This syllabus is intended as a set of guidelines for the Unix System Administration course. North Lake College and your instructor reserve the right to make modifications in content, schedule, and requirements as necessary to promote the best education possible within prevailing requirements affecting this course.

North Lake College                                                                                                                                                       Instructor: Ken Frazer
Technology Division                                                                                                                                                     E-mail: krf@clyde.dcccd.edu
5001 N. MacArthur Blvd.                                                                                                                                             Technology Office: (972) 273-3450
Irving, TX 75038                                                                                                                                                           
 
 
 
 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course continues UNIX system development by introducing concepts related to management and administration. Topics include installation, user management, devices, system performance, and process management.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of ITSW 2436 (Unix II) or demonstrated competence approved by the instructor is required. (4 Credits {hours: 3 lecture 4 lab})

COURSE FOCUS

This course is designed to enable the student to continue their exploration of the Unix operating system. It will provide the student the opportunity to: install the UNIX OS, understand startup and shutdown scripts, configure devices, configure processes, configure the default mail system, use system accounting, tune and diagnosis the system, review system security, and work with network filesystems.

TEXT AND REFERENCES

There are two required texts for this course:

Unix System Administration Handbook, Third Edition, by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein, published by Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0130206016

Unix in a Nutshell by Daniel Gilly published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. ISBN 1-56592-001-5.

Additionally, each student is required to have two(2)  3.5" high density floppy disks for use in the lab.

Additional Unix reference books may prove helpful, however they are optional. Two that are very highly recommended are sed & awk by Dougherty, published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. and Essential System Administration  by Frisch, published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

{Note: no Unix user or administrator can have too many Unix books ;-) }
 

STUDENT CONTRIBUTIONS

Each student will spend at least 14 hours per week preparing for class. You will be randomly assigned to a team for the duration of the class and all lab work will be done as a team. Attendance at each class meeting is critical and required in this class. The student is expected to complete each lab assignment using the computers at North Lake College.
 
 

COURSE EVALUATION

Your lab exercises and exams grades will be on a point basis, and the points you accumulate through the semester will result in a grade being assigned as is explained below.

There will be two (2) tests, each worth 150 points. (300 points total.)

Journal of the 14 required lab activities worth 15 points each. (210 points total.)

Some of these labs may have extra credit opportunities as well

Research paper on a Unix System Administration topic (30 points)

Attendance/class participation is critical to student success, and regular attendance (missing no more than 1 class meeting) will be awarded 40 points.

This gives a grand total of 580 points without extra credit.

Grades will be assigned on the following scale:

A= 522 points and above (90%)

B= 464 - 521 points (80%)

C= 406 - 463 points (70%)

D= 348 - 405 points (60%)

F= fewer than 348 points
 
 

JOURNAL

The journal will be a log of all lab activity conducted over the course of the semester. It will detail hardware, operating system, and software configurations and changes made throughout the semester. The journal will keep a log of file updates, addition/deletion of users, etc. The journal shall be available fro examination by the instructor at any time during the semester.  A sample journal  is included in Addendum A of the syllabus.
 

LAB

Lab will be conducted in class and the student machines will not be accessible from outside of the classroom.  A UNIX machine is available outside of class that may be used for email, script writing, or other activities related to class.  Any abnormal machine problems should be reported to the instructor immediately.  Every machine must be turned off before the student leaves for the day!

GROUP RESEARCH PAPER

As part of the UNIX world, you will explore and share knowledge and information throughout the semester. As part of the course, you will be required to share what you have explored on your own with the rest of the class. Your group will be required to prepare and make available for the rest of the class a research report covering a topic not covered in this class. The topic should relate to system administration and should not be a topic that is discussed already in this class. If you are having trouble selecting a topic, several hundred ideas can be found at http://www.ugu.com. You should supply example scripts if appropriate to the topic, these examples also should be made available to the class on the system admin server.

COURSE SCHEDULE

The class meets for approximately six (6) hours per week. This time will be divided between lecture, exercises, and lab assignments. The actual amount of time in each of these areas will vary depending on the topic under discussion.

Addendum B is a tentative listing of the topics and reading assignments for each week.  Additional reading assignments will be provided on the class web page at http://home.earthlink.net/~krfrazer3.  This page and refresher materials from Unix I and II are also accessible from http://www.krfrazer.com. 

Standards:

Most companies require their scriptors to follow as set of standards, we too have standards to which your scripts must adhere. Please review the standards document and build all your scripts to those standards.

Please also give careful attention to the following:

1. Cheating: It is possible to obtain another student's work, modify it slightly, and turn it in as your own. When you are caught cheating you will receive a performance grade of F for this course. In addition, other action may be taken as described in the Student Code of Conduct. Cheating robs two people of their rightful reward: the person from whom you copy is deprived of their right to the copyrighted work they did and you are deprived of the learning experience you could have had. No one benefits from cheating; it will not be tolerated. Besides, cheating is contrary to the mindset of a real Unix person.

This does not mean I discourage discussion with your fellow students. I encourage you to discuss solutions to problems from class with other members of the class. In this class I encourage you to work in a group. I will expect that the assignments you hand in will be based upon group effort. All I ask is that you put the names of all the participants in the group on whatever you hand in. That way I can know who to credit. What I am trying to avoid is identical work, claimed for independent credit by two or more people.

2. Ethical computer usage: While this topic encompasses the problem of cheating listed as item one, it is a far larger issue than simply cheating in class. Any attempt by any student to compromise the integrity of the computer lab, classroom computers, or other instructional or administrative machines or steal or damage the software or hardware at North Lake or on other networked computers will be dealt with in the most severe manner possible.

