CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to System and Network Administration

Question

1. Define NW/SYS Administration?

2. What is the role of NW and SYS administrator?
3. How does Network Administration work in Practice?
4. List some tasks of NW administrator
5. What are Goals of System/Network Administration?
6. What are the Challenges of System/Network Administration?
7. Explain the phrase “style of network/sys Administration”

What is System and System Administration?

System

System is the compromise of users, computers (hardware and software) and network etc. It is a
collection of elements or components that are organized for a common purpose. The word
sometimes describes the organization or plan itself (and is similar in meaning to method, as in "I
have my own little system") and sometimes describes the parts in the system (as in "computer
system").

A computer system consists of hardware components that have been carefully chosen so that
they work well together and software components or programs that run in the computer.

System Administration

As computers become more and more pervasive in business, system administration becomes a
mission critical position in more and more organizations. The administrator has to understand the
systems that he is responsible for, the people who use them and the nature of the business that
they are used for. A key skill in administration is planning, because at the rate that systems are
being created, overhauled, and expanded, trying to improvise and design a network "on the fly"
just doesn't work.

System administration is management of system. System Administration is planning, installing,

and maintaining computer systems.

What Is Network And Network Administration?

Network
A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources (such as
printers and CDs), exchange files, or allow electronic communications. The computers on a
network may be linked through cables, telephone lines, radio waves, satellites, or infrared light
beams.
Two very common types of networks include:
1 LAN
2 WAN
Network Administration

Network administration is the art of connecting people throughout the world, (and incidentally
connecting their computers)

Network administration is a difficult task. The administrator's responsibilities often involve

many different aspects and may include such tasks as network design, management,
troubleshooting, backup and storage, documentation, security and virus prevention as well as
managing users.

Role of System Administrator and Network Administrator

Actually the role/job of system and network admin is already the same in small and middle
organization but they have specification in large organization.

Role of System Administrator

 Install and update an operating system and patched it for security and configuring it
 Aiding users
 Building a system.

 Maintenance and upgrades.

 Troubleshooting and debugging system.
 Performance tuning.
 Setup the software
 Made sure the power and air conditioning was working in server room
 Kept backup in the case of anything went wrong
 Setup the firewall
 Adding ,removing and updating user account information
 Documentation the system configuration
 Analysis system logs
 Apache and MySQL (vertigo) administration
 Manage storage of network and NFS server
 Monitor system in your data center (CPU, network I/O, disk I/O, application health)
 Create file system
  Setup system security police

NB :

 Never do something you cannot undo.

 Never stop learning b/c technology rapidly changes
 Shall be useless privilege account b/c mistakes will be less drastic

System admin must know

How a system is configured

What patches have been applied
What service the system need/provides

Role of Network Administrator

As a network administrator, your tasks generally fall into the following areas:

 Designing and planning the network

 Setting up the network

 Maintaining the network

 Expanding the network

Each task area corresponds to a phase in the continuing life cycle of a network. You might be
responsible for all the phases, or you might ultimately specialize in a particular area, for
example, network maintenance.

Designing the Network

The first phase in the life cycle of a network involves creating its design, a task not usually
performed by new network administrators. Designing a network involves making decisions about
the type of network that best suits the needs of your organization. In larger sites this task is
performed by a senior network architect: an experienced network administrator familiar with
both network software and hardware.

Setting up the Network

After the new network is designed, the second phase of network administration begins, which
involves setting up and configuring the network. This consists of installing the hardware that
makes up the physical part of the network, and configuring the files or databases, hosts, routers,
and network configuration servers.
Maintaining the Network

The third phase of network administration consists of ongoing tasks that typically constitute the
bulk of your responsibilities. They might include:

 Adding new host machines to the network

 Administering network security

 Administering network services, such as NFSTM services, name services, and electronic
mail

 Troubleshooting network problems

Expanding the Network

The longer a network is in place and functioning properly, the more your organization might
want to expand its features and services. Initially, you can increase network population by adding
new hosts and expanding network services by providing additional shared software. But
eventually, a single network will expand to the point where it can no longer operate efficiently.
That is when it must enter the fourth phase of the network administration cycle: expansion.

Several options are available for expanding your network:

 Setting up a new network and connecting it to the existing network using a machine
functioning as a router, thus creating an internetwork

 Configuring machines in users' homes or in remote office sites and enabling these
machines to connect over telephone lines to your network

 Connecting your network to the Internet, thus enabling users on your network to retrieve
information from other systems throughout the world

The network administrator is responsible for planning, designing, installing, and evaluating
networks and workstations. Very often the administrator is also involved in researching
purchasing information on hardware and software acquisitions

The Network Administrator is typically a mid to senior level of technical/network staff in an

organization and is not typically involved with direct user support. The Network Administrator
will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, ensuring
network connectivity throughout and company's LAN/WAN infrastructure, and all other
technical considerations at the network level of an organizations technical hierarchy. Network
Administrators are considered Tier 3 support personnel that only work on break/fix issues that
could not be resolved at the Tier1 (helpdesk) or Tier 2 (desktop/network technician) levels.
 The actual role of the Network Administrator will vary from company to company, but usually
includes tasks such as network address assignment, assignment of routing protocols and routing
table configuration as well as configuration of authentication and authorization – directory
services. It often includes maintenance of network facilities in individual machines, such as
drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers and such. It sometimes also
includes maintenance of certain network servers: file servers, VPN gateways, intrusion detection
systems, etc.

