System and Network

Administration
tutorial for
4th year R AND EX

June 23 , 2023

By Abebech J. 1
 Outline

How to manage A network and its devices

Create and manage users and groups

How to manage disks and files

Backup and restore system and user data

 Remotely administer A network

By Abebech J. 2
 Network Management and its devices

• Network management is the process of monitoring

and controlling a computer network to ensure all of
its resources
• both hardware and software—are in good shape and are
being used productively.
• Network administrator or network manager are the
people—who uses protocols, systems, devices, and
applications to
• ensure the network can keep up with business
demands and user expectations.
• Network management is a huge responsibility.
• Break down into five key areas
• fault management, configuration management,
administration, performance
By Abebech J.
management, and security
3
management.
 System and Network Administration
• Network and system administration is a branch of
engineering that concerns the operational management of
human–computer systems.
• the goal is about putting together a network of computers
(workstations, PCs and supercomputers), getting them
running and then keeping them running in spite of the
activities of users who tend to cause the systems to fail.
• A system administrator works for users, so that they can
use the system to produce work.
• However, a system administrator should not just cater for
one or two selfish needs, but also work for the benefit of a
whole community.

By Abebech J. 4
 System and Network Administration
• System administration is not just about installing
operating systems.
• It is about planning and designing an efficient
community of computers so that real users will be
able to get their jobs done.
• What kinds of issues does system administration
cover?
• User management
• Hardware management
• Software management
• Service management
• Planning and implementing adequate security.
By Abebech J. 5
• Providing a comfortable environment for users.
The scope of Network Administration
• The management of a network, usually called network
administration,
• consists of procedures and services that keep the network
running properly.
• An important part of network management entails making
sure that the network is available .
• Other admin activities are:
• Monitoring the network capacity to ensure that all
transmission requirements can be met.
• Adding capacity to the network by increasing band width
interconnecting additional modes, or creating and
interconnecting additional networks.
• Training people to use the network effectively
• Assisting IT professionals Byin organizational applications6
Abebech J.
that will make good use of the network’s capabilities.
The scope of Network Administration
• Backing up the network software and data
regularly to protect against the failure of network
or any of its components
• Putting security procedures in place to make
certain that only authorized users have access to
the network .
• Response time: network personnel can respond
quickly and effectively in the event of a network
operational or security failure.
• Diagnosing and troubleshooting problems on the
network and determining the best course of action
to take to solve them.
By Abebech J. 7
 The goal of Network administration
• The goal is
• Putting together network of computers
• to keep the network running properly
• and configuring and managing services that are
provided over the network.
• There are many services that we use
regularly.
• There are some which work in the
background enabling other services to run
smoothly.

By Abebech J. 8
 User management
• Without users, there would be few challenges in system
and network administration.
• Users are both the reason that computers exist and their
greatest threat.
• User management is about interfacing humans to
computers.
• This brings to light a number of issues:
• User account: registering new users and deleting old ones.
• Comfort and convenience.
• Support services: human issues
• Ethical issues.
• Security.
• User management is important because the system exists to
be used by human beings.
By Abebech J. 9
 User registration
• For small organizations, user registration is a relatively
simple matter.
• Users can be registered at a centralized location by the
system manager,
• and made available to all of the hosts in the network by
some sharing mechanism, such as a login server,
• distributed authentication service or by direct copying of
the data
• For larger organizations, with many departments, user
registration is much more complicated.
• The need for centralization is often in conflict with the
need for delegation of responsibility.

By Abebech J. 10
 User registration
• It is convenient for autonomous departments to be able to
register their own users,

• but it is also important for all users to be registered under

the umbrella of the organization,

• to ensure unique identities for the users and flexibility of

access to different parts of the organization.

• The solution is

• allows local system managers to be able to register new

users in a global user database.
By Abebech J. 11
 User registration

• PC server systems like NT and Netware have an

apparent advantage in this respect.

• Provide straightforward delegation of user

registration to anyone with domain credentials.

• Registration of single users under NT can be

performed remotely from a workstation,

• using the net user username password /ADD

/domain command. By Abebech J. 12
 User registration
• Many Unix like systems provide shell scripts or user
interfaces for installing new users,

• but most of these scripts are useless, because they follow a

model of system layout which is inadequate for a network
environment, or for an organization’s special needs.

• no acceptable, standardized user registration methods have

been widely adopted.

By Abebech J. 13
 Principles and Suggested solutions for user registration

• Distributed accounts: Users move around from host to host,

share data and collaborate.

• They need easy access to data and workstations all over an

organization.

• Standardizing usernames across all platforms simplifies both

the logistics of user management and opens the way for
cross-platform compatibility.

• Users normally expect to be able to use the same password

to log onto any host and have access to the same data,
By Abebech J. 14
• except for hosts with special purposes.
 Principles and Suggested solutions for user
registration

• Passwords: Give users a common username on all hosts, of

no more than eight characters.

