Network Services and Systems Administration

This unit covers core network services, server administration, virtualization, backup/redundancy strategies, and security controls used in modern networked environments. It builds on foundational networking and hardware concepts and prepares students to administer services, troubleshoot connectivity, and secure systems in the final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze packet flow and protocol interactions across the OSI/TCP‑IP layers to diagnose connectivity issues and design addressing and subnetting schemes, including DHCP and DNS configuration
• Apply server and virtualization administration techniques to deploy and manage directory services, file and mail services, remote access, and cloud tenants (e.g., Active Directory, Samba/Apache, Office 365, Hyper‑V)
• Demonstrate implementation of data protection and availability solutions such as RAID, deduplication, tape/backup strategies, and Internet redundancy, and perform routine maintenance tasks including software updates and monitoring
• Evaluate and implement security controls for networks and services, including wireless security, multifactor authentication, host and network firewalls, spam filtering, and incident response considerations