HCC bookstore on-line

1. Understand the role and common tasks of a system administrator, including job titles, salary, certifications, professional societies, and required soft skills
2. Understand partitioning and disk layout, disk technology, including SCSI versus IDE, LVM (logical volume management)
3. Understand booting, dual booting, boot managers
4. Understand OS installation issues, install Linux, and troubleshoot common installation problems
5. Understand and manage basic system hardware, including disk drive, NIC, and RAM installation, hardware disposal procedures, and basic safety issues (such as shock) and risks (such as ESD)
6. Understand and manage disks and filesystems using tools such as fdisk, mount and umount (and the role of the fstab file), tune2fs, mkfs, fsck, and others
7. Understand and use removable media
8. Understand, use, and configure the graphic user interface
9. Understand change management (including time management, help desk setup, and using a trouble-ticketing system), configuration management, and patch management
10. Understand system startup and shutdown, run-levels
11. Understand how to start and stop services manually and automatically at boot time, and how to use and configure inetd (and xinetd)
12. Understand policies and procedures, such as a disaster recovery policy (DRP)
13. Understand and use essential tools to perform system administrative tasks
14. Install, manage, and update software packages using RPM and apt on Linux, and pkg on Solaris and BSD
15. Understand kernel modules
16. Understand and configure printing services, including local and remote printing using CUPS
17. Understand basics of database servers (MySQL, PostgreSQL, and basic SQL), and how to configure them
18. Understand how to add, remove, and manage user and group accounts
19. Understand and manage passwords
20. Understand and manage disk quotas
21. Understand and perform basic network configuration, including TCP/IP and DNS, ISP connections using modems (PPP), cable modems (PPPoE), and DSL
22. Understand backup and restore strategies and methods

A class “wiki” has been set up for your use, at YborStudent.hccfl.edu/UnixWiki/.  To add or modify any content you must create a login for yourself.  Use an account name that clearly indicates your real name; avoid account names such as “The Linuxator”.  You can use this wiki to hold discussions, ask questions, and contribute information to the collaborative study guide.  You can create your personal page(s) to hold your system journal or class notes.  (All content on the wiki, including personal user pages, are publicly readable.)

You will need your own flash disk, writing materials, and three Scantron 882–E or 882–ES forms.  You can use HawkNet (WebAdvisor) or Florida Virtual Campus (Formerly FACTS.org) to obtain your final grade for the course.  You can use your assigned Hawkmail (Campus Cruiser) email address if you wish to discuss your grades via email.  (Note, it is possible to setup your Hawkmail account to forward all received emails to some outside email account; but you still must send mail from Hawkmail to discuss grades.)

Most college systems now use (or will in the future) a single sign-on user ID, known as HCC “NetID”.  Visit netid.hccfl.edu to register and to update your credentials.  (Your initial password is your uppercase first name initial, lowercase last name initial, and your seven digit student ID number.)  Note the quickest way to resolve login issues is the HCC Live Web Portal (hcclive.hccfl.edu).

Hawk Alert text messaging service allows you to receive important information regarding campus closures or emergencies.  You may also sign up for financial aid notifications and registration and payment deadlines.  This is a free service, although some fees may be applied by your cellular service provider or plan for text messages.  To sign up, or for more information, visit www.hccfl.edu/alerts/.

HCC DM Open Lab
Computers are located in the computer science department open lab in DTEC–462.  The ones in the back row are identical to the ones in the classroom, so if you need to work on your projects and the classroom is in use, you can request a lab tech to put your hard disk in one of the open lab computers.  (You can call the open lab to determine if the classroom will be available, or to have them pull your hard disk in advance.)  Lab hours are:

The open lab phone number is:  253-7207.

Grading scale:  A=90-100,   B=80-89,   C=70-79,   D=65-69,   F=0-64
(If you stop attending the course before it is 60% complete, you will be awarded an “FX” grade.)
(Or you can elect to “audit” the class during the add/drop period.)

(Collaborating on the class wiki counts as up to 5 points extra credit, as does active class participation.  See below for details.)

