CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

INSTITIÚID TEICNEOLAÍOCHTA CHORCAÍ

Semester 1 Examinations 2008/09

Module Title: Systems Administration 1

Module Code: COMP 7020

School: Maths and Computing

Programme Title: Bachelor of Science in Computing - Award

Higher Certificate in Science in Computing in

Information Technology Support – Year 2

Programme Code: KCOMP_7_Y3

KITSU_6_Y2

External Examiner(s): Mr. James Greenslade

Internal Examiner(s): Mr. Gerard McSweeney

Instructions: Answer 4 questions

All questions are worth equal marks

Duration: 2 hours

Sitting: Winter 2008

Requirements for this examination: None

Note to Candidates: Please check the Programme Title and the Module Title to ensure that you have
received the correct examination paper.
If in doubt please contact an Invigilator.

1
1.

(a) Write down ten system administration tasks. (10 Marks)

(b) Write down four advantages of using UNIX. (4 Marks)

(c) Write down two disadvantages of using UNIX. (2 Marks)

(d) What is a Linux distribution? Write down an example. (2 Marks)

(e) KDE is a well known Linux GUI. Name another. (2 Marks)

(f) In which Linux directory, would you expect to find configuration files?
(2 Marks)

(g) In a Linux environment, where might you expect to find root’s home directory.
(1 Mark)

(h) Apart from ordinary files, directory and soft links, write down two other types
of Linux files. (2 Marks)

2.
(a) Explain how a user is authenticated when logging onto Linux. (4 Marks)

(b) Give two reasons why Linux passwords are regarded as being secure.
(2 Marks)

(c) Why is it dangerous to use a simple word for a password? (2 Marks)

(d) What sort of information is held about users in the /etc/passwd file? (7 Marks)

(e) Without using a GUI, how could you check group membership? (2 Marks)

(f) The command

useradd kate

creates a new user kate. What problem would the user have when she logs on
and how would the administrator solve it? (3 Marks)

(g) An administrator has created two new Linux users bill and jack. The
administrator wants to:

• Enable bill to be able to copy files from jack’s home directory

• Enable jack to copy files to bill’s home directory

Explain how this could be achieved. (5 Marks)

2
3.
(a) Explain what is meant by a hard link. (2 Marks)

(b) How many hard links would a file normally have? (1 Mark)

(c) Explain how a soft link is different from a hard link. (3 Marks)

(d) What is meant by an orphan link? (2 Marks)

(e) What is meant by a user’s PATH? (2 Marks)

(f) Describe two ways a user may change his/her PATH in a Linux environment.
(4 Marks)

(g) How might an administrator set all users’ PATH (not including root’s).
(2 Marks)

(h) How might an administrator set root’s PATH? (2 Marks)

(i) PATH and HOME are environmental variables. Name two other environmental
variables. (2 Marks)

(j) How would a user list all his/her environmental variables? (2 Marks)

(k) Describe how a user might create a new environmental variable and give an
example of how it might be used. (3 Marks)

4.
(a) Suggest five criteria an administrator should consider when planning a backup
policy. (5 Marks)

(b) A user wishes to backup the entire contents of his home directory. The backup
should be placed on a USB directory mounted at /media/usb. Write a shell script
which could do this. (5 Marks)

(c) Write a script to retrieve the backup in (b) above. (5 Marks)

(d) Other users want to use the script in (c) above. Describe how the script could be
changed to:

• Ensure no two backups have the same name

• Backups can only be seen and read by their owner (5 Marks)

(e) Write down five items of information an i-node (information node) might hold
about a file. (5 Marks)

3
5.
(a) Describe, with the aid of a diagram, the UNIX block addressing scheme.
(7 Marks)

(b) With reference to Intel hard disks, explain the difference between primary,
extended and logical partitions. (6 Marks)

(c) Give reasons why a personal computer might have more than one partition.
(4 Marks)

(d) What is meant by a swap partition? (2 Marks)

(e) What is meant by mounting a device? (2 Marks)

(f) Explain how you would make a removable device read only. (2 Marks)

(g) What is the standard Linux file system? (2 Marks)