Introductory Flashcards
1
Q
sysadministration:
A
configure servers, monitor networks, provision. Tech generalist. Keep an organization up and running. Diverse set of tech skills.
The field in IT responsible for maintaining reliable computer systems in a multi-user environment.
2
Q
sys admin manages what areas?
A
software, hardware, services necessary for operations. email, file storage. services, servers, software,
3
Q
server
A
software or a machine that provides services to other software or machines.
4
Q
forms of server hardware:
A
towers, rack servers, blade servers.
5
Q
file server wants:
A
storage for more files.
6
Q
how to connect to servers remotely:
A
ssh, KVM switch, hub.
7
Q
KVM switch
A
Keyboard, mouse, monitor to connect to multiple servers. (Keyboard, video, mouse) to control different computers connected to it.
8
Q
cloud:
A
virtual storage. server storage. networking service with data centers with hundreds of thousands of servers.
9
Q
where is the cloud?
A
datacenters.
10
Q
drawbacks of using the cloud:
A
costs can add up over time especially for long terms significant storage, you are dependent on the service provider for infrastructure and service availability, susceptible to downtime, security risks.
11
Q
who decides which policies to use?
A
sys admin, usually.
12
Q
should users be allowed to install software?
A
probly not. could get malicious software.
13
Q
how to advise users on complex passwords and their requirements?
A
enforce complex passwords with a mix of symbols, numbers, letters, over 8 char.
14
Q
should users be allowed to use personal websites like facebook?
A
personal call. Some companies do hate or like it, depending. I think that there are opportunities to promote the business from social media platforms that we can consider, and that there are times when it is definitely profitable for employees to do that, but when it comes to a reduction in productivity, it can also be necessary to restrict those activities if they are interrupting workflow.
15
Q
vital to set a device password on company phones. The employees should have the company data on their phones and devices protected, or else bad actors could take advantage of their decisions.
A
password protection against if devices are lost or stolen.
16
Q
Documentation
A
all established IT policies should be documented and easily accessible to employees, whether on the company intranet, shared drive, other platforms. Promotes understanding and adherence. Wiki, etc.
17
Q
services that need managed:
A
file storage, email, provide network access, ensure secure connections, initial setup, updates, security patches, compatibility checks with the computer systems.
18
Q
managing users and hardware:
A
make and remove users and accounts and machines.
standardized machines.
h
19
Q
hardware lifecycle:
A
when built? how used? what happens to this if someone needs a new one? new or used? who maintained? how many users have used it?
20
Q
procurement:
A
where hardware is bought
21
Q
deployment:
A
hardware is set up for employee
22
Q
maintenance:
A
software updated and fixed up if issues occur
23
Q
retirement:
A
hardware is unusable, no longer needed, removed.
24
Q
one way to manage provisioning:
A
stickers, tracking numbers.
25
what do you do to cut time when deploying?
automate.
26
batch update:
update all your servers once a month with all the fixes of that month instead of every time a new update comes out. security and critical at the same time. Make sure the services work.
27
what can get your company discounts when dealing with procuring equipment?
setting up business accounts with dell, hp, etc. Going and just purchasing off Amazon is typically not scalable.
28
what do you probably need to establish a relationship with a vendor?
formal approval from upper management.
29
what are often business that offer specialized services, products, and/or skilled labor to other businesses?
service vendors
30
why hire me as a full-service vendor?
temp contractor: disruptive, lengthy, expensive. Me: simple contract, single contract agreement, I assume responsibility for supplying and managing resources to carry out project.
31
vendor life-cycle management:
a structured way of finding and working with a website person or other service provider. three stages:
before contract
while contract is active,
after contract is finished
32
vendor: pre-contract:
what do you need? find vendors. submit proposals. review proposals. check references. choose best vendor.
33
contracted vendor:
make sure vendor is doing what supposed to, meeting deadlines, communicate with vendor on issues, watch out for problems.
34
post contract vendor:
make sure vendor completed all responsibilities, handle remaining payment, paperwork, keep records of project to refer back.
35
what are video conferencing machines?
idk.