Generally the Network admin tasks:

Task 1: Design, install and evaluate network
Task 2: Perform and manage regular backups
Task 3: Provide technical documentation
Task 4: Manage users and provide user support
Task 5: Monitoring and troubleshooting assistance
Task 6: Security management and virus prevention

Generally the role of System and Network Admin is:

 Security Management
 Performance Management
 Planning for Growth
 Fault Management and Recovery
 Account/User Management
 Networked Application Support

Security Management

 Firewalls
 Usernames
 Password control
 Resource Access Control

Performance Management

 Availability
 Response Time
 Accuracy

Planning for Growth

 Availability
 Response Time
 Accuracy
Fault Management and Recovery

 Monitoring
 Reporting status
 Testing
 Fixes and Patches
 Updates
 Repairs
 Change Management

Account / User Management

 Communication Facilities
 Connection - Rental - Charges
 Hardware Usage
 Lease - Rent - Hire
 Consumables Usage
 Power, Paper, Media (Diskettes, CDs…)
 Software Usage
 Licensing,
 Application usage
 Accounts are Managed for:
o Intrusion detection / prevention
o Charging for Services
o Legal protection of the Organization

Networked Application Support

 Client / Server systems support

 Internet support
 Server support
 Applications and Hardware
 Helpdesk
 Trouble report / Bug fixes
 Printing and e-mail

How to be a Sys/Net Admin

Learn Operating System basics eg Unix

Learn shell utilities and script programming
Learn how to Install and Configure OS and network tools
Learn DNS, DHCP, Samba, Proxy servers
 Learn TCP/IP networking, remote traffic monitoring tool
Learn NFS and NIS- Network Information Service (DB) (or equivalent…)
Learn about system tuning and accounting

Style of Network and System Administration

 Fire-Fighting

 Managing by responding to situations when they happen (Reactive)

 Preventative management

 Monitor network and make repairs and changes before problems appear
(Proactive)

 These are two opposite extremes.

Most real managers combine both.

Fire-Fighting

 Investigate the Fault or Problem

 Isolate the problem and identify/define it

 Use tests and tools to diagnose the problem

 Solve the problem and document the solution

 Prioritize multiple problems

Preventative Management

Preventative Management Techniques:

 Capacity Planning
 Simulation and Testing
 load generators
 Benchmarks
 Performance Monitors and System Tuning
 Network analysis and modelling
 Load balancing
 Hardware upgrades

Challenge of System and Network Admin

Systems or Network Administration is more than just installing computers or networks.

It is about planning and designing an efficient community of computers that allow users to get
their jobs done
Networking and IT/IS/CS professionals responsible for the management of an organizational-
wide network within a higher-education institution such as a college, university or other
organization like banking, airport ,telecom are faced with one of the most challenging
networking environments today. The parameters that exist for campus networking environments
are numerous and daunting:
 Large network extended across broad geographies
 Massive user base that’s constantly in a state of change
 Complex networking infrastructures across diverse platforms
  Strong need to track individual user activity due to copyright infringement concerns,
cheating, etc.
 Wide array of network devices of all types, makes, operating systems, etc.
 High number of remote and transient users
 Broad and disparate number of applications and databases being accessed across the
network
 Unpredictable user base (especially students) apt to misuse or attempt to breach network
security
 High volume of large file sharing and file downloading
 Open networks (required especially for remote access) creating higher security risk

The most challenge of System and Network Admin are:

Responding to copyright infringement requests
What happens when an outside party notifies you that copyrighted material has been found on
your network? How do you quickly find the user that’s responsible to ensure that any such
material is removed?
Investigating the network activity of an individual student or staff member
What happens when an individual user has clicked on a link within their email that causes the
download of malware and the launch of thousands of spam emails?
How do you find and quickly investigate the network activity of a single user?
Quickly identifying viruses and worms on the network
Viruses and worms are, unfortunately, a fact of life for networks – especially campus networks.
How can you greatly reduce the time you spend finding, isolating and removing viruses and
worms?
Determining why applications are slowing down
Dealing with calls and complaints when key applications start to slow down is not fun. How can
campus network administrators quickly find the cause of the application slowdown?
Detecting rogue systems on the network
There are likely no more diverse hardware environment than colleges, universities and
higher-education institutes. How do campus network managers and administrators better
identify and isolate rogue systems on their network?

THE END