System Administration - Windows Lab 1 / HW 1 - 30 points Due 2 weeks - feb 16th Name _____________________________________ System Name ________________________________ TURN THIS IN...WITH YOUR ANSWERS TYPED, BELOW THE GIVEN QUESTIONS. (Print out and hand in...staple also. Be Neat). MAKE SURE TO BOLDFACE YOUR ANSWERS (not the questions), SO THAT THEY STAND OUT! Follow the below steps, and answer all questions. When done for the day, just shutdown the system gracefully, dont change anything else on the system (since I may sign on to your systems to check your work). Most of the following is done under the account "Administrator". Do not change your password for the Administrator account. In the future, you may be asked to do so. (Normally, to change your password, after you login, just do a control-alt-delete to pop up the logout window and choose the change password button on the window). But for now make no changes to your administrator password. This assignment may take 1 or 2 labs to complete..so dont rush, but learn! --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Handy Commands NT/2000 has various command line commands, useful for a system administrator, along with many gui admin tools. Lets take a look at some of them and how to access the command window. Sign on to your NT/2000 server and open a Command Window (dos window). [This can be done by Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> Command Prompt ] Enter the following command to find out some server stats for your system (remember commands MUST be typed in EXACTLY, not including double quotes): "net statistics server | more" a. How long has your system been up and running? b. How many system errors, permissions violations and password violations do you see? (you shouldnt see many, since you just booted up) Try the following command to view system services that are running: (this shows all services started up by default on your server) "net start" (or net start | more ) c. Name the first 3 services that are running on your system? About how many services are running? Next try "net accounts" which shows you some default settings for user accounts on your system. d. What is your computer role? Is a password history kept? What is the minimum password length? What would a password history be used for anyway? --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Tasks. Tasks, also called jobs, are any job that is running on the system, either interactively or in a batch processing mode. Some tasks are user applications, others are system jobs that need to run. A system admin has to monitor and manage all tasks running on the system. Task manager is a nice gui tool, to view and cancel running tasks (processes/jobs) on your system. Task manager also gives you a graphical view of the performance (cpu and memory) of ones system. Its also very useful for a system admin to monitor the performance of a given system. There are 3 ways to start up the task manager. Try them all out. i. One way is to enter "taskmgr" at the command prompt. ii. Another way is to rightclick on the Task Bar (bottom bar on the screen) and pick Task Manager. iii. You can also start up task manager by doing a alt-control-delete and then selecting "task manager". Next: Startup an application, like Programs --> Accessories --> NotePad (notepad is a tool to take notes) a. Next, go into task manager. Do you see the above application listed (under the Applications Tab)? Click on it (highlight it) and then click on the "end task" button. b. What happens to this application (notepad)? Thus a system admin can monitor and cancel and running task. Next, look at task manager, and look into the "Processes tab". c. What is the job number (PID number) of the taskmgr.exe task? Each job running on the system gets a unique job number also called a Process Identification number. d. What job/task is using up most of the cpu resources? (most cpu time) e. Which job/task is using the most memory? Finally, looking under the Performance Tab. f. What is the CPU usage ? g. What is the memory usage ? h. What is the total Physical Memory (in K) ? i. Why is the graph for CPU Usage History and Memory Usage History flat lines or almost flat lines? j. Move the mouse around very quickly, what happens to the cpu usage graph (even click on the mouse rapidly as you move it)? Try to get it to spike up... k. Look at the bottom of the task manager, how many processes does it list running? Thus task manager provides a great tool for monitor system performance in terms of memory and cpu usage, as well as the ability to cancel jobs running on the system. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Commands/Files/Directories A system admin also need to become familiar with standard system files and directories on any windows server. Open a command window (dos window), and at the top level of your c: drive, issue the command "dir". (also just looked under My Computer, in the C: partition. You should see the same files/folders) a. What files and directories do you see at the top level (these were installed by windows NT server)? b. Enter "dir /as" to see all hidden system files. Whats the size of pagefile.sys (number of bytes)? (this is the virtual memory/paging file) c. What other systems files do you see using "dir /as"? d. Do a "dir /a" which shows all files. Do you know see the autoexec.bat and config.sys files? What size are they? Why? Note - while "dir" and "dir /a" and "dir /as" are handy, all of the above can be done in a gui mode. Go into My Computer and then double click on the C: drive/partition. You will see the above files. Of course, at first you may not see all the hidden files or system files (like config.sys, pagefile.sys, etc.). To get these to display, try the following: After you go into My Computer and go into the C: partition, then from the Tools pull down menu, select "Folder Options". Look under the "View" Tab. Click on "Show Hidden files" (which by default is normally off, you normally dont want ordinary users seeing hidden files). Also Click Off "Hide Operating System Files". Once this is done, you should see all the hidden and system files/folders, along with the normal ones. