mca Syllabus

System Software and Administration
Code: CS 604
Contact: 3L + 1T
Credits: 4
Allotted Hrs: 45L

Note I: There will be one objective type question comprising 10 numbers spread over the entire syllabus and each carrying one mark.

Note II: Two questions are to be set from each module out of which five questions are to be answered taking at least one from each module. All questions carry equal marks.

Module I

System Software [15]
Assemblers: General design procedures, Design of two pass assemblers, Cross Assemblers, Macro Processors – Features of a macro facility,(macro instruction arguments, conditional macro expansion, macro calls within macros), Implementation of a restricted facility : A two pass algorithm; Macro Assemblers.
Loader schemes: Compile and go loaders, absolute loaders, relocating loader, Linking, Reallocation- static & dynamic linking, Direct linking loaders, Binders, Overlays, dynamic binders; Working principle of Editors, Debuggers.

System Administration
Module II

Introduction: [3L]
Duties of the Administrator, Administration tools, Overview of permissions.
Processes: Process status, Killing processes, process priority. Starting up and Shut down:
Peripherals, Kernel loading, Console, The scheduler, init and the inittab file, Run-levels, Run level scripts.

Managing User Accounts: [2L]
Principles, password file, Password security, Shadow file, Groups and the group file, Shells, restricted shells, user management commands, homes and permissions, default files, profiles, locking accounts, setting passwords, Switching user, Switching group, Removing users.

Managing Unix File Systems: [2L]
Partitions, Swap space, Device files, Raw and Block files, Formatting disks, Making filesystems, Superblock, I-nodes, Filesystem checker, Mounting filesystems, Logical Volumes, Network Filesystems, Boot disks

Configuring the TCP/IP Networking : [4L]
Kernel Configuration; Mounting the /proc Filesystem, Installing the Binaries, Setting the Hostname, Assigning IP Addresses, Creating Subnets, Writing hosts and networks Files, Interface Configuration for IP, ifconfig, netstat command, Checking the ARP Tables; Name service and resolver configuration.

Module III

TCP/IP Firewall : [6L]
Methods of Attack, What Is a Firewall? What Is IP Filtering? Setting Up Linux for Firewalling Testing a Firewall Configuration; A Sample Firewall Configuration: IP Accounting, Configuring the Kernel for IP Accounting, Configuring IP Accounting, Using IP Accounting Results

IP Masquerade and Network Address Translation : [4L]
Side Effects and Fringe Benefits, Configuring the Kernel for IP Masquerade, Configuring IP Masquerade.
Module IV

The Network Information System : [3L]
Getting Acquainted with NIS, NIS Versus NIS+ , The Client Side of NIS, Running an NIS Server, NIS Server Security.

Network file system: [3L]
Preparing NFS, Mounting an NFS Volume, The NFS Daemons, The exports File.

System Backup & Recovery: [3L]
Log files for system and applications; Backup schedules and methods (manual and automated).

Text Books:
1. L.L. Beck – “System Software “ (3rd Ed.)- Pearson Education
2. Michel Ticher – “PC System Programming” , Abacus.
3. Kirch – “ Linux network Administrator’s guide (2nd Ed.)” – O’Rielly
4. Maxwell – “Unix system administration” - TMH
5. Limoncelli –“The Practice of System & Network Administration”-Pearson
6. Wells, LINUX Installation & Administration, Vikas
Reference Books:
1. W. R. Stevens – “Unix network programming, vol. 1(2nd Ed.)” – Pearson Education/PHI
2. W. R. Stevens – “TCP/IP illustrated, vol. 1” – PHI/Pearson Education
3. Comer – “Internetworking with TCP/IP, vol. 1(4th Ed.)” – Pearson Education/PHI
4. E. Nemeth, G. Snyder, S. Seebass, T. R. Hein – “ Unix system administration handbook” – Pearson Education