Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
CIS D369D
Course Title (CB02)
System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services
Course Credit Status
Non-Credit
Effective Term
Fall 2022
Course Description
This course will transition learners from working on a single computer to supporting an entire data center. Systems administration is the field of IT that's responsible for maintaining reliable computer systems in a multi-user environment. In this course, students will learn the infrastructure services that keep all organizations, big and small, up and running. The material focuses particularly on the cloud, covering everything from typical cloud infrastructure setups to how to manage cloud resources. Students will learn how to manage and configure servers and how to use industry tools to manage computers, user information, and user productivity, as well as learn how to recover an organization's IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This CTE course is on the IT Support Specialist certificate and will provide a deeper understanding of how to manage a data center. This course shows how to set up cloud infrastructure, manage and configure servers, and using tools to manage productivity.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Course Philosophy
The course is designed to use experiential learning that supports self-paced learning combined with instructional support. At the choice of the instructor, a fictional organization can be used throughout the program for simulation.

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
99

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Not transferable

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
0.0
Maximum Credit Units
0.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours1.50.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
18.0
Total
66.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Laboratory discussion sessions and quizzes that evaluate the proceedings weekly laboratory exercises

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Assignments

  1. Readings from the text
  2. Hands-on lab exercises
  3. Two to three exams to assess (comprehensive or multiple choice) competency in different modules

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Methods of Evaluation

  1. One or two midterm examinations requiring students to apply topics covered in the lectures and reading. Responses are evaluated on implementation of stated constructs and correctness of responses
  2. Final examination requiring students to apply topics covered in the lectures and reading. Responses are evaluated on implementation of stated constructs and correctness of responses
  3. Evaluation of lab topics, based on correctness, documentation, quality, and explanations

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials:Ěý
  • None
Essential College Facilities:
  • None

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Course Guide 4Google IT Support Professional Certificate.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

None.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Utilize best practices for choosing hardware, vendors, and services for a variety of organizations.
  • Describe how the most common infrastructure services keep an organization running, and demonstrate how to manage infrastructure servers.
  • Define how to optimize use of the cloud within an organization’s IT Department.
  • Manage an organization’s computers and users using the directory services, Active Directory, and OpenLDAP.
  • Identify and successfully deploy a range of system management tools that organizations currently use.

CSLOs

  • Utilize best practices for choosing hardware, vendors, and services for your organization.

  • Understand how the most common infrastructure services that keep an organization running work and how to manage infrastructure servers.

  • Manage an organization.

  • Learn about disaster recovery and use system administration knowledge to improve IT processes.

Outline

  1. Utilize best practices for choosing hardware, vendors, and services for a variety of organizations.
    1. Comprehend the basics of system administration. We'll review organizational policies, IT infrastructure services, user and hardware provisioning, routine maintenance, troubleshooting, and managing potential issues.
    2. Define the roles and responsibilities of a System Administrator.
  2. Describe how the most common infrastructure services keep an organization running, and demonstrate how to manage infrastructure servers.
    1. Define and implement what IT infrastructure services are and what their role is in system administration.
    2. Describe server operating systems, virtualization, network services, DNS for web services, and how to troubleshoot network services.
    3. Practice implementation of common IT infrastructure services they will be encountered daily when handling system administration tasks.
  3. Define how to optimize the use of the cloud within an organization’s IT Department.
    1. Explore software and platform services and define what types of software and platform services learners may encounter in a tech role and how to manage them.
    2. Configure email services, security services, file services, print services, and platform services.
    3. Troubleshoot platform services and common issues to look out for.
    4. Set up and manage the IT infrastructure services to help a business stay productive, keep information secure, and deliver mission-critical applications to its users.
  4. Manage an organization’s computers and users using the directory services, Active Directory, and OpenLDAP.
    1. Develop comprehension for directory services including Active Directory and OpenLDAP.
    2. Recognize the concept of centralized management and how this can help System Administrators maintain and support all the different parts of an IT infrastructure.
    3. Show how to add users, passwords, and use group policies in Active Directory and OpenLDAP.
  5. Identify and successfully deploy a range of system management tools that organizations currently use.
    1. Describe data recovery and backups.
    2. Comprehend common corporate practices like designing a disaster recovery plan and writing post-mortem documentation.
    3. Contrast the tradeoffs between on-site and off-site backups, understand the value and importance of backup and recovery testing, know different options for data backup (as well as the risks), and understand the purpose and contents of a disaster recovery plan.
    4. Assess the IT infrastructure of three fictitious (but real-life based) companies, and provide recommendations and advice about how to support their IT infrastructure.
    5. Demonstrate the skills and problem-solving techniques of a System Administrator.

