This introductory system management course prepares students for the fundamental day-to-day tasks of managing a Tru64 UNIX V5 system. Students learn how to install the operating system and how to apply patches and system upgrades when necessary.

After examining post-installation configuration tasks, the course moves on to discuss managing storage, licenses, kernel configuration, network configuration and users accounts. Other system management responsibilities covered include print queues, process management, and resource use by processes. The course stresses the importance of a good backup strategy. The course concludes with an overview of system logging functions and basic troubleshooting.

Introduction to UNIX or equivalent experience.
Some Tru64 UNIX management experience is a plus, though not required.
MindIQ prerequisite courses include TP100 and HP150.

• Straightforward entry-level training for system managers, including those with experience of other versions of UNIX.
• Hands-on lab exercises reinforce concepts to promote understanding through doing.

• Upgrade the Alphaserver firmware
• Install, upgrade and apply patch kits to the Tru64 UNIX operating system software
• Network (TCP/IP) configuration, testing and basic tools to monitor traffic
• Perform disk and tape device system management tasks including adding new disks, disk replacement and disk partitioning
• File system management of UFS, AdvFS, CDFS, NFS and floppy usage
• Use the SYSMAN graphic utility and other command line configuration tools to control the runtime daemons, configure kernel parameters, manage software subsets and licenses
• Managing user accounts by creating, modifying, locking and deleting
• Basic user system security including superuser restrictions, network access, Division of Privileges (DoP) and an overview of Enhanced (C2) Security
• Set up and control print queues of local and network printers
• Control process execution including scheduled execution of programs using the cron facility and controlling CPU resources
• Performance monitoring of system resources – CPU, Memory and storage I/O
• Devise and implement a backup strategy using tar and vdump/vrestore to local tape devices, disk storage and remote systems
• Monitor system ascii and binary log files, the Event Manager (EVM) and troubleshoot general system problems

Preface/Introduction

Overview/Background Expected
Common command review
cat, echo, pwd, ls, more, file, *sh
Common shells in system administration review
Bourne, Korn, C Shell
CDE desktop review
GUI administration

System Essentials

Startup
Basic startup
/etc/init
runlevels
rc scripts
Shutdown
shutdown vs. reboot and halt
Administration Tools:
Sysman vs. Command line
Editors
GUI text editors
vi is still your friend
Navigation
GUI and text use of Sysman

User Management

Adding a new user
Password
Home Directory
Profile
Deleting a User
Deactivating an Account
Change password
Change shell
Archiving
To removable media
Make on-line read-only
Wait, then remove

Permissions for Users and Groups and Others

Authorization
File Protection and Ownership
Setting special file permissions
Setting default creation permissions
Guidelines
Tools and tips
Advanced permissions
ACL and ACL management

File Types

Regular files
Directories
Character special files
Block special files
The Tru64 /dev directory
Major/Minor device numbers
Creating device files
Symbolic links
Named pipes
Sockets

Filesystems

Disk Geometry: from blocks to partitions
Partitions and directories - mount
Higher-level abstraction: LVM
Advanced filesystem features
Demo lab – create filesystem

Filesystem Care and Feeding

Df
Du
Find
Files that grow
Filesystem integrity
Data and Meta-Data
Tripwire and Aide

Initial Setup

Computer Roles
Desktop
Server
Hardware
Central Unit
Power and Cooling
Keyboard/Mouse
Monitor
ASCII Terminal (headless)
KVM switch
Unconfiguring a system prior to movement
sys-unconfig
Software Install
CDROM/DVD

Automatic Jobs

Cron
Permissions
Authorization
At
Permission
Authorization

Backup and Restore

Media
Tape
Optical
CD-ROM
DVD
Magnetic Disk
Firewire
Hot-Plug
Logical – directory structure
tar
cpio
Physical – partition structure
Dd
Dump/restore
Consistent: Point in Time/Snapshot/Quiescent
Disaster recovery - bootable backups
Demo lab of recovery

Printing

Printer Types
Imaging: Ink Jet/Laser
Language: Postscript/PCL
Interface: Serial/Parallel/Network
Adding Printers
Managing Print Queues

Basic Networking

TCP/IP Network Basics
Ipv4 vs Ipv6
NAT
Hardware Connectivity
Coax
UTP
WiFi
Basic NIC configuration
DHCP vs. manual
NIC names
Address
Netmask
Default Route
Name Service
svc.conf
/etc/hosts
DNS
Firewalls and security
tcp wrappers

Additional administrative tasks

Basic Performance Tuning
Summary of common tools
vmstat, iostat, netstat, swapon, etc.
Baseline performance documentation
Kernel configuration
Loading kernel modules
Dynamic changes
Static (kernel rebuild) changes
Managing software licenses:
Vendor licenses
3rd party software licenses
X Windows – network login
Software Updates
Software subsets
Application Software
Helpful topics:
NTP
Ssh
rsync
Aeleen Frisch’s (author of Essential System Administration) top five:
Amanda
LDAP
GRUB
Nagios
Cfengine
Closed-source multi-platform tools
Openview
Tivoli

Other Sysadmin Tasks (see the Practice of System and Network Administration)

Handling User Requests
Trouble Ticket System
Change/Configuration Management
Test/Staging/Production
Monitoring/Paging

From Client to Server – Network Services

Workgroup
Printing
File Sharing
SMB Services
Enterprise
e-mail
web server
DNS
Streaming Media
Directory Services – LDAP

(Appendix) Other Helps:

Man Pages
Vendor-Specific Documentation
Web Resources
Usenix
SAGE
O’Reilly Associates Books
Users’ Groups