• Give them a common password on all hosts, unless there is

a special reason not to do so.

• Some users never change their passwords unless forced to,

and some users never even log 118 in, so it is important to
assign good passwords initially.

• Never assign a simple password and assume that it will be

changed
By Abebech J. 15
 Local and Network Accounts

• Both Unix and NT support the creation of accounts locally

on a single host, or ‘globally’ within a network domain.

• With a local account, a user has permission to use only

the local host and configured on the local host itself. .

• With a network account, the user can use any host which
belongs to a network domain.

• In NT the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) is used to

add local accounts to a given workstation.
By Abebech J. 16
 Unix accounts
• Unix registers local users by added them to the files
/etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.
• To add a new user to a Unix-like host :
• Find a unique username, user-id (uid) number and
password for the new user.
• Update the system database of user accounts,
• e.g. add a line to the file /etc/passwd for Unix (or on the
centralized password server of a network) for the new user.
• Create a login directory (home directory) for the user.
• Choose a shell for the user (if appropriate).
• Copy some configuration files like .cshrc or .profile into the
new user’s directory,
• By Abebech J.
or update the system registry. 17
 Unix accounts
• Because every site is different, user registration
requires different tools and techniques in almost
every case.
• For example: where should users’ home directories
be located?
• GNU/Linux has an adduser script which assumes
that the user will be installed on the local
machine under /home/user.

By Abebech J. 18
 User Profiles
A user profile is a collection of a user’s personal files and settings
that define his or her working environment. (like Documents,
Desktop, Music, Pictures, & Favorites)

Types of User profiles:

Local profile
Roaming profile
Mandatory Profiles

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 Windows registry

The Windows registry is a central repository of information

about all aspects of the computer in particular, its hardware,
operating system, applications and users.
Regedit is the Windows registry editor, a graphical tool that
lets you view and monitor the Windows operating system’s
registry and edit if necessary.
Because the Windows registry controls important configuration settings
on your computer, you shouldn’t try to access or edit it without
knowing exactly what you’re doing.

The registry contains two basic elements: keys and values.

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 Backup and restore
• Everyone hates backups. They are inconvenient. They are costly.

• Services run slower—or not at all—when servers are being

backed up.

• On the other hand, customers love restores. Restores are why

SAs perform backups.

• Being able to restore lost data is a critical part of any

environment.

• When restore is needed?

• Data gets lost. Equipment fails. Humans delete it by mistake

and on purpose. By Abebech J. 21
 Backup and restore
• Shareholders require the peace of mind that comes with the
knowledge that a natural or other disaster will not make
their investment worthless.

• Data also gets corrupted by mistake, on purpose, or by

gamma rays from space.

• Backups are like insurance: You pay for it even though you
hope to never need it. In reality, you need it.

By Abebech J. 22
 Backup and restore
• The goal of backup
• is to be able to restore lost data in a timely manner,

• it is easy to get caught up in the daily operational work

of doing backups .

• The collective name typically used for all the equipment

and software related to this process is “backup system.”

• It should really be called backup and restore systems or,

data restoration system.
By Abebech J. 23
 Backup and restore
• The three types of back up
• Full backup :to mean a complete backup of all files
on a partition;
• UNIX users call this a level 0 backup.
A differential backup copies all the files that have changed
since the last full backup.
takes less time to back up, since not all the files are being
copied, but takes longer to restore since there are two
copies.
• Incremental backup: refers to copying all files that
have changed since the previous full backup.
• UNIX users call this a level 1 backup.
• Incremental backups grow over time
By Abebech J. 24
 Backup and restore

• The end result of backup is the desired restore

capability of the system.

• Restores are requested for various reasons, and

the reasons that apply to your environment affect
further decisions,

• such as creating a policy and a schedule.

By Abebech J. 25
 Restores are requested for three
reasons.

The reasons are as follows:

• Accidental file deletion. A customer has accidentally erased one or more files
and needs to have them restored.
• Disk failure. A hard drive has failed, and all data needs to be restored.
• Archival. For business reasons, a snapshot of the entire “world” needs to be
made on a regular basis for disaster-recovery or legal.
By Abebech J. 26
 Types of restores
• three types of restore requests typically serve three types of
customers.

• Individual file restores serve customers who accidentally deleted the

data, the direct users of the data.

• Archival backups serve the needs of the legal and financial

departments that require them, people who are usually far detached
from the data itself.

• Complete restores after a disk failure serve the SAs who committed
to providing a particular SLA.

• Backups for complete restores are part of the corporate

infrastructure. By Abebech J. 27
 Tricks for backup
• fundamental design goal of modern backup systems is centralization.

• Backups should be centralized because they are expensive and

important.

• Making the right investments can spread the cost of the backup and
restore system over many systems.

• Two major costs can be reduced through centralization.

• Tape changes are costly because they are labor intensive.

