Assessment 1 - Knowledge Assessment (Written Tasks)

Assessment 1 - Knowledge Assessment (Written Tasks)

Samantha was hired as a server administrator at XYZ international. While going over her first jobs list of requirements she sees that she will need to choose a network operating system (NOS) to be installed on the server.

a) What is a NOS and how would she choose one?

b) How is a network operating system different from a regular operating system?

c) Her client at XYZ gave her a list of server software that needs to be installed in order to setup the web server. What is the difference between server software/applications and desktop applications?

d) What are some compatibility issues she may face while installing the software and how can she overcome them?

Edward recently completed work on a print server for ABC International.

a) What information does he need to create the server documentation and why?

b) How can he determine if the documentation is satisfactory?

c) While he was about to complete the documentation, the systems administrator asks him what method hes used for error logging and whether he mirrored the log to ABCs log server. Why is error logging important and what does it mean to mirror it?

d) Troy, a network security engineer at ABC is sent to inspect his work before completion. During the inspection Troy notices that the server is using a single HDD. He asks Edward to implement a RAID configuration in order to secure data. What are RAID configurations and how do they help?

1.3 Based on the client requirements Thomas finds that he needs to setup the network directory service. Since this is his first job requesting the task, hes having a hard time remembering what it was.

a) How would you explain what a directory server is to him?

b) what steps would he need to do to configure his server to use it?

c) What would you do to create directory structure and quotas to meet client requirements?

d) What does he need to know in order to complete network service configuration?

e) While setting up user accounts he decided to go over the policy to ensure good security for the enterprise. What are some things that may be included in the policy?

1.4 After completing the server installation Becky needs to determine a proper way to create backups. One of her colleagues, Janice, recommended creating backups once every weekend but she decided it would be safer to create them at the end of every day.

a) Janice is worried the daily backups would take too much space. Is this true?

b) Is there anything Becky can do to limit that?

c) Although the backups will be created to protect the server in the case of an emergency, such as hardware failures, is there a way Becky can monitor the server health so she will know before it happens?

d) When and how data migration need to be done?

1.5 Jeffrey came across some issues while testing the server setup. The operating system (OS) began to crash due to unknown reasons. Looking through the server logs he found out when the error happened but is unable to understand it, he did find the error code though.

a) What methods are available to Jeffrey for software support, meaning to resolve the issue, with proprietary software?

b) What about open source?

c) Software support is related to server management, what else falls under server management and what do they mean?

1.6

a) Briefly explain what Alex needs to do in order to maintain a server to keep quality of service consistent.

b) What are the basic things he will need to monitor to measure the current health of the system in order to do so?

c) One of his colleagues is required to install a different server in the system. They approached Alex and asked if it mattered what method they chose to install the operating system, either from a CD or DVD, USB boot disk, using network boot, or a script. How would Alex explain this?

1.7 One of Edwards requirements for his server installation includes adding network printers.

a) What methods are available to him for this purpose, and how can he manage the printers including print tasks.

b) Suppose that the client requested that some tasks need to be able to run no matter what which includes stopping anything with a lower priority. How can he handle this process management and termination?

c) What is a task scheduler and what is it used for?

1.8

a) What are some troubleshooting tools and techniques Jack can use to resolve issues with his server installation?

b) One of the requirements was to set up network diagnostic tools but hes unsure of what he needs to do, what are some network diagnostic tools and what are they used for?

c) After hes done resolving these issues, he is required to create the user accounts and set up their passwords before launch. What methods are available for creating them?

Assessment 2 - Performance Assessment (Skills)

Requirements

Read the case study carefully then answer the questions following. You may assume any information that has not been mentioned in the case study, however any assumptions you make must be clearly identified as assumptions.

Case Study:

Youve been hired by Raynholm Industries as a server administrator in its ever-growing ICT department.

On the first day of your job youre met by Jen, the head of the department who introduces you to the rest of the team. She gives you time to settle in and then approaches you with your first task. Install and setup a file server for human resources (HR).

Youre told to meet Harold, the systems administrator, for more information. After a brief introduction and welcome, Harold explains the task further. They have already set up file servers in the past, so he has the server software on hand for you to use. Their requirement is that the file server should only be accessible to the HR department. HR is divided based on their responsibilities, and so they will need to be able to access files based on whether they are from the recruitment staff, employer-employee relations, compensation and benefits, labour law compliance, or training and development.

Due to security reasons, their policy includes:

Use encryption where possible.

Only allow the HR employees access to the server.

Make sure only the necessary services and processes are running on the servers.

Keep executable files isolated from regular data.

Harold also requests that you follow procedures for server hardening to reduce the risk of an attack.

You are asked to choose the network operating system (NOS) on your own. The hardware is already provided by the IT department and meets the requirements to support the software.

Installations on the client side, meaning installing client software, will be handled by another employee, Roy. Harold requests that you keep proper communications open between the two of you to have this setup done as soon as possible.

He lets you know that if you need any help from him after this you will need to notify him in advance, otherwise you can check in anytime with his assistant, Moss.

If you need help with anything network related, you can check in with the network manager Pierce, and your point of contact for anything security related is Annie.

You return to your office and begin planning your work.

2.1 What steps will you take from the project start up to installing and configuring the server software?

2.2 Based on Harolds requirements, how will you control who is allowed to access what files.

Moss sends you an email letting you know that theres a slight addition to their requirements. The head of HR told them that in some cases they may need to print documents directly from the server, so youre required to add printers. There is no need for special management tools, the printers should just be there for use.

The head of HR also explained how important the data stored on this server is to them and they dont want to see a repeat of the data crisis of 2016 where half the IT department nearly lost their jobs due to data loss resulting in a loss of millions of dollars for Raynholm Industries. Moss tells you not to ask about what happened, just make sure you have a plan.

What do you do?

2.3 What are some security measures you will take to ensure network safety as well as the safety of Raynholm Industries data?

2.4 Now that youre nearing project completion, what steps will you take in order to ensure everything is working properly and keep quality of service up to Raynholm Industry standards?

2.5 Suppose during your testing you came across a few different errors. How would you handle them?

How will you know the difference between errors caused by software or errors caused by network failures?

Is there a way to distinguish network failures caused by the Raynholms network and those caused by the servers own network connection?