System Administrator

This is a foundation course in the Linux operating. Booting a Linux machine is dissected, from BIOS firmware to authenticated user shell. Use of shell commands, editors, programming tools, and GUIs are emphasized. Students learn to write shell script programs and install applications using the open source software distribution model. Unix process creation is detailed and a 20-line tutorial shell is developed. Local administration tasks are covered, including user account management, backup, task scheduling, logging, and clock time synchronization. As time allows recompilation of the kernel from source code will be performed.

This course provides students with the knowledge necessary to understand and identify the tasks involved in supporting Microsoft Windows Networking Operating Systems. It covers topics such as installing and configuring Windows Servers to create File, Print, Web, and Terminal servers, and manage and support a network infrastructure that uses the Microsoft Windows Server products. The course also focuses on Windows Active Directory services, implementing Group Policy and performing the Group Policy related tasks that are required to centrally manage users and computers.

This course is the second in a three course series that aims to prepare students for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, students will learn the main components of an operating system via hands-on labs in Linux and Windows that practice critical administrative tasks to manage software, organize user accounts and configure hardware devices. Students will learn about the infrastructure services that keep all organizations, big and small, up and running. Students will be introduced to the typical cloud infrastructure that manages cloud resources and learn various tools and techniques that can help to recover an organization’s IT infrastructure in the event of a failure or disaster.

This course introduces major protocols and their roles in protocol suites with emphasis on TCP/IP. Detailed coverage is given to at least one protocol at each layer, the main application level protocols and at least one security protocol. Analytic programs such as ping, traceroute, and packet capture are studied and applied as tools to protocol analysis. The Wireshark packet capture and protocol decoder program is centrally utilized.

In this course students will study network service administration. This course covers physical BIOS and bootloader security, password strength and cracking, file system permissions, authentication mechanisms, remote backup and logging, and installation strategies as machine-level security considerations. A variety of particular service applications like Apache (web service) and BIND (name service) are then studied, emphasizing their strengths, weaknesses, and how to configure them for security through wrappers, file system access jails, and other mechanisms.

This course is the third course in a three course series that aims to prepare students for a role as an entry-level IT Support Specialist. In this course, students learn a wide variety of IT security concepts, tools, and best practices. Common threats and attacks are described along with methods for reducing potential vulnerabilities. Encryption algorithms are discussed along with how they can be used to safeguard data. Students also learn network security solutions, ranging from firewalls to Wi-Fi encryption options and how to integrate a culture of security into an organization.