1333101

Basic Administration Eka Stephani Sinambela

 What is network and system
administration?
• Network and system administration is a branch of
engineering that concerns the operational
management of human–computer systems.
– It addresses both the technology of computer systems
and the users of the technology.
• It is about putting together a network of
computers (workstations, PCs and
supercomputers), getting them running and then
keeping them running in spite of the activities of
users who tend to cause the systems to fail.

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 What is network and system
administration?
• System administration is not just an
administrative job.
– It is an extremely demanding engineer’s job
– It’s about hardware, software, user support,
diagnosis, repair, and prevention.
• System administrators need to know a bit of
everything: the skills are technical,
administrative, and socio-psychological.

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 What does a network and Sysadmin
do?
• User account management/Controlling Access
• Hardware management/Adding Hardware
• Automating Tasks
• Perform filesystem backups, restores
• Installing/configuring/upgrading new software
and services
• Keep systems and services operating
– Monitor system and network
– Troubleshoot problems
• Maintain documentation

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 What does a network and Sysadmin
do?
• Vigilantly Monitoring Security
• Tuning Performance
• Developing Site Policies
• Working with vendors
• Fire Fighting

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 User Account
Management/Controlling Access
• User Ids (create accounts for new users)
• Permission, group memberships, accounting
and restrictions
• Disabling/removing user accounts
• Home directories (quotas, drive capacities)
• Default start up files (paths)
• Communicating policies and procedures

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 Hardware Management/Adding
Hardware
• Install and configure hardware to be recognized by the
operating system.
• Capacity Planning
• Inventory
• Hardware evaluation and purchase
• Adding and removing hardware
– Configuration
– Cabling, wiring, switch
• Device driver installation
• System configuration and settings
• User notification and documentation

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 Automating Tasks
• Using tools to automate repetitive and time
consuming tasks to:
– increase efficiency,
– reduce errors caused by humans,
– and improve the ability to respond rapidly to changing
requirements.
• Administrators strive to reduce the amount of
labor needed to keep systems functioning
smoothly.
• Familiarity with scripting languages and
automation is a large part of the job.

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 Data Backups
• Perhaps most important aspects!
• 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
• Backups must be executed on a regular schedule and
restores must be tested periodically to ensure that they are
functioning correctly.

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 Installing/configuring/upgrading new
software and services
• Evaluation of software
– Software must be selected, installed, and configured, often on a
variety of operating system.
• Downloading and building (compiling and tweaking)
• Installation
• Maintenance of multiple versions
• Security
• Patches and updates
– As patches and security updates are released, they must be
tested, reviewed, and incorporated into the local environment
without endangering the stability of production systems.
• 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
• All of these are excellent opportunities for automation, and
a slew of open source and commercial monitoring systems
can help sysadmins with these tasks.

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 Troubleshooting
• Problem discovery, diagnosis, and resolution
– Root cause analysis
– Often quite difficult! Than resolving it.
• Often requires
– Broad and thorough system knowledge
– Outside experts
– Luck
• Expediency

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 Maintain Documentation
• Administrators choose vendors, write scripts,
deploy software, and make many other decisions
that may not be immediately obvious or intuitive
to others.
• Thorough and accurate documentation is a
blessing for team members who would otherwise
need to reverse-engineer a system to resolve
problems.
• A lovingly crafted network diagram is more useful
than many paragraphs of text when describing a
design.

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 Vigilantly Monitoring Security
• Administrators are the first line of defense for
protecting network-attached systems.
• Administrator must implement a security policy
and set up procedures to prevent systems from
being breached.
• This responsibility might include only a few basic
checks for unauthorized access, or it might
involve an elaborate network of traps and
auditing programs, depending on the context.
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 Tuning Performance
• UNIX and LINUX are general purpose operating
systems that are well suited to almost any
conceivable computing task.
• Administrators can tailor systems for optimal
performance in accord with the needs of users,
the available infrastructure, and the services the
system provide.
• When a server is performing poorly, it is the
administrator’s job to investigate its operation
and identify areas that need improvement.
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 Developing Site Policies
• For legal and compliance reasons, most sites
need policies that govern the acceptable use of
computer systems, the management and
retention of data, the privacy and security of
networks and systems, and other areas of
regulatory interest.
• System administrators often help organizations
develop sensible policies that meet the letter and
intent of the law and yet still promote progress
and productivity.

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 Working with vendors
• Most sites rely on third parties to provide a
variety of ancillary services and products related
to their computing infrastructure.
– Include software developers, cloud infrastructure
provides, hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS), help-
desk support staff, consultants, contractors, security
experts, and platform or infrastructure vendors.
• Administrators may be tasked with selecting
vendors, assisting with contract negotiations, and
implementing solutions once the paperwork has
been completed.

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 Fire Fighting
• System administrators are bombarded with
problems ranging from
– “it worked yesterday and now it doesn’t! what did you
change?”
– “I spilled coffee on my keyboard! Should I pour water
on it to wash it out?”
• Your response to these issues affects your
perceived value as an administrator far more
than does any actual technical skill you might
possesses.

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 Administration Challenges
• Need
– Broad knowledge of hardware or software
– To balance conflicting requirements
• Short-term vs. long-term
• End-users vs. organizational requirements
– To work well and efficiently under pressure
– 24x7 availability
– Flexibility, tolerance, and patience
– Good communication skills
• People only think of sysadmins only when things
don’t work!

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 Administration Challenges
• Designing a network which is logical and efficient
• Deploying large numbers of machines which can be
easily upgraded later
• Deciding what services are needed
• Planning and implementing adequate security
• Providing a comfortable environment for users
• Developing ways of fixing errors and problems which
occur
• Keeping track and understanding how to use enormous
amount of knowledge which increases every year

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 Where to get answers?
• Documentation can be
found in many places
– Manual pages
– HOWTOs – focused
description of a topic
– Distribution-specific
documentation
– Your favorite Web search
engine
• Will typically find online
version of the above

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 Where to get answers?

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 Notes for student
• To study this object we need to cultivate a way of thinking
which embodies a basic scientific humility and some core
principles:
– Independence, or self-sufficiency in learning. We cannot always
ask someone for the right answer to every question.
– Systematic and tidy workspaces
• Some counter-productive practices could be avoided:
– The belief that there exists a right answer to every problem
– Getting fraught and upset when things do not work the way we
expect
– Expecting that every problem has a beginning, a middle, and an
end (some problems are chronic and cannot be solved without
impractical restructuring)

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 Notes for student
• We can begin with checklist
– Look for answers in manuals and newsgroups
– Use controlled trial and error to locate problems
– Consider all the information: listen to people who tell you that there is
a problem. It might be true, even if you can’t see it yourself.
– Write down experiences in an A-Z so that you can learn how to solve
the same problem again in the future.
– Take responsibility for your actions. Be prepared for accidents. They
are going to happen and they will be your fault. You will have to fix
them.
– Remember tedious jobs like vacuum cleaning the hardware one a year.
– After learning about something new, always pose the question: how
does this apply to me?

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 Notes for student
• American English is the language of the net.
Therefore, Netsysadmin should be able to:
– Read documentation
– Communicate with others and to ask questions in
the internet

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 Network and System Administration
Code of Ethics

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 Reference
• Evi Nemeth, Garth Synder, Trent R. Hein, Ben
Whaley, Dan Mackin. Unix and Linux System
Administration Handbook, 5th edition.

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 Thank you

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