Chapter 1

Introduction to System and

Network Administration

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Learning Objectives:At the end of the topic,
the students will be able to:

 Learn the foundation of network and system

administration
 Know the scope,duties and responsibilities of network
and system administrator
 Know the network operation system that support
system administration
 Distinguish the support of each network operating
system

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 What will the course cover?
● Understand the role & responsibilities of a system administrator
● Configure the Linux operating system
● Describe the system boot process
● Setup and manage user accounts and groups
● Manage the resources and security of a computer running Linux
● Make effective use of Unix utilities and scripting languages
(bash, Perl)
● Configure and manage simple network services on a Linux
system
● Develop an appreciation of the documentation available as part
of an installed Unix/Linux system

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 What does a sysadmin do?
● User account management
● Hardware management
● Perform filesystem backups, restores
● Install and configure new software and services
● Keep systems and services operating
– Monitor system and network
– Troubleshoot problems
● Maintain documentation
● Audit security
● Help users, performance tuning, and more!
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1. Overview

 Network and system administration is a branch of

engineering that concerns the operational management
of human–computer system.
 It is unusual as an engineering discipline in that it
addresses both the technology of computer systems and
the users of the technology on an equal basis.
 The terms network administration and system
administration exist separately and are used both
variously and inconsistently by industry and by
academics.

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2. System Administration

 System administration is the term used

traditionally by mainframe and Linux engineers to
describe the management of computers whether
they are coupled by a network or not.
 Today, System Administration is the design,
installation, configuration, operation, and
support of these servers to support the
operation need of information technology
infrastructure of an organization.

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System Administrator

 Generally it is planning, installing, and

maintaining computer systems involving
servers and clients that works together in a
network environment using operation system
likeWindows 2012 Server or Linux platform.
 A system administrator, or sysadmin, is a
person who is responsible for the upkeep,
configuration, and reliable operation of computer
systems; especially multi- user computers, such as
servers.

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 Duties of a system administrator

1. User administration (setup and maintaining account)

2. Maintaining system
3. Verify that peripherals are working properly
4. Quickly arrange repair for hardware in occasion of hardware failure
5. Monitor system performance
6. Create file systems
7. Install software
8. Create a backup and recover policy
9. Monitor network communication
10. Update system as soon as new version of OS and application software comes out
11. Implement the policies for the use of the computer system and network
12. Setup security policies for users.A sysadmin must have a strong grasp of computer
security (e.g.firewalls and intrusion detection systems)

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 Duties of a system administrator
(continue)
1. Install patches
2. Review system logs
3. Report malicious or suspicious activity on systems to ISO immediately
4. Report sensitive information stored on systems to ISO
5. Maintain user access administration
6. Disaster recovery planning
7. Physical security
8. Disable unnecessary services on servers
9. Generate/Retain system backups
10. Identify secondary system administrator(s)
11. Comply with password requirements
12. Access control
13. Environmental protection (i.e.,protection from possible exposure to water damage,excessive
heat, etc.)
14. Security training will be required every three (3) years

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3. Network Administration

 Network administration means the management of

network infrastructure devices (routers and switches).

 A network administrator is an individual that is

responsible for the maintenance of computer
hardware and software systems that make up
a computer network including the maintenance
and monitoring of active data network or converged
infrastructure and related network equipment

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3. Network Administration

 The actual role of the network administrator will

vary from place to place, but will commonly include
activities and tasks such as network address
assignment, management and implementation of
routing protocols such as ISIS, OSPF, BGP, routing
table configurations and certain implementations of
authentication (e.g.: challenge response, etc.). It can
also include maintenance of certain network
servers: file servers,VPN gateways, intrusion
detection systems,security,etc.

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5.What is a Network Operating System?

 Network operating system refers to software that

implements an operating system of some kind that
is oriented to computer networking. For example,
one that runs on a server and enables the server
to manage data, users, groups, security, applications,
and other networking functions.The network
operating system is designed to allow shared file
and printer access among multiple computers in a
network,typically a local area
network (LAN), a private network or to other
networks

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 Windows Server

 Windows Server is a brand name for a group of

server operating systems released by Microsoft. It includes all
Windowsoperating systems branded "Windows Server", but not
any other Microsoft product.The first Windows server edition
to be released under that brand was Windows Server 2003.
However, the first server edition of Windows was Windows NT
3.1Advanced Server, followed by Windows NT 3.5
Server,Windows NT 4.0 Server, and Windows 2000 Server; the
latter was the first server edition to
include Active Directory, DNS Server, DHCP Server, Group

Policy, as well as many other popular features used today.

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Windows Server

 Windows Server 2012 R2 is the sixth version

of Windows Server family of operating systems. It was
released on October 18, 2013. According to Windows
Server 2012 R2 datasheet published on May 31, 2013, there
are four editions of this operating system:
Foundation,Essentials,Standard and Datacenter. Unlike its
predecessor,Windows Server 2012 can switch between
"Server Core" and "Server with a GUI" installation options
without a full reinstallation. Server Core - an option with a
command-line interface only - is now the recommended
configuration.

