Draft 0.1

Learning About System Administration

Outcome: SysAdmin (System Administrator) who is able to setup and maintain a usable, reliable and secure computing cluster.

SysAdmins must clearly document their work.

The SysAdmin must have a respect for the Unix philosophy and an understanding of Unix history.

The SysAdmin must adhere to a strict code of computing ethics.

The SysAdmin does not have to be bioinformatics-literate; however, programming skills beyond an introductory level are desired.

Courses Sequences

Two-Year SysAdmin Course Sequence [60 credits]

Semester One

internet I        + email, usenet, ssh, sftp, www, XHTML, CSS, SSI
unix I            + command-line, files/directories, I/O, pipes, text editor
topics I          + special topics
projects I        + special projects

Semester Two

internet II       + websites, XML, collaboration tools (intro)
unix II           + first programming course using bash
topics II         + special topics
projects II       + special projects

Semester Three

database I        + relational (SQL) and others; REs
unix III          + make; cvs; basic SysAdmin; ApacheAdmin; sys programming 
topics III        + special topics
projects III      + special projects

Semester Four

unix IV            sysadmin **
topics IV          special topics
projects IV        special projects

** sysadmin includes skills such as system setup/initialization, system maintenance (securing, patching), filesystems (nsf, tmpfs), backup/restore, cron/at, Internet protocols, email administration (sendmail, postfix, secure), services administration, webserver administration (apache/jarkarta), ssl administration, system accounting, logfile administration, source code control systems.

The special topic courses will be determined by immediate and near-term needs.

The special projects are efforts allocated towards producing reusable SysAdmin computing tools.

Author: G.D.Thurman [gdt@deru.com]
Created: 02 Apr 2003