SYST28296 - Linux/Unix Systems Administration

SYST28296 - Linux/Unix Systems Administration

Assignment #1

Instructions

Upload this document with your answers to the appropriate dropbox before the due date indicated in Slate.

Work Description

Use the material presented in className as well as other sources to answer the following questions:

Part #1

1. Create a list of certifications available for system administration with name of the certification, the certifying authority and the area of specialization
2. Search job posting sites for a Systems Administrator position and list the roles and responsibilities, certifications required and determine a salary range.

Part #2

3. Define the term journaling in file systems and indicate the advantages over conventional file systems.
4. Explain with your own words the columns of the ps command : USER, PID, %CPU, %MEM, VSZ, RSS, TTY, STAT, STARTED, TIME, COMMAND
5. Name 3 applications (web server, database server, desktop applications, etc) that run on a typical Linux environment
6. Your company recently received 12 computer systems. The computers have Intel Pentium IV 2.5 GHz CPUs and 4GB hard drives. Your supervisor wants to install Linux on them, but is concerned that it can't be done because they already have Windows XP Professional installed. Can this be done, and why?
7. What are the names of the 2 major components of the Linux operating system and what are the roles they play?
8. Which Unix clone was created by Andrew Tanenbaum and what role played in the creation of Linux?
9. What did Linus Torvalds do with the source code for Linux?
10. What is and who initiated the GNU Project?
11. You are a computer programmer. Your supervisor wants you to download the source code for the latest Linux kernel and modify it to support a custom application your company is developing for use in-house. Can you do this, and why?
12. You have been tasked with setting up an e-mail server for your organization of 150 people. You're considering using a Linux system to do this. Is this possible, if it is how, what application would you use?
13. Which shell is the default shell for most Linux distributions?

Part #3

14. You've downloaded an executable file named updatedb.sh from your company's FTP server to /tmp on your Linux system. You open a shell and change the current working directory to /tmp. When you enter updatedb.sh, the shell indicates that it can't find the file. What can you do?
15. You need to find out what directories in the Linux file system are part of the list of directories that have executable programs (think of the path variable in Windows). Indicate 2 commands that would display this information.
16. Which directory contains file system management utilities such as cp or rm? What command did you run to find out?
17. Which directory does the ~ character represent when used with file system commands?
18. You need to generate a listing of files and directories within the /var directory, including files in subdirectories. Which command will do this?
19. You need to view the last few lines of your /var/xinetd.log file. Which is the best command to do this?
20. You need to delete the Temp directory within your user's home directory. Given that Temp has files in it, which is the best command to do this?
21. You need to copy the Documents directory within your user's home directory to the /tmp directory. Given that Documents has files and subdirectories within it, which is the correct command to do this?
22. You need to find a file named myfile.txt somewhere in your Linux file system. Which is the correct command to do this?

Rubric