Lab Topics

  1. Think about the learner's fictional organization from a systems administration perspective.
    • Brainstorm device policies Sys Admins may want to apply for their users.
    • Prioritize the list of device policies from most and least important and ask learners to group up to compare their lists of device policies and have a discussion.
    • Group members of the organization in a way that might be important for System Administrators and discuss how different groups may have different IT needs.
  2. ĚýUsing learner- or instructor-created scenarios, perform a risk assessment for a particular issue and come up with a plan to address it. Example scenarios:
    • A user is having trouble with SSH, but has many custom settings and doesn't want to “lose” them.
    • Your organization has suddenly tripled in size and there will soon be more users than available IP addresses on the network. How do you perform updates to the network, while causing minimal user impact?
  3. Brainstorm at least 10 different services a fictional organization would need to run their business.
    • Determine if these services should be run on dedicated servers or virtualized.
    • Determine if any of the services may have commercial alternatives that could be bought instead of created (e.g., IaaS, SaaS).

      ○ Which services would you buy instead of running yourself?
  4. Spin up a basic implementation of service together as a class, and demonstrate its functionality.
  5. With a learner- or instructor-created organization, implement a high-level network overview.
    • Which network services are needed for the organization and why?
    • Which role-based groups need to have access to which services?
  6. Set up an IRC server together. If possible, walk learners through configuring a client to connect to the server.
  7. Create 'personas' for different folks who might be part of your organization. Identify productivity services they might need to do their jobs effectively.
    • Discuss personas that might have more than one role.
    • Bonus - add a cost component, e.g.- there's an 80$ per month limit on recurring service costs per employee.
  8. Set up an NFS or print server (depending on what equipment is available). Walkthrough steps to configure and conclude with a file transfer or print that proves that the setup is working.
  9. Do an introductory tutorial on SQL. SQL has an approachable syntax, and the basics can be interesting. In either an instructor-led or individual setting, introduce learners to SQL through a tutorial, like Codecademy.
  10. Use a scenario that’s not necessarily IT or business-related but has distinct roles (e.g., a baseball league, TV show production) to address the following questions:
    • Who are the organizations, groups, and individuals who would make up this “directory?”
      • Ex: The league, teams, players, coaches, fans, etc.
    • What types of policies could you implement (non-IT) and who would they apply to?
      • Ex: In a baseball league, fans can't access the locker room, teams can manage their players’ positions and batting order, players are allowed on the field, etc.
    • What services could you provide through your directory?
      • Ex: Update newsletters for fans of a certain team.
  11. Create a basic AD or OpenLDAP instance -- individual, group, or instructor led -- using the learner-created organizations from earlier modules. Then, work through the configuration steps for an AD or OpenLDAP instance for that specific organization. Demonstrate different aspects of directory service functionality and management, like group organization and policy application.
  12. Using a fictional organization, generate backup and disaster recovery plans that account for unique aspects of the reference organization.
    • In pairs or groups, compare plans and edit as needed.
  13. Have learners brainstorm or provide a non-IT related incident and write a post-mortem about it.
    • Reinforce the different aspects of a post mortem and have learners share and discuss them.
    • For a twist, have learners create scenarios that they trade with their peers to write post mortems about.
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