Course Description:
A course designed to introduce students to Linux and UNIX. Students will install, set up, and operate standard tools and learn how they operate together. By course end students will have installed a fully functional Internet server while understanding its structure. Security issues of operating systems will be studied throughout the course.
Objectives: Students will be able to use the common utility programs
found on Unix/Linux systems, to configure a Linux server, and to serve as the
system administrator of a Unix/Linux system. These students will be familiar with the Unix terminology,
systems architecture, and how an operating system is made up of many pieces
operating concurrently and without conflict. Learning about Internet basics, the student will understand
file and servers, security issues, and backup/security.
Textbooks:
Ellen Siever, Linux in a Nutshell (5th or latest Edition),
O'Reilly & Associates, 2005,
Christopher
Negus, Fedora 7 and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Bible (Paperback). Wiley, 2007.
Additional Reference(s): Redhat Linux 7 software and
The Linux HOWTOs available from Linux on Line <www.linux.org>
Projects, Assignments and
Examinations:
There will be a mid-term and a final, along with bi-weekly projects. The exams will count for 50% of the class
grade with the other 50% coming from the projects.
Projects
This
course is best described by the kind of projects that students do. Indeed, outcomes might be described as
the projects that the students have successfully completed.
Weekly Class Schedule
Week
1: Linux Basics
Terminology
Basic Components
History and Future
The User Interface
Our Tools
Week
2: Installation and Setup
Preparing your Computer
Installing the Operating System
Initializing the Services
Setup and Logon
Week
3: Operating System Basics
System Architecture
Setup and Configuration
Processes and Programs
Background Services
Automating Common Tasks
Starting and Stopping Services
Week 4: Internet Basics
Services and Protocols
Networks and Systems
The Programs behind it all
Setup and Configuration
Getting Hooked Up
Week
5: Admin Basics
The Waterfront
Planning and Implementing
What has to be done
Periodic Tasks
Aperiodic Tasks
Emergency Situations
Week
6: Our First Service: FTP
How it works
Where to get it
How to Install it
Customization and Configuration
Week
7: File System Servers
What they are
How they work
How to Install them
Customization and Configuration
Week
8: World Wide Web Servers
What they are
How they work
How to Install them
Customization and Configuration
Week
9: Relational Databases
What they are
How they work
How to Install them
Customization and Configuration
Week
10: Firewalls
Security Overview
What they are
How they work
How to Install them
Customization and Configuration
Week
11: Mail Services
What they are
How they work
How to Install them
Customization and Configuration
Week
12: Backup and Restoration
Process Overview
The Tools
The Tasks
The Problems
The Solutions
Week
13: Review & Final
Student Conduct
All students are expected to follow the University's Code of Student Conduct. If you are caught cheating, we will follow the guidelines for punishment outlined in the code.
When you turn in work that you have discussed with someone, or which contains ideas that you found in a book, you must indicate that fact. We expect you to talk to each other and to read materials other than those assigned. We also expect to see in your work evidence that you have done so. Learning to acknowledge intellectual debts is part of learning. You should be reading, talking to each other, and telling the world that you have done so. When group work is called for the group solution should note whenever a part of the project was done by only a part of the group.
Some kinds of sharing, however, are unacceptable. You may
not use the computer to copy someone's work and submit it as your own -- even
if you acknowledge that theft! You may not have your friends do your work for
you. Versions of some of the assignments in this course may have been given in
previous years. You may not use answers to those assignments.
Accommodations
Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 offers guidelines for curriculum modifications and adaptations for students with documented disabilities. If applicable, students may obtain adaptation recommendations from the Ross Center for Disability Services, Campus Center 2nd Floor, 2100 Street, Room 2010, 617-287-7430. The student must present these recommendations and discuss them with each professor within a reasonable period, preferably by the end of Drop/Add period.