Study Guide/Readings

Study

1⃣ Systems & OS

• Windows Server fundamentals: AD, DNS, DHCP, GPO, File/Print

• Linux fundamentals: filesystem, permissions, users, systemctl

• OS concepts: services vs processes, logs, startup, troubleshooting flow

• Sources: Microsoft Docs, Linux Journey, TechNet, free YouTube tutorials

2⃣ Networking

• TCP/IP basics: IP, subnet, gateway

• DNS vs IP resolution

• DHCP basics

• Firewall concepts / ports / security groups

• Sources: Cisco NetAcad, Practical Networking

3⃣ Cloud Fundamentals

• AWS: EC2, IAM, VPC, S3, shared responsibility model

• Azure (optional): VMs, Entra ID / Azure AD, VNets, storage

• Concepts: regions, availability zones, instance types

• Sources: AWS Training (free tier), Microsoft Learn, Qwiklabs

4⃣ Security & Access

• Principle of least privilege

• Over-permissioning risks

• SSH keys / cloud IAM policies

• Basics of secure server configuration

5⃣ Automation & Scripting

• Bash / PowerShell syntax

• Variables, loops, conditionals

• Git basics & version control

• Terraform concepts: state, variables, providers

6⃣ Operations & Monitoring

• Logs vs metrics

• Alerting & monitoring basics

• Backup & restore concepts

• Incident response workflow

Windows Focused Study Guide (sys admin)

Core Windows & AD

• Windows Server roles vs features

• Active Directory fundamentals

• DNS for sysadmins

• NTFS vs Share permissions

• Group Policy basics

Networking (Sysadmin Level)

• IP addressing & subnet basics

• DNS & DHCP behavior

• VLAN concepts

• NAT vs routing

• Firewall basics

Virtualization

• What a hypervisor is

• VM resource allocation

• Snapshots vs backups

• Virtual networking

Backup & DR

• 3-2-1 backup rule

• RPO vs RTO

• File vs image backups

• Restore testing importance

PowerShell

• Cmdlets

• Pipelines

• Modules

• Running scripts safely

• Error handling basics

Security (Practical)

• Least privilege

• MFA for admins

• Patch management

• Service accounts

• Credential hygiene