You may not load personal software on any machine at North Lake College, nor may you copy software from any North Lake College computer without prior, written permission from both your instructor and the data processing department.

Along this same line, it is improper to use the computer resources of the college to copy another's paper or other assignments to be submitted as your own. Please use our equipment in an ethical manner. If you have any question as to the proper/ethical use of this equipment, please feel free to discuss it with your instructor prior to such use.

Finally, you will be using the Internet to connect your lab machine to the Unix computer(s) at North Lake College. Please restrict your Internet usage, during assigned lab and lecture time, to activities DIRECTLY related to your course. Do not use the Internet connection to play games, check your private (and non-class) E-mail or perform other non-class related activities.

If you have an off-campus Internet provider, you may use that provider to log into the North Lake College machines to work on your homework during non-class hours. It will be to your advantage to be able to access the Unix servers from home. If you are working from home, the same rules of proper usage apply. Do not download files across the Internet that are not directly related to your course work in Unix System Administration. You must also read and follow the DCCCD Computer Usage Policy.

3. Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: It is the policy of North Lake College to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals who are students with disabilities. This college will adhere to all Federal, State, and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the student’s responsibility to contact Special Services at (972) 273-3165, Room A438 in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations

ADDENDUM A:

ITSC 1402 Unix System Administration

Sample Journal
 
 

Listed below are excerpts from a sample system journal (diary). You will want to include other sections such as: Network information, Backup log, Security audit, devices, mounted filesystems, cron schedules, etc.

System Configuration:

Name: clyde

Address: 144.162.120.231

Hardware:

Sun Sparc Classic 4/50

32 Mb RAM

1 Gb SCSI disk
 
 
 
 

Memory Configuration Detail:

Slot 0 8 Mb

Slot 1 8 Mb

Slot 2 8 Mb

Slot 3 8 Mb

Disk partition information:

partition a - starting cyl 0, # blocks 66528 (66/0/0)

partition b - starting cyl 66, # blocks 133056 (132/0/0)

partition c - starting cyl 0, # blocks 2052288 (2036/0/0)

partition d - starting cyl 0, # blocks 0 (0/0/0)

partition e - starting cyl 0, # blocks 0 (0/0/0)

partition f - starting cyl 1136, # blocks 907200 (900/0/0)

partition g - starting cyl 198, # blocks 435456 (432/0/0)

partition h - starting cyl 630, # blocks 510048 (506/0/0)

Installed Software :

Solaris 1.1.1/SUNOS4.1.3_U1 Installed 6/4/98

Pine Installed 6/1/97
 
 
 
 

Operating System Patches:

100626-09 OpenWindows 3.0: Tooltalk patch Installed 6/1/98

102394-05 SunOS 4.1.4: NFS Patch Installed 6/1/98

102414-01 SunOS 4.1.4: mail jumbo patch Installed 6/1/98

102436-02 SunOS 4.1.4: Machine soft hangs and hangs on bootup (sun4m)

Installed 6/1/98

102516-06 SunOS 4.1.4: UFS File system Patch Installed 6/1/98

102517-05 SunOS 4.1.4: TCP Interface Patch Installed 6/1/98

102544-13 SunOS 4.1.4: Domestic (U.S. only) libc patch Installed 6/1/98
 
 
 
 

Activity Log:
 

6/2/99 7:15 PM	Meb	Added user ttg
6/3/99 12:25 PM	Meb	Added script to remove all core files weekly. Added to root’s cron for Friday nights at 11:59PM.
6/3/99 3:40 PM	Meb	Restarted lp system due to printer errors

 

Backup/Restore Log:
 

6/1/99 11:59 PM	Meb	Full System Backup – Tape 1
7/1/99 11:59 PM	Meb	Full System Backup – Tape 2
7/13/99 1:21PM	Meb	Restored /home/meb/.login

 
 
 
 
 

ADDENDUM B:

Listed below is a tentative schedule of the topics for lectures for the Unix System Administration course. Please note: the student is expected to read the material in the text, and in other references if available, before the class session in which the topic is discussed.

Week	Topic(s)	Readings
1	Intro/Overview/History of Linux Lab overview Users and Groups  Lab 1 Users and Groups	p. 1-11, 809-811 p.37-44, 76-92
2	Run Levels (System startup and shutdown) System identification commands Lab 2 Run Levels	p. 12-36
3	Filesystems/Devices Lab 3 Filesystems	p. 60 - 75, 93 - 153, 246-253
4	Processes/Scheduling Lab 4 Scheduling	p. 45-59, 157-163
5	Daemons Lab 5 Daemons	p. 821-835
6	Mail System Configuration Lab 6 Mail Configuration	p. 535-570
7	System Accounting/Logging  Lab 7 Syslog and Accounting	p. 204-223
8	Backup/Restore  Tar, cpio, and dd Remote commands rsh, rcp, rlogin Lab 8 Backup and Restore MID TERM	p. 164-186
9	Software packages System upgrades Lab 9 Software Packages
10	Kernel tuning Performance monitoring  Lab 10 Build Your Own Kernel	p. 224-246 p. 754-768
11	Solaris Installation Lab 11 Solaris Installation
12	System Security Lab 12 Security	p. 651-683
13	Network Filesystems Lab 13 NFS	p. 488-532
14	Linux Installation Lab 14 Linux Installation
15	Review and Catch Up
Finals Week	Final Exam In class

NOTE: The instructor reserves the right to modify this schedule depending upon occurrences during the semester, the particular needs of the class, or other unforeseen events which would necessitate schedule modification to best meet the educational needs of the class.