01/10/2012
System and network
administration
Gail Hopkins
Aims of module
To give an introduction to system
administration of networked hosts
Not specific to any one operating system
But examples given for Unix and Windows
An introduction to Unix commands
Windows GUI familiar to most
To give an understanding of how
networked hosts interoperate and how
their software and users are managed
01/10/2012
Important Information
Course consists of 2 lectures per week
Fridays lecture will normally be an online
video lecture (but sometimes a lab session)
See the module website for details
Assessment will be via exam only
My contact details:
[email protected]
Important Information
Lecture notes and video lectures are
available online:
http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~gtr/ADM/
Support sessions:
TSG provide user support sessions, please see
web page for times:
http://support.cs.nott.ac.uk/help/office/
01/10/2012
Important Information (2)
Exam
Past papers available on the portal
Model exam paper with sample answers will
be given
ADM Recommended Text
UNIX and Linux System Administration
Handbook, Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R.
Hein and Ben Whaley, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall,
2011
Also useful:
Principles of Network and System
Administration, Mark Burgess, Wiley, 2004
The Practice of System and Network
Administration, Thomas A. Limoncelli,
Christina J. Hogan and Strata R. Chalup, 2nd
Edition, Addison Wesley, 2007
01/10/2012
Course Outline
Introduction to Unix
Introduction to Windows
Basics of System Administration
Users
File systems
Installing devices/software
Networked hosts
Providing services
Security
An Introduction to UNIX
Gail Hopkins
01/10/2012
At the end of this lecture you
should:
Understand the role of the operating
system
Understand the concept of UNIXs
command line interface (CLI)
Know the format of a UNIX command and
how to execute it in a shell
Operating Systems
An operating system is the program that controls all the
other parts of a computer system - both the hardware and
the software.
Most importantly, it allows you to make use of the facilities
provided by the system. Every computer has an operating
system.
01/10/2012
Example Operating Systems
Windows
Mactintosh
UNIX
NT, XP, Windows 7
MacOS 9 last of old Mac operating systems
New Macs run on top of UNIX (see below)
Sun Solaris
Requires special hardware
Linux for PCs
Lots of free distributions
Cygwin
Slow but runs within the Windows OS
MacOS X
Underlying operating system is UNIX
An Introduction to UNIX
01/10/2012
The UNIX operating system has
three important features:
kernel
shell
filesystem
Kernel and shell covered here
Filesystem covered in future lecture
UNIX Kernel
At the core of each UNIX system and is
loaded in whenever the system is started
up - referred to as the boot of the system
Manages the entire resources of the
system, presenting them to you and every
other user as a coherent system
You do not need to know about it in order
to use a UNIX system
01/10/2012
UNIX Kernel (2)
Amongst the functions performed by the kernel
are:
managing the machine's memory and allocating it to
each process.
scheduling the work done by the CPU so that the
work of each user is carried out as efficiently as
possible.
organising the transfer of data from one part of the
machine to another.
accepting instructions from the shell and carrying
them out.
enforcing the access permissions that are set on the
file system
UNIX Shell
The UNIX command line interface is called
the shell
The shell is a program interpreter
There are many different shells, for
example csh, bash, tsh, and usually you
will run only one type of shell in a login
session
01/10/2012
What is a Command Line Interface?
In Windows you (usually) do things by
selecting something with the mouse and
then clicking
In UNIX you (usually) do things by typing
in commands with (often) obscure names
A Shell Window
What you are looking at now is known as the command line
interface. It is also known as the prompt.
MS Windows also has a command line prompt, but do not
confuse DOS with UNIX.
A command line interface is more powerful than a graphical user
interface (like Windows) but does take some getting used to.
01/10/2012
Accessing UNIX Using NX
An easy way to access your UNIX account
NX is installed on CS machines
http://support.cs.nott.ac.uk/help/docs/access/nx/
Using NX from CS Machines
You can select it from the Linux button at the bottom
left of the screen
You should choose the correct fileserver (mersey for
masters students).
You will be prompted for your UNIX username and
password. These were issued at the beginning of term.
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01/10/2012
Using NX from
Home
NX can be installed for
use at home
OR you can use ssh
(more about this shortly)
Instructions for installing at:
http://support.cs.nott.ac.uk/help/docs/access/nx/
Using UNIX from Home - ssh
If you want to access your UNIX account from
home your are advised to use an SSH client.
SSH is a secure means of connecting to a remote
computer.
Telnet is not secure and should be avoided at all
costs.
Putty is a free SSH client available at
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
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01/10/2012
How to use the UNIX Shell:
Command Line Completion
Very useful although not always available
Start typing command (or file name) and
then press tab
UNIX will try to automatically finish the
word for you
If more than one choice, press tab again and
UNIX will list the possibilities
How to use the UNIX Shell:
Copying and Pasting
In Windows you cut and paste using items
in the Edit menu
In UNIX you use your mouse buttons
Left button (click and drag) to highlight the
text you want to copy
Middle button (click) to paste the text
somewhere else
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01/10/2012
Terminals and Window Managers
These days your command line prompt
appears in a (terminal) window
You can start new terminals by
Clicking your mouse buttons on the
background to bring up menus
Typing xterm & in another terminal window
You can close windows by typing exit
UNIX Commands
Shells perform user requests and they do this
by accepting commands
Different types of shell have different
commands, although the core commands are
common
A command consists of one or more words
separated by white space
The first word is the command name
Subsequent words (flags and arguments) give
additional information or modify the
command
E.g. lpr Phet test.doc
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01/10/2012
Command Entry
A command is only entered when you press the
ENTER (or RETURN) key
Special key strokes include:
DELETE or back space to delete the last character (also
^H)
^W to delete the last word
^U to delete the entire line
^C to kill most commands
^Q and ^S for scrolled output (watch out for accidental
^S)
(^X means press the Control key and X at the same time)
Example UNIX Commands
who
date
finger
passwd
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01/10/2012
Example UNIX commands (2)
The who command displays a list of current users
on the system
Information includes usernames, where they are
logged in from and how long the have been logged
on
srb
nza
pxj
czf
gmh
nza
bnk
dge
mdf
gtr
pts/76
pts/83
pts/81
pts/85
pts/96
pts/93
pts/79
pts/36
pts/9
pts/87
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
Oct
9
6
9
9
9
6
9
5
9
9
11:08
16:51
10:56
11:16
09:11
16:51
10:17
17:30
11:12
11:21
(bow)
(rannoch)
(prawn)
(thailand)
(polihale)
(rannoch)
(hope)
(128.243.24.66)
(delight)
(delight)
Example UNIX commands (3)
The date command displays the current date
and time:
Mon Oct 9 11:27:07 BST 2000
Finger describes the person behind a
username, for example,
finger gmh@marian gives:
Login name: gmh
In real life: Graham M
Hutton
Directory: /staff/gmh
Shell: /bin/csh
Last login Thu Sep 16, 1999 on pts/2 from marian
No unread mail
Plan:
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01/10/2012
Example UNIX Commands -Changing
your password
The passwd command changes your
password
This is one of the first things that you
should do
You are prompted for the old and new
passwords (the new one twice)
Other Useful UNIX Commands
man - manual pages
acroread - open the reader for .PDF files
gv - open a viewer for .ps files
lpr - print a file
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01/10/2012
Summary
Introduction to UNIX
UNIX Kernel
UNIX Shell
Basic UNIX commands
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