the experience has been good. Thanks David.

By Scotty Hall on 2/16/2020

It had some very useful lessons, but I was kind of disappointed in the number of lectures that were videos from David's YouTube channel. When I pay for a Udemy course, I kind of have this expectation that I am getting unique content or at the very least more in-depth lessons than what I could have watched for free on a YouTube channel. The lessons are good, despite a great deal of repetitiveness, so don't get me wrong in that respect, I just would have preferred it be more than already freely available content.

By Suhas Sreedhara on 8/9/2019

I cannot thank David enough for making this course. I have been sparingly using Linux at work for years now, and only learned a few basic commands and never went to explore what's in detail because Linux always felt like something complicated and time-consuming to understand. But this course, in a matter of hours completely demystified Linux and David beautifully broke down the concepts and made it very easy to understand. Highly recommended if you want to develop basic understanding of Linux!

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Overall Score : 90 / 100