CHAPTER 5

Systems and Network

Administration

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Systems and Network Administration

• It is a branch of engineering that concerns the

operational management of human-computer
systems
• It addresses both the technology of computer systems
and the users of the technology
• It is about putting together a network of computers,
getting and keeping them running in spite of the
activities of users who tend to cause the systems to
fail

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System and Network Administration
• System and network administration involves the
design, installation, configuration, troubleshooting,
and maintenance of computing infrastructures
• System and network administration is an extremely
demanding engineer’s job
• It is about hardware, software, user support,
diagnosis, repair and prevention

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• Network and systems administrators are responsible for
the day-to-day operation of these networks.
• They organize, install, and support an organization's
computer systems, including local area networks (LANs),
wide area networks (WANs), network segments,
intranets, and other data communication systems
• System and network administrators need to be good at
technical, administrative and socio-psychological skills.

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System Administration
• System administration entails
• knowledge of operating system and applications
• hardware and software troubleshooting
• knowledge of the purposes for which people in the
organization use the computers.
• Problem solving is the most important skill of System
administration.
• A person specialized in maintaining and operating a
computer system is called system administrator
(Sysadmin)

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Tasks of System and Network Administrator
A system and network administrator's responsibilities
might include:
• Applying operating system updates, patches, and
configuration changes.
• Installing and configuring new hardware and
software.
• Adding, removing, or updating user account
information, resetting passwords, etc.
• Supporting and maintain servers
• System performance tuning
• Train users on software and security.
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Tasks of System and Network Administrator

• Responsibility for documenting the configuration

of the system.
• Responsibility for security.
• Performing backups.
• Analyzing system logs and identifying potential
issues with computer systems.
• Troubleshooting any reported problems.

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Tasks of System and Network Administrator

• Introducing and integrating new technologies into

existing data center environments.
• Answering technical queries.
• Insuring that the network infrastructure is up and
running
• Hardware configurations
• Software configurations

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Network configuration tools

Based on command line Interface (CLI)

• ipconfig – network configuration to display Interface
Settings
• Ipconfig or ipconfig /all
• Ping –requests echo reply from a computer/Destination
reachability
• Ping hostname or IP address
• Sends an ICMP echo request and responds an ICMP echo reply
• traceroute – show path taken by IP packets through a
network
• Router hops to destination
• Traceroute [-n] hostname or IP
• Tcpdump-show network traffic on the wire/Packet sniffing
• Tcpdump [-e] [-n] –i fa0/0
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Network configuration tools
• Netstat-show routing entries and listening/active sockets
• Network performance status
• Netstat [-n] -a
• Arp-show/modify IP→MAC address lookup table
• arp -a
• Ndp-Show debug
• Route- is used to show/modify the routing table
-Set/Display gateway
• route [-n] get default
• Mtr-combines ping and traceroute
• Mtr [hostname or IP]
• nslookup – DNS lookups/DNS Queries
• netsh – Change Interface Settings

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Types of Administrations
• In a larger company, the following types of administrations may
all be in separate positions within Information Services
department.
• In a smaller group, they may be shared by a few sysadmins, or
even a single person.

• Network Administration
• User administration
• Mail administration
• Web administration
• FTP administration
• Database systems administration
• Remote access administration
• Backup administration
• DNS/DHCP administration
• Proxy server administration
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Network Administration

• A network administrator maintains network

infrastructure such as switches and routers, and
diagnose the problems with these or with the
behavior of network-attached computers.
• A person who is involved in computer network
and that carry out network administration is
called network administrator or network
specialist or network analyst.