36
service vendors:
businesses offering specialized services, products, skilled labor.
37
what is an end to end standardization for conducting business partnerships with vendors?
vendor life-cycle management.
38
vendor identification and engagement:
identify potential vendors, engage, collect info, inform vendors of service needs, solicit requests for proposals (rfp), invitations to bid (itb). Organization selects and considers a small number of promising proposals. Some organizations use official procurement officers to ensure fair and ethical vendor selections.
39
Vendor qualification and risk mitigation
The organization advances the shortlisted proposals to the qualification stage. In this stage, the organization and/or procurement officers request additional information from the vendor to help exclude vendors that might pose a risk to the organization.
40
Vendor evaluation and selection:
The organization and/or procurement officers evaluate the vendor information collected during the qualification phase. The organization’s vendor selection team analyzes the vendor information to determine each vendor’s health and stability as a business, as well as their ability to deliver on the organization's request. Some of the data points used in this evaluation and selection may include the vendor’s:
History: Does the vendor have a clean business record?
Ratings and quality: What are other customers saying about the vendor online and through services like the Better Business Bureau?
Expertise: Does the vendor have the experience, skills, talent, and/or expertise to deliver on needed services?
Cost: Will the vendor’s proposal fit into the organization’s budget?
Offer compliance: Does the vendor’s proposal fulfill all of the requirements of the organization’s request?
Responsiveness and customer service: How long does it take the vendor to respond to the organization’s requests? What is the vendor’s approach to offering timely customer service?
41
endor information management and onboarding:
The selected vendor goes through an onboarding process with the organization. Information about the vendor is recorded in the organization’s procurement system and provided to the appropriate stakeholders for the engagement. Information management is important to the vendor life-cycle management and maintaining strategic relationships with vendors. The organization's IT department may issue IT equipment to the vendor for establishing secure and monitored connections to the organization’s network. The organization might also offer vendors training sessions for the organization’s relevant policies, procedures, expectations, systems, network, tools, etc.
42
what does a project manager do?
monitor the performance criteria, milestones, due dates, deliverables defined in the SoW and contract.
43
risk management:
supply chain and product upgrade limitations and other risks. need contingency plans, ensure vendor does not create compliance problems with supply chains as this might impact org reputation. monitor risks to updating, maintaining, upgrading. is the vendor available and capable of upgrading?
44
org can support vendor relationships by:
develop healthy partnership, ensuring mutual benefit in all parties, develop a communication plan with check-ins.
45
post contract:
warranties, post contract support. procurement officer and project manager are assigned to vendor offboarding. analyse if obligations are met. revisit warranty, obligations. record warranty information. make stakeholders aware of inclusions, exclusions, expiration dates of warranties. keep records of services, tech support, contact. should have defined maintenance plans.
46
use the org offboarding checklist to complete the post-contract closing.
vendor return IT equipment, remove the vendor identity profiles on the organization's network. ensure intellectual property is stored properly.
47
who plans life cycle schedules for supporting products?
commercial vendors of computer operating systems.
48
what is the EOL?
end of life date, when the vendor plans to end all support for the product and it is reclassified as a legacy product.
49
what should you do before the EOL?
update, upgrade, replace.
50
why should you upgrade?
after the EOL, the vendor won't give support, which can be dangerous for security systems.
51
what must you do if a warranty expires before an EOL date?
replace asap. purchase, implement, training.
52
beta testing phase:
first introductory phase of product. collect product feedback from early adoption tech users. Used to improve the product before it is available to the general public.
53
product release and primary support phase:
beta test ends. vendor has updated and repaired reported defects. product is available, marketed to public. can still have issues, but vendors respond by developing and releasing regular updates and patches. critical to update during this.
54
extended support phase:
vendors introduce next gen products. vendor supports the older product, critical patches. product phased out of primary commercial market. resellers may continue to sell it as a used or unused surplus product. buyers should review warranty and support details.
55
EOL:
tech support, warranties exp. no more product updates, security patches, drivers, firmware. vulnerable to attacks.
