1.1 System Administration Flashcards
What is the primary role of a system administrator?
To keep one or more systems in a useful and convenient state for users.
What are common tasks performed by a system administrator?
Installation, monitoring, troubleshooting, backups, performance tuning, and customer relations.
What is a typical morning routine for a system administrator?
Checking service desk requests, monitoring systems, and handling urgent issues.
What activities occur in the afternoon for a sysadmin?
Attending meetings, making vendor calls, mentoring, and completing service desk tasks.
What is a service desk?
A system where users and IT staff can create requests or report issues (also called a ‘trouble-ticketing system’).
Give examples of requests typically handled by a service desk.
Creating/disabling user accounts, setting up new projects, upgrading hardware/software.
What are the key philosophies of system administration?
Automate as much as possible, delegate simple tasks, document everything, communicate effectively, know your users and business, prioritize security, plan ahead but expect the unexpected.
What are the key elements of an IT system?
Users, hardware, software, networks, data, and processes.
What are the five stages in Evard’s life cycle of a machine?
New, Clean, Configured, Unknown, Off.
What are the three critical issues in maintaining workstation OS?
Initial system/software installation, updates, and network configuration.
What is the best approach for patching updates?
The ‘One, Some, Many’ approach: Patch one machine first, patch a few machines, patch a larger group after testing.
How does server hardware differ from workstation hardware?
Servers have extensibility, high CPU performance, high-performance I/O, upgrade options, high availability features, and better remote access.
What are alternatives to expensive servers?
Using multiple inexpensive servers, blade servers, and virtual servers.
What are key considerations when implementing a service?
Customer needs and requirements, operational and budget requirements, reliability and scalability, monitoring and performance.
What is an SLA (Service Level Agreement)?
A document that defines the services provided, support levels, problem severity categories, and response times.
What are key factors in managing a data center?
Room size, racks, networking, power, cooling, fire suppression, security, and access control.
What is the primary goal of building a network?
To provide a reliable, well-documented, easy-to-maintain network with scalability.
What are the two distribution facilities in structured cabling?
Intermediate Distribution Facility (IDF): Wiring closets connecting users to the network; Main Distribution Facility (MDF): Central location interconnecting IDFs.
What are key ethical principles for system administrators?
Professionalism, Personal Integrity, Privacy, Legal Compliance, Communication, System Integrity, Education, Responsibility to the Computing Community, Social Responsibility, Ethical Responsibility.