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Network Administration

• Network administration normally includes the

deployment, configuration, maintenance and
monitoring of active network gears:
• Switches
• Routers
• Firewalls
• Other network infrastructures…

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Network Administration
Network administration includes activities such as
• Network address assignment
• Assignment of routing protocols and routing table
configuration
• Configuration of authentication and authorization
• Maintenance of personal computers, printers, etc.
• Maintenance of network servers such as file server, VPN
gateways, intrusion detection system, etc
• Network design and security
• Troubleshooting and debugging network related
problems.
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Directory Service (User Administration)
• Directory Service - is a software application that
stores and organizes information about a computer
network's users and network resources, and that
allows network administrators to manage users'
access to the resources.
• LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is
the directory service for Unix.
• Active Directory (AD) is the directory service for
Windows Server. It stores information about
objects on the network and makes this
information easy for administrators and users to
find and use.
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Directory Service (User Administration)
• With a single network logon, administrators can manage
directory data and organization throughout their
network, and authorized network users can access
resources anywhere on the network.
• Server-client architecture

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Directory Service (User Administration)
User Account management
• Accounting and restrictions
• User IDs
• Home directories (Quotas, Drive capacities)
• Mail
• Permission, group membership
• Disabling/ removing user accounts

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Mail Administration
• Install/configure/manage e-mail software
• mail transfer agents.
• mail readers.
• Managing E-mail servers
• Email servers are open by design to accept email
from anyone
• Spam can be a problem to manage
• Specific utilities can be used to help minimize spam
• Viruses are commonly sent by email
• Use virus detection software and keep it updated
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Web Administrators
• Systems administrators may specialize in maintaining
websites, which requires constant observation and
maintenance.
• These administrators monitor the speed of the
website and approve all content before it is
published.
• As part of their mission to constantly improve the
website, web administrators analyze data regarding
the site’s traffic patterns and may implement
changes based on user feedback

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Web Administration

• A web administrator maintains web server

services that allow for internal or external
access to web sites.
• Web server administrators focus on the
internet
• Need to work with ISPs and web page
developers
• Web server provides information to anyone
who requests it over the internet
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Web Administration

Tasks include
• managing multiple sites
• administering security
• Control access to webpages
• configuring necessary components and
software.
• Responsibilities include software change
management.
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Web
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) works with the World
Wide Web
• A Web browser is a client-server application
• A Web browser presents data in multimedia formats on
Web pages that use text, graphics, sound, and video. The
Web pages are created with a format language called
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• HTML specifies locations for the placement of text, files,
and objects that are to be transferred from the Web server
to the Web browser.

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Web
• Hyperlinks make the World Wide Web easy to navigate
• A hyperlink is an object, word, phrase, or picture, on a Web
page
• When that hyperlink is clicked, it directs the browser to a
new Web page
• The Web page contains, often hidden within its HTML
description, an address location known as a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL)

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Web
• In the URL http://www.cisco.com/edu/, the
"http://" tells the browser which protocol to use.
The second part, "www", is the hostname or name
of a specific machine with a specific IP address. The
last part, /edu identifies the specific folder location
on the server that contains the default web page.

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FTP Administration
• FTP is a commonly used protocol for exchanging
files over any network that supports the TCP/IP
protocol (such as the Internet or an intranet).
• There are two computers involved in an FTP
transfer: a server and a client.
• client can do a number of file manipulation
operations (if he has the authority) such as
uploading files to the server, download files from
the server, rename or delete files on the server
and so on.
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FTP Administration
• Usually users are asked to enter a username and
password to access an FTP site.
• Many sites that run FTP servers enable so called
"anonymous ftp". Under this arrangement, users
do not need an account on the server.
• As a system and network administrator you are
required to Install Internet Information Services
(IIS) and Configure it for accessibility
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Database Administration

• Maintaining a database system and insuring the

integrity of the data and the efficiency and
performance of the system is called database
administration
• A person who is responsible for the environmental
aspect of a database is called a database
administrator(DBA)
• The duties of DBA vary and depend on the job
description, corporate and IT policies and the
technical features and capability of the DBMS
being administered.
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Database Administration
The roles of DBA include
• disaster recovery (backup)
• performance analysis and tuning
• installation of database software
• configuration of hardware and software
with the system administrator
• security the database
• data analysis, database design and data
modeling and optimization
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Security Administration
• Security administration needs a person who is
specialist (security administrator) in computer and
network security including the administration of
security devices such as firewall as well as consulting
on general security measures.
• Ensures that the organization's systems are secure
and very difficult to hack.
• protecting security breaches.
• Becoming a very big deal!

