SYSTEM AD - LONG QUIZ

System Administration

Ensures systems run efficiently, Maintains hardware, software, and networks, Supports organizational IT operations

prevents downtime, protects data, maintain productivity

Why System Administration Matters?

System Management

Management of computer systems and infrastructure

User Control

Control of users and access permissions

Infrastructure

Maintenance of IT infrastructure and components

IT professionals, maintain servers and networks, ensure security and performance

Who are system administrators?

Install and configure systems, maintain system uptime, monitor system performance

Core responsibilities:

User Management

create accounts, assign permissions, manage authentication

Configuring hardware

Setting up routers, switches, and firewalls

Connectivity

Maintaining stability and network speed

Network Management

Setting up routers, switches, and firewalls, Monitoring network stability and speed

monitor threats, apply patches, implement policies

Security responsibilites:

Backup and Recovery

Schedule regular backups

Protect data integrity

Restore systems after a failure

Monitoring Systems

Track performance, detect problems early, maintain reliability

Identify, diagnose, restore

Three steps of troubleshooting

Automation and Scripting

Automate repetitive tasks

Reduce human errors

Increase efficiency

Update, Secure, Stabilize

3 steps of Patch Management

users, networks, servers, databases

4 IT Infrastructure Components

Monitor, detect, fix, update

System Administration Workflow

Small Companies

One sysadmin handling everything (Generalist).

Large Companies

Specialized teams (Network, Security, Cloud, etc.).

technical knowledge, security awareness, problem solving, communication skills

Skills of a system administrator

Windows Admin

Managing and optimizing Windows systems to ensure reliability and security across local and server environments.

Windows Admin

Powers 90% of enterprise servers

Control Panel

Legacy and basic configuration

Settings app

Daily user and modern admin tasks

Powershell

Automation and remote management

User and Group Management

identity types, best practices

Local accounts

accounts for single machines

Domain Accounts

accounts for Active Directory.

Best PRactices

Apply Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) and use group nesting for scalability.

Principle of least privilege

PoLP meaning

NTFS and Permissions

Secure File Access. uses Access Control Lists (ACL) to specify user actions on files and folders.

Standard

Read, write, modify

inheritance

flow from parents

audit

track access via policy

Service Management

Managing background processes and services

Service States

Manage Running, Stopped, Paused, and Disabled states via services.msc.

Powershell Control

Use and for automated management.

Attack Surface Reduction

Disable unnecessary services like Bluetooth or Fax on critical workstations

Task Manager

Real-time monitoring of CPU, Memory, and Disk usage. Use Event Viewer to investigate system crashes and security logons.

Active Directory

Centralized identity and policy management for enterprise networks.

GPO and Security

Enforce consistent security settings and Windows Defender policies.

Storage and Updates

Disk Management for volumes and WSUS for automated patching.

Unix Administration

System Stability and Security. foundational for managing enterprise infrastructure and server environments.

User IDs (UID)

Every user has a unique identifier for tracking and security.

Group Management

Manage permissions collectively for sets of users.

adduser , usermod , and passwd

Core Commands of UNIX Admin to control account access.

Storage Organization

Overseeing the hierarchical structure starting from the root directory ( / ).

monitoring, control, backgrounding

Process Management (3)

top or htop

Monitoring - Track running programs identified by Process IDs (PID) using:

kill , killall , and pkill .

Control - Terminate or signal processes using:

bg , fg , or nohup .

Run tasks in the background with

Background Daemons

Managing persistent services such as httpd ,

mysqld , and sshd .

Systemctl

Modern tool for controlling systemd services.

Service

Legacy command for managing init scripts.

Init Scrips

Found in /etc/init. d/ for boot configuration.

RWX Access

Read (r), Write (w), Execute (x) settings for Owner, Group, and Others.

Escalation

Execute commands with administrative privileges using sudo .

Ownership

Manage file ownership and group association with chown and chgrp .

tar + rsync

Archiving

cron

Automate scheduled backups

dump and restore

System-wide disaster recovery tools

Dependency Control

Package managers automate the installation and maintenance of software components.

Debian / Ubuntu

Uses apt- get and dpkg .

Redhat / CentOS

yum and rpm

Spring

Automate repetitive tasks using Bash, Perl, or Python

Performance

Track CPU, memory, disk, and network activity

Tuning

Adjust system parameters for minimal downtime and efficiency

Installation and Configuration

Installing the OS, partitioning drives, and setting up initial core software.

User Management

Creating accounts, modifying group access, and enforcing strict security policies

Security Implementation

Maintaining user credentials and managing privilege escalation protocols.

File System Management

Overseeing storage organization, maintenance, and data integrity.

Streamlining Tasks

Using Ansible, Puppet, or Chef to automate infrastructure management.

Incident Response

Diagnosing system failures and resolving critical errors to minimize downtime.

Security and Networking

Implementing firewalls, monitoring traffic, and applying security patches.

Documentation

Maintaining detailed configuration guides and system performance reports.