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System Administration
&
Maintenance
Exploring software and platform services
Dr. Ahmed Alnasheri 12/13/2020

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 1

 Objectives
➢Know what communication services are available and
what you need for an organization.

➢Run a local webserver and understand how a public

webserver works.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 2

 Content
➢In the this lecture we'll explore software and platform services.

➢ We'll cover what types of software and platform services you may
encounter in a tech role and how to manage them.

➢ We'll learn how to configure email services, security services, file

services, print services, and platform services.

➢We'll explore ways to troubleshoot platform services and common

issues to look out for.

➢By the end of this lecture, you'll understand how to setup and manage
the IT infrastructure services to help a business stay productive, keep
information secure, and deliver applications to its users.
System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 3
 Configuring Communication Services
➢Software services include a wide range of functions.

➢ We'll cover the major ones here.

➢First up is communication services, which enable employees

in a company to talk to one another.

➢ Then, the security services, which add a layer of security

protection to our IT infrastructure.

➢We'll also discuss user productivity services and some of the

aspects of managing software in a business that you'll probably
have to think about in your work.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 4

 Configuring Communication Services
➢These are important communication services, but in this lecture we're only
going to discuss software that's used in instant communication.

➢ Instant communication has drastically changed how we communicate in

both our personal lives and in the workplace.

➢The first is Internet Channel Relay or IRC, which is a protocol that's used
for chat messages. IRC operates in a client and server model, so lots of IRC
client software can be used to connect to an IRC server.

➢ The first is Internet Channel Relay or IRC, which is a protocol that's used
for chat messages. IRC operates in a client and server model, so lots of IRC
client software can be used to connect to an IRC server.

➢Paid for options are another method of instant communication. There are a
lot more sophisticated and advanced chat applications out there that offer
Enterprise support. A few popular options are HipChat and Slack.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 5

 Configuring Communication Services
➢There are also other communication protocols called open IM protocols
that are widely used and integrated into different communication
applications.

➢ One of the most popular communication protocols is XMPP or Extensible

Messaging and Presence Protocol.

➢It's an open source protocol used in instant messaging applications and

social networking services.

➢ It's an open source protocol used in instant messaging applications and

social networking services. XMPP is even used in Internet of Things
applications, among other things.

➢A few popular and free applications that use XMPP are Pidgin and Padium.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 6

 Configuring Communication Services
➢NC communications is a fantastic tool you can use to promote
team collaboration and efficiency

➢ When managing an IT infrastructure, it should be one of the

communication services that you consider implementing for
your organization.

➢For more information on Paid for chat applications click

here https://zapier.com/blog/best-team-chat-app/
and for Open IM chat applications click
here. https://jabber.at/p/clients/?os=any

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 7

 Configuring Email Services
➢One communication service that you're almost guaranteed to use today is
email.

➢In an enterprise setting, it's important for a sysadmin, or a sole IT support

specialist, to be able to configure email services for the company.

➢To do this, you need to have a domain name set up for your company that
you can use as your email domain, like devan@example.com. When you send
or receive email, you want to use this email address.

➢There are two ways to set up email for a company. The first is to run your
own managed server. Using this option, you set up the email service software
on a server, then you create a DNS record for your mail server.

➢There are different DNS records. Remember that the A record is used for
hostnames, but for email servers we use MX, for the mail exchange record.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 8

 Configuring Email Services
➢Email server setup can be one of the most complicated service to setup for a sysadmin.

➢Email server setup can be one of the most complicated service to setup for a sysadmin.

➢You have to get the email to actually work, protect your email addresses from spam, filter out viruses
and more.

➢An alternative approach to setting up your own email service is to use an email service provider, like
Google Suite.

➢These service providers allow you to create email inboxes and more by paying a monthly fee for every
user in your organization.

➢This ties you into the Gmail webmail client, and allows you to access your email from anywhere, as long
as you're connected to the Internet.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 9

 Configuring Email Services
➢Whatever option you choose, you'll have to understand the differences
between email protocols when you setup your email accounts.

➢There are lots of email protocols out there, but we'll only do a rundown of the
more common ones you'll hear about, POP3, IMAP, and SMTP.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 10

 Configuring Email Services -POP3
➢Post Office Protocol, or POP version 3, is an email protocol that downloads
email from an email server onto your local device.

➢It then deletes the email from the email server. If you want to retrieve your
email through POP3, you can only view it from one device.