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Security Administration
• May keep watch over employees for inappropriate
network usage.
• Dealing with viruses that threaten core equipment.
• In-depth firewall knowledge is required, as well as a solid
understanding of system hacking.
• In case a security breach could not be averted, it is the
security administrator’s responsibility to close the
systems, determine damages, trace the culprit and ensure
that it doesn’t happen again.

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DNS/DHCP Administration
DHCP (Port 67/68):
• DHCP stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
• It is an Internet protocol for automating the configuration
of computers that use TCP/IP
• DHCP can be used to automatically assign IP addresses, to
deliver TCP/IP stack configuration parameters such as the
subnet mask and default router, and to provide other
configuration information such as the addresses for printer,
time and news servers.

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DHCP
• Under DHCP, a computer is designated as the
DHCP server. All of the other computers on the
network that need an IP address - will be DHCP
clients (computers that already have a
permanently set IP address don't need to
participate)
• The network administrator needs to initially
configure the DHCP server
• Part of that configuration process involves
assigning the DHCP server a block of IP address
numbers that it can dispense to nodes that need
IP addresses.
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DHCP
• When a new node comes onto the network
assuming it is capable of being a DHCP client, it
will broadcast a request for an IP address.
• The DHCP server will respond by checking its
table of address assignments, selecting the next
available address, and sending a response back
to the requesting node.
• The requesting node sends acknowledgement to
the server hose offer is accepted.

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DHCP Client DHCP Server

DHCP Discover

DHCP Offer

DHCP Request
DHCP
Acknowledgement

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DNS
DNS (port 53):
• DNS stands for Domain Name System
• It helps users to find their way around the Internet
• Every computer on the Internet has a unique address –
"IP address". But it is hard to remember everyone's IP
address
• The DNS makes it easier by allowing a familiar string of
letters (the "domain name") to be used instead of the
arcane IP address
• So instead of typing 192.0.34.65, you can type
www.icann.org. It is a "mnemonic" device that makes
addresses easier to remember
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DNS
• Translating the name into the IP address is called
"resolving the domain name.“
• The goal of the DNS is for any Internet user any
place in the world to reach a specific website IP
address by entering its domain name
• These logical names are connected to their IP
address.
• The logical name that is associated to an IP
address is also referred to as the domain name.
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DNS
• When a client computer wishes to communicate with the
host computer, it must translate its logical name into its IP
address
• It does this via a domain name lookup query, which asks a
domain name server (DNS) the IP address of the
destination host given the domain name.
• The domain name server has a set of static tables that it
uses to find the IP address associated with a domain
name.

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Remote Access Administration
• Remote administration refers to any method of
controlling a computer from a remote location.
• Software that allows remote administration is becoming
increasingly common and is often used when it is
difficult or impractical to be physically near a system in
order to use it.
• A remote location may refer to a computer in the next
room or one on the other side of the world. It may also
refer to both legal and illegal (i.e. hacking) remote
administration.

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Remote Access Administration
• Any computer with an Internet connection, TCP/IP or on
a Local Area Network can be remotely administered.
• For non-malicious administration, the user must install or
enable server software on the host system in order to be
viewed. Then the user/client can access the host system
from another computer using the installed software.
• Usually, both systems should be connected to the
internet, and the IP address of the host/server system
must be known.