56
how do you track troubleshooting?
ticket system and alerts
57
how to recover from data loss
make sure your company's data is backed up somewhere routinely so it can be restored. Ideally, another building.
58
what to consider as an admin? great power, great responsibility.
avoid using administrator rights for tasks that don't require them.
59
respect privacy of others:
dont' use admin rights to access personal data. Don't look at users' personal files. Don't read emails. follow processes and policies to access information.
60
how can you train yourself to think before you type?
write out what you plan to do in steps before you act. allows planning ahead and serves as documentation of what you did.
61
how can you protect a system from your mistakes beofre you start?
make a copy of the state of things, document steps you need to take to go back. Make a note of what a rollback would look like.
62
rollback
reverting to the previous state
63
it change management
process for planning, communicating, and implementing technical changes to information systems.
64
change management plans should include:
person/team responsible for change
change priority: urgency of change.
change description, planned changes. models, purpose, old versions.
purpose of the change: why? Os, software, drivers, firmware, patches, updates. need.
scope of change: extend. list all IT systems, locations, departments, individuals, vendors, partners, customers, etc affeted. changes to policies, processes, procedures.
date, time, duration of change. rollout. if willl cause outages. inform all staff affected. outsie normal business hourse is best.
change rollback, backout plan in case of failure.
technical evaluation: does it work? record testing on proposed changes. testing sandbox for cloud. metrics for evaluating successful change or not. record results of testing on changes in lab or sandbox.
Affected systems. All IT resources.
anticipated impact of change on systems. new servers, increased load capacity, speed.
resources needed to implement change: hr, budget, time, management oversight, subject matter expert (sme) consult, training, equipment, hardware, software, parts, systems, tools, insurance policies, other
training for impacted users.
risk level for change: how much risk. implement redundant failover system for that critical system before change.
change instructions: detailed steps for the change. instruction manual. no guesswork in changes.
65
change management? why?
to make sure that upgrades will be soundly considered.
66
change board approval:
cab. oversee all implemented IT changes. official body to approve or deny. may advise on adjustments to plan to meet business goals or comply with regulatory compliance criteria. mitigate risk.
67
user acceptance:
best practice for process. beta testing, days of testing, no surprises, test success, user acceptance criteria developed by the change management team. common activities all users should be able to do. Reserve time for fixing issues found by beta testers. when changes are good to go and testing is accepted, change approved, all taken care of, changes should become available to all appropriate end users.
68
common practice to log changes with ticketing systems or bug queus:
include commands executed, output obtained. especially if commands are few and straightforward.
69
when to use the script command in troubleshooting and change management:
if the commands I need are not yet known because I need to investigate. Start-Transcript for Windows, script linux.
70
in script, how would you put it?
script session.log
71
what does script session.log do?
writes contents of session to the session.log file. if you want to stop recording, write exit or press Ctrl-D.
file will be in ANSI format, includes screen colors.
72
how to read the session.log files in ansi format?
ansi2txt or ansi2html
convert to plain text or html, respectively.
73
Start-Transcript
In the case of Start-Transcript, you can call it like this:
Start-Transcript -Path C:\Transcript.txt
This will write the contents of the session to C:\Transcript.txt. When you want to stop recording you need to call Stop-Transcript. The file created is a plain text file where the commands executed and their outputs are stored.
74
sys admin through gui?
not recommended usually. can document what you are doing with obs, vlc, or recordMyDesktop.
75
production
the parts of the infrastructure where a certain service is executed and served to its users.
76
test environment
a virtual machine running the same configuration as the production environment, but isn't actually serving any users of the service. you can fix a problem without a user seeing it.
77
secondary or stand-by machine
a machine that is exactly the same as a production machine, but won't receive any traffic from actual users until you enable it to do so.
78
what to do once you tested changes:
apply the changes to the secondary machine,
once those are applied, make the stand-by machine the primary machine, and then apply the changes to the other machine.Deply the changes across the fleet after you have verified it works on a smaller subset of machines.
79
What are canaries? good for?
. a small group of servers to detect potential issues in the larger changes you want to push out in the system.
bigger services, when you have lots of servers providing the service.