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 User Account Management
● User Ids
● Mail
● Home directories (quotas,
drive capacities)
● Default startup files (paths)
● Permissions, group memberships,
accounting and restrictions
● Communicating policies and procedures
● Disabling / removing user accounts
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 Hardware Management
– Capacity planning
– Inventory
– Hardware evaluation and purchase
– Adding and removing hardware
● Configuration
● Cabling, wiring, DIP switches, etc.
– Device driver installation
– System configuration and settings
– User notification and documentation

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 Data Backups
– Perhaps most important aspect!
– Disk and backup media capacity planning
– Performance, network and system impact
– Disaster recovery
● Onsite/Offsite
● Periodic testing
● Multiple copies
– User communication
● Schedules, restore guarantees
and procedures, loss tolerance

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Software Installation/Maintenance

● Evaluation of software
● Downloading and building (compiling and
tweaking)
● Installation
● Maintenance of
multiple versions
● Security
● Patches and updates
● User notification, documentation
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 System Monitoring
– Hardware and services functioning and operational
– Capacity
● Disk, RAM, CPU, network
– Security
● Passwords
● Break-ins
– System logs
● Examination
● Periodic rotation and truncation

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 Troubleshooting
● Problem discovery, diagnosis, and resolution
– Root cause analysis
– Often quite difficult!
● Often requires
– Broad and thorough
system knowledge
– Outside experts
– Luck
● Expediency
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 Local Documentation
● Administrative policies and procedures
– Backup media locations
– Hardware
● Location
● Description, configuration, connections
– Software
● Install media (or download location)
● Installation, build, and configuration details
● Patches installed
● Acceptable use policies
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 Security Concerns
● System logging and audit facilities
– Evaluation and implementation
– Monitoring and analysis
– Traps, auditing and monitoring programs
● Unexpected or unauthorized use detection
● Monitoring of security advisories
– Security holes and weaknesses
– Live exploits

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 User Assistance
– Time intensive!
– Techniques
● Help desks
● Trouble-ticket systems
– Software availability and usage
– Software configuration settings
– Hardware usage, maintenance, and troubleshooting
– Writing FAQs

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 Administration Challenges
– Need
● Broad knowledge of hardware and software
● To balance conflicting requirements
– Short-term vs. long-term needs
– End-user vs. organizational requirements
– Service provider vs. police model
● To work well and efficiently under pressure
● 24x7 availability
● Flexibility, tolerance, and patience
● Good communication skills
– People think of sysadmins only when things don't work!

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 Why (Red Hat/CentOS) Linux?
– Need to use some OS to make ideas concrete
– Really only two choices:
● Windows (I'm not qualified)
● UNIX (and UNIX-like OSes such as Linux)
– Both are useful and common in the real world
– Linux is popular, free, and usable on personal
machines, but also handles large-scale services
– Red Hat/CentOS is relatively polished, popular
● I've been using it since ~1996
● There are, of course, many alternatives

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 What is Linux?
much is courtesy of www.kernel.org

● Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written by a loosely-knit

team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and
Single UNIX Specification compliance.
● Like any modern fully-fledged Unix, Linux includes true multitasking,
virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-
write executables, proper memory management, and TCP/IP
networking.
● Linux really refers to the kernel – most of the commands that you are
familiar with are really separate programs, not specific to Linux, and
often are part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU project.
● Linux was first developed for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher).
These days it also runs on dozens of other processors.

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Brief history of UNIX
● Originated as a research project in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs
– Made available to universities (free) in 1976
● Berkeley UNIX started in 1977 when UCB licensed code from
AT&T.
● Berkeley Software Distribution started in 1977 with 1BSD, and
ended in 1993 with 4.4BSD
● Licensing costs from AT&T increased, so Berkeley attempted to
remove AT&T code, but ran out of funds before completion.
● Final release of AT&T-free code called 4.4BSD-Lite.
– Most current BSD distributions (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD) are
derived from 4.4BSD-Lite.
● Most commercial versions of UNIX (Solaris, HP-UX) are derived
from the AT&T code

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 Brief history of Linux
● Created as a personal project (and still
controlled) by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish
graduate student, in 1991
● Conceived as an offshoot of Minix (a model OS)
– Not derived from AT&T or BSD UNIX
● Red Hat (one of many Linux vendors) founded
in 1993
● Kernel v1.0 released 1994
● Most recent (Jan 2012) kernel release is 3.2.1
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 Where to get answers
● Linux/UNIX documentation can be found in
many places
– Manual pages (man pages, using man command)
– Texinfo documents (read with info command)
– HOWTOs – focused descriptions of a topic
– Distribution-specific documentation
– Your favorite Web search engine
● Will typically find online versions of the above

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Where to get answers

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 man pages
– Usually my first resource
– Provide OS installation-specific
information
– Man pages document (almost)
every command, driver, file
format, and library routine
– “man -k topic” will list all man
pages that use topic
– Parameters are not the same
for every UNIX, e.g.:
● Linux: man 4 tty
● Solaris: man -s4 tty
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 man page organization
● Man pages are divided into sections (somewhat Linux specific)
– 1: User-level commands and applications
– 2: System calls and kernel error codes
– 3: Library calls
– 4: Device drivers
– 5: Standard file formats
– 6: Games and demonstrations
– 7: Miscellaneous files and documents
– 8: System administration commands
– 9: Obscure kernel specs and interfaces
● Some sections are subdivided
– 3M contains pages for math library
– Section “n” often contains subcommands (such as bash built-in cmds)
● Sections 6 and 9 are typically empty
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 Where do we go from here?
– In this course, I'll assign homework projects that
require root access on a RHEL/CentOS 5 system.
– In our first lab, you will be provided with a hard drive
that can be used in the Sandbox lab (PL112) with the
OS, and root privileges so that you will administer it.
– In addition, you can (and should) use
● the department Suns for most things
● A CentOS 5 system (on the CSE network) called
edgar.cse.lehigh.edu to explore a minimal working system
– See course web page for syllabus and schedule for
topics and readings.
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