• No makeup exams will be offered without the prior approval of the instructor.
• Exams will be closed book and closed note multiple choice exams.  While the exams are non-cumulative, each does build upon knowledge acquired earlier.  Exams are based mostly upon material presented in class however some questions may be from assigned readings (the textbook and on-line resources).
• Exams will only cover material discussed in class or assigned as reading, before the exam.  Should the class fall behind the course schedule, some topics shown on the syllabus due for an earlier exam will be tested on the following exam instead.
• Regular attendance is imperative for the successful completion of this class.  The textbook and on-line resources should be considered as required course supplements; in other words, the course is not based on the text.
• All phones, pagers, and beepers must be turned off during class time, except with prior permission of the instructor.  No food or drink is permitted in HCC classrooms.
• Attendance will be taken within 5 minutes of the start of class; after 4 unexcused absences and/or lateness, the student will lose 2 points off the final grade for each additional occurrence.
• If you miss a class, you are still responsible for the material covered in that class.  All students should exchange contact information (name, email address, phone number) with at least one other student in the class.  If you must miss a class, you should then contact another student and request they take class notes for you.  (Note Campus Cruiser provides email for our course.)
• Credit for class participation includes attendance, preparedness, and adding to class discussions by asking questions and participating in discussions.  Playing computer games, surfing the Internet, or working on assignments for this or other classes during class time will lose you credit.
• Additional time outside of class will be required.  For typical students an average of between 6 and 10 hours each week outside of class are required for preparation, practice, projects, and homework assignments.  Note some projects will require you to complete them from our classroom (or the open lab).
• Students are expected to prepare for each class by completing all reading assignments, reviewing examples and model solutions provided, and practicing outside of class.  This is important — you can't learn a skill such as system administration only by attending class and reading books.  You must practice, several hours a few days each week!  If you won't have enough time available, consider auditing the course.
• Students are expected to check the class website regularly.  Any syllabus changes, class cancellations, project assignments, and homework assignments are announced in class and posted to the website and the RSS feed for this class.
• A student shall not, without my express authorization, make or receive any recording, including but not limited to audio and video recordings, of any class, cocurricular meeting, organizational meeting, or meeting with me.  Further, you do not have my permission to post on the web or otherwise distribute my class lectures and other course materials.  (You can distribute freely any materials I make publicly available from the HCC (or the wpollock.com) website, without asking permission, provided you give me credit for the work and don't alter it.  Any other use will require expressly given permission.)
• Working together on individual assignments is considered as cheating!  Turning in someone else's work without giving them credit is also considered cheating (plagiarism).  Cheating will result in an automatic F (zero) for the project for all parties.  Also, you can only earn credit for your own work and not someone else's, even if you do cite your sources.  Note that some projects may be group projects, where each member of a small group works together on a project.  It is also okay to ask a fellow student for class notes (in the event you miss a class) or for help in understanding the text or material given to the class (e.g., examples on the class website).  You are encouraged to study together as well.
• You must follow the academic honesty policy and the student code of conduct for HCC.  A second cheating offense will result in an “F” for the course, and your name will be turned over to the dean for further handling.  I take these matters very seriously.  You have been warned!
• Every effort will be made to stick to the weekly schedule for our course.  However it may happen that we will fall behind the schedule at some point.  If so, no topics will be skipped.  Instead we will attempt to catch up over the following weeks.
• Please be aware that if we fall behind on the weekly schedule, the topics discussed may not match what shows on the syllabus.  The weekly schedule may (but probably won't be) updated in this case.
• In case we do fall behind, homework assignments are automatically postponed until the next class (i.e., homework assignment that show on the schedule as due the same day we discuss some topic, will be due the day we will discuss that topic in class).  Projects and exams will not be automatically postponed.  Should your instructor deem it necessary, projects and exams may be rescheduled; this will be announced in class.
• Communications Policy:  I will respond to your emails within 48 hours or two business days.  HCC policy is that grades can only be discussed in person during office hours, or via email only if you use your assigned HCC HawkNet (Campus Cruiser) email account.
• No appointment is necessary to see me during my scheduled, on-campus office hours.  You can just “walk-in”.  You can make appointments for other times as long as I'm available.
• Occasionally my office hours will be canceled on short (or no) notice, for example if the dean calls me for a meeting.  Before driving out to campus just for my office hours, you should contact me the day before to make sure I still plan to be there.
• Late Policies:  Late assignments (homework assignments, projects, or exams) generally will not be accepted.  An assignment is late if not turned in by the start of class on the day it is due.