• The equipment itself is costly because it involves precision

mechanical parts spinning at high speeds.

• The tolerance for error is low.

By Abebech J. 28
 Tricks for backup
• Without centralization, a tape unit must be attached to
every machine that needs to be backed up, and someone
has to be paid to walk to every machine to change tapes.

• The result: paying for many expensive pieces of hardware

and a large amount of physical labour.

• Modern backup systems are centralized. Doing backups

over the network to a central, large backup device saves
labor. The cost of large jukeboxes is pay off over the
number of machines it serves.
By Abebech J. 29
 Tricks for backup

• Not automating backups is dangerous and unwise.

• It is dangerous because the more you automate, the more

you eliminate the chance of human error.

• Backups are boring, and if they aren’t automated, they will

not be reliably done.

• If they aren’t done properly, it will be very embarrassing to

have to face your company’s question:

• “But why weren’t there backups?”

By Abebech J. 30
 Tricks for backup

• Three aspects of the backup procedure can be

automated: the commands, the schedule, and tape
management and inventory.
• Individual commands were typed by hand every time
backups were done.
• Often, backups were started by the last shift before
leaving for the night.
• A modern backup system must be automated to
minimize human labour, human thought, human
decisions, and human mistakes.
• Manually takin backup is reasonable that they
By Abebech J. 31
consumed a significant amount of an SA’s time
 Disk and file management

• Disk management organizes disk blocks into files.

• Naming provides file names and directories to

users, instead of tracks and sector numbers .

• Protection keeps information secure from other

users

• Reliability protects information loss due to system

crashes
By Abebech J. 32
 FSMO Role
• Applies on

• Windows Server 2019, 2016, 2012 R2, 2012, Server 2008

R2

• File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) is

• a role service in Windows Server that enables you to
manage and classify data/files stored on file servers.

• FSRM used to automatically classify files, perform

tasks based on these classifications, set quotas on
folders, and create reports monitoring storage usage.
By Abebech J. 33
 FSMO Role

• FSRM includes the following features:

• Quota management: Limit the space that is allowed

for a volume or folder.

• These limits can be automatically applied to new

folders that are created on a volume.

• define quota templates that can be applied to new

volumes or folders.
By Abebech J. 34
 FSMO Role
• File Classification Infrastructure :
• Gain insight into your data by automating classification
processes so that you can manage your data more
effectively.
• You can classify files and apply policies based on
this classification.
• Example policies include dynamic access control
for restricting access to files, file encryption, and
file expiration.
• Files can be classified automatically by using file
classification rules or manually by modifying the
properties of a selected file or folder
By Abebech J. 35
 FSMO Role
• File Management Tasks:
• Gain the ability to apply a conditional policy or
action to files based on their classification.
• The conditions of a file management task include
• The file location,
• the classification properties,
• the date the file was created,
• the last modified date of the file, or the last
time the file was accessed.
• The actions that a file management task can take
include the ability
• to expire files, encrypt files, or run a custom
command By Abebech J. 36
 FSMO Role
• File screening management:
• Control the types of files that the user can
store on a file server.

• You can limit the extension that can be stored on

your shared files.

• For example, you can create a file screen that

doesn't allow files with an MP3 extension to be
stored in personal shared folders on a file server.
By Abebech J. 37
 FSMO Role

• Storage reports: Use these reports to help you identify

trends in disk usage and how your data is classified.
• monitor a selected group of users for attempts to save
unauthorized file.
• As SA;
• configure and manage the FSRM features by using
the FSRM app or by using Windows PowerShell.

By Abebech J. 38
 Practical applications for FSRM
• Use File Classification Infrastructure with the Dynamic Access
Control scenario.
• Create a policy that grants access to files and folders
based on the way files are classified.
• Create a file classification rule that tags any file that contains
at least 10 social security numbers as having customer
content.
• Expire any file that hasn't been modified in the last 10 years.
• Create a 200-MB quota for each user's home directory.
• Disallow any music files to be stored in personal shared
folders.
• Schedule a report that runs every Friday night at midnight
that generates a list of the most recently accessed files .
• help you determine the weekend storage activity
By Abebech J. 39
 Remote Access and Management
• Remote access service gives authorized individuals
a way to access the company network from home,
customer sites, or other locations around the
country, the continent, or the world.
• In the early days, technical people wanted so they
could do extra work from home out of normal
working hours.
• More recently, it has become a core service that
everyone in a company uses.
• Now telecommuters work outside the office,
connecting only for specific services.

By Abebech J. 40
 Remote Access and Management
• Remote access is achieved in many ways, but there are
two main categories.

• Some forms connect a computer directly into the

network: dial-up modems, ISDN, and so on.
• Others connect to the Internet—WiFi, cable modems,
DSL, Ethernet, and so on—and then from there
somehow tunnel or VPN into your network.

• Remote access is one of the areas in which technology

is continually changing. By Abebech J. 41
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By Abebech J. 42