80
always have infrastructure, like canaries.
test infrastructure.
81
I should make changes directly in production if it is just a small change
false
82
what do we look at to determine the risk?
how many users would be impacted if it was down, how important service is to infrastructure.
the more users your service reaches, the more you'll want to ensure that changes aren't disruptive.
The more important your service is to your company's operations, the more you'll work to keep the service up.
83
what do you do before you start fixing a problem?
make sure the error can be recreated.
84
reproduction case
creating a roadmap to retrace the steps that led the user to an unexpected outcome
85
three question for reproduction case:
1. what steps did you take to get to this point?
2. what's the unexpected result?
3. what's the expected result?
86
where to do reproductive case:
test instance, never production.
87
what to do after applying fix and documenting?
retrace same steps that took you to bad experience. expected experience should now take place.
88
The concept and technological approach of accessing data, using applications, storing files, etc. from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection
Cloud computing
89
A facility that stores hundreds, if not thousands of servers
Data center:
90
Hardware is set up so that the employee can do their job
Deployment
91
The software, the hardware, network, and services required for an organization to operate in an enterprise IT environment
IT Infrastructure:
92
Keyboard, video, & mouse switch that looks like a hub that you can connect multiple computers to and control using one keyboard, mouse, and monitor
KVM Switch
93
Where software is updated and hardware issues are fixed if, and when, they occur
Maintenance:
94
Hardware is purchased or reused for an employee
Procurement
95
The parts of the infrastructure where certain services are executed and serve to its users production
Production:
96
Recreating an error to test a solution to make sure the problem is gone after a fix has been applied
Reproduction case:
97
Hardware becomes unusable or no longer needed, and it needs to be properly removed from the fleet
Retirement
98
Reverting to the previous state before you made changes
Rollback:
99
A machine that is the same as a production machine, but won't receive any traffic from actual users until enabled
Secondary or stand-by machine:
100
Software or a machine that provides services to other software or machines
Server:
101
The field in IT that is responsible for maintaining reliable computer systems, in a Multi-user environment
System Administration:
102
A virtual machine running the same configuration as a production environment, but isn't actually serving any users of the service
Test environment
103
whose job to form organizational computer and network policies?
sysadmin, chief security officer
104
potential responsibilities of a sysadmin
tech support, database admin, network admin
105
device most commonly used to connect to and control multiple computers with keyboard, mouse, monitor (single)
kvm switch
106
server types a sysadmin might manage:
ssh, email
107
if the cloud storage service a business uses goes down, is the sys admin responsible for the issue?
yes
108
tasks a sysadmin needs to keep in mind:
routine updates, maintain compatibility, security patches
109
broken computers are in what stage of the hardware lifecycle when eco-recycled.
retirement
110
what stage of hardware lifecycle is a machine returned to vendor for recycling?
retirement
111
what stage of hardware lifecycle includes setting up a user account and software?
deployment
112
what steps should one take when offboarding an employee who is leaving?
remove access, wipe machine for future use.
113
what type of server most resembles a desktop computer in appearance?
tower.
114
what do you call a machine that uses services provided by a server?
client
115
facility that stores hundreds to thousands of servers?
data center
116
regular time is set aside to update company servers at once
batch update
117
machine having issues, so is repaired. What stage of hardware lifecycle?
maintenance
118
what are some it infrastructure services that are essential for keeping a company running?
server maintenance, network administration,
119
if you set up a small company, is it different from a big company?
120
what are some advantages of using cloud services?
you can save money on infrastructure if you need a specific amount of space or services. cost savings, scalability, reduced management overhead.
121
what services are accessed over internet?
cloud services
122
what is the most important service to run first?
network connection
123
main differences between IaaS, PaaS, SaaS?
124
SaaS
software as a service. software hosted and managed by a provider, accessible by internet. use, but don't have to install or manage it.
125
what is IaaS?
infrastructure as a service. You rent virtualized computing resources. servers, storage, networks from a cloud provider. foundation.
125
PaaS:
platform as a service. platform and tools to develop and deploy applications. don't have to worry about managing underlying infra
126