  Late assignments will be accepted late only if you obtain the instructor's permission prior to the due date of the assignment, or for a documented serious medical reason.  All late assignments are subject to a late penalty of at least one letter grade (10%) regardless of the reason for the delay.

  Projects and homework assignments later than one week will receive a more severe late penalty; very late assignments without adequate excuses will receive a grade of “F” (0).  However if you have a very good reason your instructor may waive any or all of the late penalty.  (Examples of good reasons include extended illness that prevents working, being out of town for work, or military service.  Remember, documentation will be required.)

• The dangers of the flu or another contagious disease require some changes to normal policies.  HCC is implementing the recommendations for institutions of higher learning of the CDC.  (See www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/guidance/ and www.flu.gov/ for guidance from the CDC.)  You won't need documentation if you miss class due to the flu.  (But if you think you have the flu, you should see a doctor as soon as you can.)  In the unlikely event of a school closure due to the flu, some plan to make up the missed work will be made.

  If you think you have the flu, stay home.  Do not come to HCC until 48 hours after your fever has broken as you are still infectious.  Also, people are infectious to others for a day or so before they have any symptoms.  Flu is spread by touching doorknobs, computer keyboards, railings on stairs, etc., that were touched by someone with the flu.  Avoid shaking hands; use the “fist shake” (touching of fists) if you must use a physical greeting.  The most effective way to avoid catching the flu is to wash your hands frequently, especially after touching something that was touched by others.  Avoid unnecessary touching of eyes, nose and mouth.  While not as good as properly washing hands, hand sanitizers have been installed throughout the campus; use them often.

Projects in system administration require you to have root (administrator) access to you own computer.  The computers in the classroom have removable hard disks, and you have complete control over that disk.  Unfortunately this means you must work on projects at HCC.  If the classroom is in use, you can request to have your hard disk put into one of the identical computers in the back row of the open lab.  You will probably want to phone the lab in advance, to check of the classroom is available, and to set your disk aside (so it can be put into one of the open lab computers) if the room will be busy.

(You can, of course, install the same system on your own computer, and practice the projects there.  Then it shouldn't take long at all to repeat the steps on your assigned hard disk at HCC.)

Projects are graded on the following scale:

A = 95% (Excellent: Good design with good comments, style, and extras)
B = 85% (Good: Good design, some comments, readable style, and it works)
C = 75% (Acceptable: Project objectives are met or are close to being met)
D = 65% (Unacceptable)
E = 10-64% (Variable credit: At least you tried)
F =  0% (Didn't hand in the project)

Minor extras worth +5 points, minor omissions or poor design worth -5.

Projects are not graded when turned in.  They are graded all at once, sometime after the project deadline has passed (usually the following weekend).  Every effort will be make to grade projects within a week of the due date, or as soon thereafter as possible.  (See also submitting assignments below.)

Your instructor is the editor and moderator of this study guide (and for all material posted on this wiki site).  While some time will be given for students to correct postings, in order to ensure an accurate study guide the instructor may edit, add to, or remove material posted by students.

The wiki assignment will be graded on or after the following week (so you have through the weekend to post something for the previous week).  Your contributions will be graded based on correctness, completeness, and clarity.  Note regular posting is required to earn extra credit; one large post the last week of the term will not earn much (or any) extra credit.

Do not send any email to wpollock@YborStudent.hccfl.edu.

In the event a student submits more than once for the same assignment, I will ignore all but the last one received up to the deadline.  Assignments submitted after the deadline will not count toward your grade except as allowed by the course late policy.

The HCC email server automatically accepts and silently discards email with certain types of attachments.  If you must send email to my Internet (non-YborStudent) email account please avoid using any attachments, but especially “zip” files.  To send email with a “.zip” attachment you must first rename the file extension to “.zap” and then send the renamed file as an attachment.

To avoid having your submitted work rejected as “spam”, you can use CampusCruiser to send email to professors.  (This doesn't always work either!)

If you have an email problem you may turn in a printout instead.  Be sure your name is clearly written on the top of any pages turned in.  Please staple multiple pages together (at the upper left).

Always keep a backup copy of your submitted projects, until you are certain they have been received and graded correctly.