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Proxy Server Administration
• A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary
between a workstation user and the Internet so that the
enterprise can ensure security, administrative control,
and caching service.
• By using the proxy server you can hide, conceal and
make your network id anonymous by hiding your IP
address.
• A server that sits between a client application, such as a
Web browser, and a real server

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Proxy Server Administration
• A Proxy server administration is to configure a proxy
server on Windows, and Windows applications so that
the network traffic will pass through the proxy server.

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Backup Administration
• In information technology, a backup, or the
process of backing up, refers to the copying into
an archive file of computer data so it may be used
to restore the original after a data loss even
• The primary purpose is to recover data after its
loss, be it by data deletion or corruption.

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Backup Administration
• The Backup Administrator is responsible for installing,
configuring and managing data on disk storage devices
and magnetic tape and associated libraries.
• They are also responsible for ensuring that the data is
accessible and recoverable, ensuring that there is
available capacity for allocation of new data and
archiving or removing obsolete data from the system,
performance using appropriate reporting & monitoring
tools.

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Challenges of System/Network Administration

• Systems or Network Administration is more

than just installing computers or networks.
• It is about planning and designing an efficient
community of computers that allow users to get
their jobs done.

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Challenges of Administration
• Design Logical, Efficient networks
• Easily deploy & update many machines
• Decide what services are needed
• know the business tasks & customers
• Plan and implement adequate security
• Provide comfortable User environment
• Be able to fix errors and problems
• Keep track of & be able to use knowledge
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Ethics for system and network administrators
• The task of systems and network administration
is a balancing act. It requires patience,
understanding, knowledge and experience.
• Codes of ethics for systems and network admin
• Professionalism- Treat people professionally
• Personal integrity- be honest, unbiased
• Privacy- protect the confidentiality of any
information
• Laws and policies

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Ethics for system and network administrators

• Communication
• System integrity- available the system
• Education
• Responsibility to computing community
• Social responsibility
• Ethical responsibility

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Ethics for system and network administrators
• A Sysadmin is a customer service agent!
• The Sysadmin must be able to communicate with
technical and non-technical users.
• The Sysadmin should be patient, and have a sense
of humor.
• The Sysadmin must be able to solve difficult
technical problems.
• The Sysadmin must be able to work in a group
setting.
• The Sysadmin must document activities in order to
reproduce the results.
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Network Certifications
levels of Cisco network certification:
• Entry
• Associate
• Professional
• Expert
• Architect

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Entry
• Both the CCENT and the CCT certifications
serve as starting points for individuals
interested in starting a career as a
networking professional.
• CCENT- Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician
• CCT- Cisco Certified Technician

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Associate
• The Associate level of Cisco Certifications can begin directly
with CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) for network
installation, operations and troubleshooting or CCDA (Cisco
Certified Design Associate) for network design. Think of the
Associate Level as the foundation level of networking
certification.
• CCDA
• CCNA Cloud
• CCNA Collaboration
• CCNA Cyber Ops
• CCNA Data Center
• CCNA Industrial
• CCNA Routing and Switching
• CCNA Security
• CCNA Service Provider
• CCNA Wireless
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Professional
The Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) level is an
advanced level of certification that shows more expertise with
networking skills. Each certification covers a different
technology to meet the needs of varying job roles.
• CCDP- Cisco Certified Design Professional
• CCNP Cloud
• CCNP Collaboration
• CCNP Data Center
• CCNP Routing and Switching
• CCNP Security
• CCNP Service Provider
• CCNP Wireless 52
Expert
The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certification
is accepted worldwide as the most prestigious networking
certification in the industry.
• CCDE- Cisco Certified Design Expert
• CCIE Collaboration
• CCIE Data Center
• CCIE Routing and Switching
• CCIE Security
• CCIE Service Provider
• CCIE Wireless
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Architect
Cisco Certified Architect is the highest level of
accreditation achievable and recognizes the architectural
expertise of network designers who can support the
increasingly complex networks of global organizations and
effectively translate business strategies into evolutionary
technical strategies.
• CCAr

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