System Administration

Exam: 2075 Bhadra.

What is the significance of system administration? Describe the roles and responsibilities of a system administrator in keeping the system updated and efficient. Explain with an example.

System administration refers to management of one or more hardware and software systems. A system administrator monitors system health, monitors and allocates resources such as disk space, performs backups, provides user access, manages user accounts, monitors security, and performs other functions.

Roles and responsibilities include:

1. User administration: setting up and maintaining accounts.
2. Maintaining the system.
3. Verifying that peripherals work properly.
4. Quickly arranging hardware repairs after a failure.
5. Monitoring system performance.
6. Creating file systems.
7. Installing software.
8. Creating a backup and recovery policy.
9. Monitoring network communication.
10. Updating the system when new versions of the OS and application software are released.
11. Password and identity management.

Source gap: The notes do not provide a separate worked example despite the question requesting one.

Exam: 2074 Bhadra.

Write short notes on administration tasks.

The source refers to the roles and responsibilities in Question 1.

Exam: 2073 Bhadra.

Write short notes on the duties and responsibilities of a system administrator.

The source refers to Question 1.

Exam: 2073 Magh.

Write short notes on system administration.

The source refers to the definition and responsibilities in Question 1.

Exam: 2072 Ashwin.

What is system administration? How is a special user different from a general user? Explain.

For the definition of system administration, see Question 1.

A general user has basic permissions for common daily tasks, such as launching applications, creating documents, and modifying basic configurations. These operations affect the logged-in user and do not include system-wide changes such as installing new software.

A special user can perform any operation or task on the system. This includes the permissions of a standard account plus major OS changes, installation of software, creation and modification of other user accounts, and setting permissions for other users.

Source terminology: "Special user" is retained from the handwritten question.

Exams: 2072 Magh and 2070 Bhadra.

Write short notes on the role of the system administrator.

The source refers to Question 1.

Exam: 2071 Bhadra.

Describe the duties and responsibilities of a system administrator.

The source refers to Question 1.

Exams: 2071 Magh and 2070 Bhadra.

Write short notes on shell scripts.

A shell script is a computer program designed to run by a UNIX/Linux shell, such as:

• Bourne shell.
• C shell.
• Korn shell.
• GNU Bourne-Again shell.

A shell is a command-line interpreter. Typical operations in shell scripts include file manipulation, program execution, and printing text. The shell accepts human-readable commands and converts them into something the kernel can understand. It starts when the user logs in or starts the terminal.

Reasons to write shell scripts

• Avoiding repetitive work and automating tasks.
• System monitoring.
• Adding functionality to the shell.
• Routine backups.

Advantages

• Quick start.
• Scripts are quicker to write.
• Interactive debugging.
• Commands and syntax are the same as those entered on the command line.

Disadvantages

• Prone to costly errors.
• Slow execution speed.
• Not well suited for large and complex tasks.
• Minimal data structures.