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Account Management. A system admin also needs to know how to manage user accounts. This includes creating accounts, deleting accounts, and changing passwords (among many other things). Start up the Computer Management Gui Administrator Tool. The Computer Management tool is the main tool for system admins under windows 2000..it includes many sub-tools dealing with all aspects of systems administration. Start-->Programs-->Admin Tools--> Computer Management. Then select "Local Users and Groups". This is a nice admin. tool to manage user accounts (create, delete, change password, disable, etc..). Look under Groups. a. What are the default groups that already exist? (created by default during installation of windows 2000 server) Who are the members of the administrators group (double click on it to find out)? Next look under Users. b. Who are the default accounts already created? (created by default during installation of windows 2000 server) Next...... Create the following 3 accounts, in all cases, use the password "xyz123" (you create an account by selecting "New User" from the Action pull down menu. (make sure no user or group is currently highlighted) I. username = rachel password = xyz123 -dont force user to change password at next login (uncheck the box) -check the box to make sure the user cannot change password ! AFTER you create this account, you need to make sure they are in the "group=users". Do this by highlighting this user and select Properties from the Action pull down menu (or just double click on the user name). Then check under the "Member Of" tab. They should be in the "Users" group by default. II. username = megan password = xyz123 - dont force user to change password at next login - group = users and administrators (you will have to add megan to the administrators group) III. username = erin password = xyz123 -dont force user to change password at next login -group = users And we are going to add a home directory for erin. After you create the erin account, double click on it to bring up its properties (or single click on it and then pick Properties from the Action pull down menu). Under the "Profile" tab. Home Directory: Local Path --> c:\home\erin Exit out of the Computer Management Menu. c. Go back into the Command Window. At the top level of the C: drive, do a "dir". Do you now see the "home" folder/directory? You can see the same thing by clicking on My Computer and looking under the C: partition. d. Look under "home" . What folders are there? Whats inside them by default? Why? (note this was all created when you did the above account creation) Now logoff as administrator. e. Try logging in as the account "rachel". Can you login? (you should be able to) Can you change your password as rachel? Try by clicking control-alt-delete and picking "Change Password". What does the system say when you attempt to change your password? Logoff, and log back in as administrator. Disable the account rachel (go into Computer Management --> Local Users and Groups, and double click on the user "rachel" and they click on the disable account button). Logoff as admin. f. Try logging in as the account "rachel" again. What happens? Log back in as administrator, and remove the disable account check for rachel (thus re-enable her account). Then change her password to "xyz". (Not sure how to change someones password as administrator? Look under the Action pull down menu). Can she now login? Using what password? g. Login as "erin" and open up a command prompt window, where does it put you by default (what directory)? Why? h. Can you access the Computer Management admin. tool from this account (from erin's account)? Can you create a new Account? Delete an existing account (try deleting "rachel")? Why or why not. Logoff this account. i. Login as "megan" and open up a command prompt window, where does it put you by default? Why? j. Can you access the Computer Management admin. tool from megans account? Can you create a new Account? Delete an existing account (try deleting "rachel")? Why or why not. k. Using Computer Management --> Local Users and Groups, how would the system admin change someone elses password? How would they delete an account? How would a normal user, once logged in, change their own password? Logout and then log back in as administrator. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. File System Info Its also important for a system admin to monitor the systems hard drives and partitions. We talked about NTFS vs. FAT for a partition. And you saw how to select that during the windows 2000 server install. How can you check what type a partition is, after the fact..see below.. Go into My Computer (double click) --> C: (single click) ---> Properties (under the File pull down menu) (or right click on C: and pick Properties) Look under the "General" tab. a. What is the current amount of free space on your hard drive (just look at the c: partition)? b. What is the current amount of used space? c. What is the total amount of space capacity? d. What file system is on this partition? (ntfs or fat) Look under Tools tab. e. What tools are listed and which are available? What do they do? f. Look under the Quota Tab. What is this used for? