Objectives and competences
The objective of this course is to acquaint students with the basic principles of computer system administration and security.
Content (Syllabus outline)
• Introduction: operating systems, applications, administrative activities.
• Installation, configuration and management of operating systems.
• Script programming: examples: bash, …
• Internet services: service management, service configuration.
• Management and configuration: networks management and configuration, management and configuration of switches and routers, management and configuration of mobile networks.
• Management of computer systems and databases.
• Computer security, common programming mistakes.
• Software: software tools for network traffic analysis, intrusion detection systems.
• Cryptography.
• Users: technical support.
• Fault tolerance: methods, case study.
Learning and teaching methods
• Lectures: in lectures, students get to know the theoretical contents of the course. Lectures are conducted as classical lectures in frontal form, interleaved with discussions on practical examples of system administration.
• Tutorials: in tutorial exercises, students are informed about lab work.
• Lab work: in laboratory exercises, students work on individual programming tasks.
Intended learning outcomes - knowledge and understanding
On completion of this course the student will be able to:
• illustrate the ability to install at least one operating system,
• demonstrate the ability to support various operating systems,
• distinguish between server and client services,
• demonstrate knowledge and understanding of various operating systems,analyse and recommend a particular operating system to satisfy given needs,
• identify, describe and analyse situations, which interfere with administrative activities.
Intended learning outcomes - transferable/key skills and other attributes
Communication skills: oral lab work defence, manner of expression at written examination.
Use of information technology: use of software tools and scripts to automate routine tasks in system administration.
Problem solving: designing, installing and managing of computer systems.
Readings
• M. Burgess: Principles of Network and System Administration, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, West Sussex, 2004.
• E. Nemeth, G. Snyder, T. R. Hein, B. Whaley, D. Mackin: UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, Addison-Wesley Professional, 5 edition, 2017.
• C. Benvenuti: Understanding Linux Network Internals, O’Reilly, Sebastopol, 2006.
• M. Bishop: Computer Security: Art and Science. Addison Wesley (2nd edition), 2017.
Additional information on implementation and assessment The exam may be replaced by midterm examinations in the weight of 50 %.