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Network commands: A system admin also has to know a little about networking and networking commands. At the command prompt window, enter "hostname" a. what does this say? Enter: "ipconfig" and "ipconfig /all" b. what is your ip address? what is your subnet mask? Do you see the above info? Why or why not? what is your ethernet/mac address (aka hardware address)? c. During the windows 2000 server install, you had to specify the hostname, ip address and subnet mask. Did you ever specify the ethernet address during the install? Why not? Go into Control Panel --> Network Icon. (this is the icon that shows networking info and allows you to make changes) Look under Local Area Connection. Next select (highlight) Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) and pick Properties. d. Does the IP address and Subnet Mask match the info you entered during the initial install of windows 2000 server? (thus the same tcp/ip information can be obtained via the command line or the network icon under the control panel. And not only can you obtain tcp/ip info, you can also make changes to it via the network icon in the control panel.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Shutdown/Reboot/Logoff On any windows server, its best to cleanly shutdown the system before turning power off. Otherwise, if you just cut the power, you can scramble the file system and the system may not boot up again. A system admin needs to know how to clearly shutdown and startup any server. They also need to know how to do a reboot (restart) which is often needed after installing new hardware, software, patches, or making some major configuration change. One way to shutdown is the do a control-alt-delete. a. When you do this, what options are shown on the screen besides shutdown? Another way to shutdown a system is to use start-->shutdown. b. When you use this method, what can you do, besides shutdown? c. How does a shutdown differ from a restart (reboot)? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Booting up. When a system first boots up, even before it loads the OS, you have two choices to interrupt the boot up sequence. F2 and F8. A system admin needs to know how to enter the bios mode (f2) as well as alternative methods to boot the system up (f8) in case there is a system problem. a. F2 Reboot you system and when it says on bootup F2 == Setup Hit f2 to take you into setup, where you are talking to the system bios chip. There are various settings you can see and change, as well as gather some system information. What type of CPU chip do you have (look at the top of the bios screen)? What is your BIOS version? Notice you can view and even change your date/time settings. You can also change your boot sequence, as you did during the initial install of windows 2000 server. How much System Ram does it say you have? Scroll down to System Security and hit enter. What are the settings for System Password and Setup Password? (the above could be used to put a password on your setup/BIOS chip, so that others cant use F2 to get into the system bios mode) b. F8 Reboot your system again, and when it gets to the point that it says loading windows 2000 and it says you can enter F8, please hit the F8 key. This lets you bypass the normal windows 2000 boot mode (in case your system has a problem or is corrupted and wont boot up). Then it displays various alternative methods to use to try to boot up. What methods are listed? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Control Panel A system admin also needs a strong knowledge of the tools available under the control panel. Lets take a look at some of them. Open up your control panel (start --> Settings --> Control Panel). There are many useful icons here. Lets look at: a. Date/Time Click on this icon. Note you can use it to view the current date, time, and time zone, as well as make changes as needed. You can also have the system automatically update the time for Daylight Savings Time. b. Network This icon controls the network aspect of your system. Double click on this icon. On the opening network page, whats the status of your lan connection? What type of network card do you have? Next, click on Lan Connection (if you have 2 of them listed, click on the 2nd one...I think... its the one that will have your ip number correctly listed) Scroll down the list until you highlight "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and the click on Properties. Is your IP number, subnet mask listed correctly? (it should be) How would you setup DHCP instead of hard coding your ip address? Would you normally use DHCP for a server? Why or why not? What DNS servers are listed? c. System. The system icon gives you lots of information and control over your basic system, via many tabs: General Tab: What version of the OS are you using? How much ram do you have? What type of computer? Network Identification Tab: Computer name is ? Workgroup name is ? Click on Properties. What can you change/do ? (cancel out of it, dont make any changes) Hardware Tab: What does the hardware wizard allow you to do? Advanced Tab: Performance - this is where you can change your virtual memory (pagefile.sys) settings. Something you will do in lab2/hw2. Environment Variables - What is your "OS" variable set to? Startup and Recovery - What is your default startup OS? Will the system automatically attempt to reboot if there is a system failure? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Other system admin info that is often useful: a. what are the following files/directories used for (talked about in class and in book)? pagefile.sys boot.ini c:\winnt autoexec.bat config.sys ntldr b. The following should be very clear to any system admin, and something we went through during the initial install of windows 2000 on your server: Each machine had to be uniquely identified, during the install, by giving it a unique _____________________ and _____________________. (each machine in the room had the above info different). A machine is also uniquely identified via its _____________________________, which doesnt have to be configured by the system admin, since its burnt into the NIC. All 3 of the above pieces of information, has to be unique for every machine on the network.