➢There are a few reasons why you might want to use POP3 to get your email.
If you need to keep your email storage under a certain quota, POP3 is a good
way to maintain that storage limitation.

➢Another benefit of POP3 is privacy. Your email can only be seen from your
local device. If storage limitations and security are a concern for you, you
might want to consider using POP3 over something like IMAP.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 11

 Configuring Email Services -POP3
➢POP3 Work flow
➢Connect to server.

➢Retrieve all mail.

➢Store locally as new mail.

➢Delete mail from server*.

➢Disconnect.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 12

 Configuring Email Services -POP3
➢POP3 Advantage
➢Mail stored locally, always accessible, even without internet
connection.

➢Internet connection needed only for sending and receiving mail.

➢Saves server storage space.

➢Option to leave copy of mail on server.

➢Consolidate multiple email accounts and servers into one inbox.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 13

 Configuring Email Services - IMAP
➢Speaking of IMAP, or internet message access protocol, allows you to
download emails from your email server onto multiple devices.

➢It keeps your messages on the email server.

➢This email protocol is one of the more popular ways to retrieve email.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 14

 Configuring Email Services - IMAP
➢IMAP Workflow:

➢Connect to server.
➢Fetch user requested content and cache it locally, e.g.
list of new mail, message summaries, or content of
explicitly selected emails.
➢Process user edits, e.g. marking email as read, deleting
email, etc.
➢Disconnect.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 15

 Configuring Email Services - IMAP
➢IMAP has the following advantages:
➢Mail stored on remote server, i.e. accessible from multiple
different locations.
➢Internet connection needed to access mail.
➢Faster overview as only headers are downloaded until content is
explicitly requested.
➢Mail is automatically backed up if server is managed properly.
➢Saves local storage space.
➢Option to store mail locally.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 16

 Configuring Email Services – POP or IMAP

What Is The Best Email Protocol For You?

➢You want to access your ➢You want to access your email
mail from only one single from multiple different
devices.
device.
➢You have a reliable and
➢You need constant access constant internet connection.
to your email, regardless of
➢You want to receive a quick
internet availability. overview of new emails or
➢You have limited server emails on the server.

storage. ➢Your local storage space is

limited.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 17

 Configuring Email Services - SMTP
➢Last up is simple mail transfer protocol, or SMTP, which is a protocol used for sending
emails.

➢While POP3 and IMAP and other protocols can be used to retrieve email, there's only
really one email protocol for sending email, SMTP.

➢So there are lots of different email protocols that can be implemented, depending on the
email software of you choose.

➢For more information on Setup email server click here

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/why-you-may-not-want-to-run-your-
own-mail-server
and for Email protocols click here:
https://blog.servermania.com/what-protocols-send-receive-email-with-the- mail-server/

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 18

 Configuring User Productivity Services
➢In any organization the software that employees need to do their job is the
software that an IT support specialist managing IT infrastructure needs to
provide.

➢Depending on the organization, you might need to get your users things like
software development programs, word processing, graphical editors, finance
software, and so on.

➢Whatever software you provide, there are different things to consider when using
it in a commercial setting that might not have crossed your mind when you've
used a similar software personally.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 19

 Configuring Security Services
➢Security is super important to all organizations.
➢ It's integrated into pretty much all aspects of an IT infrastructure service.

➢There are lots of different security protocols that are put in place for all sorts of
things, keeping data encrypted, authentication, etc.

➢If you ever manage a web server that serves content to other users, you want to let
them know that when they access your website, you're keeping their interaction with
you as secure as possible.

➢Let's say that you have an online bank account that you're logging into.

➢The URL will most likely begin with an HTTPS.

➢Remember that HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, which is used to
format and transfer web content around the Internet.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 20

 Configuring Security Services
➢When you enter in a URL, you notice that HTTP comes before
everything else. HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
is a secure version of HTTP.

➢It makes sure the communication your web browser has with
the website is secured through encryption.

➢HTTPS is also referred to as HTTP over TLS or HTTP over SSL.

➢This is because there are two protocols that enables us to make

our web servers secure.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 21

 Configuring Security Services – TLS or SSL
➢The first is Transport Layer Security protocol, or TLS, which is the most popular way
to keep communications secure over a network.

➢TLS is widely used to keep web browsing secure, but it can be used in a lot of other
applications, too.

➢The second protocol is Secure Socket Layer protocol, or SSL. It's a way of securing
communication between a web server and client.

➢But it's pretty old and insecure, so it's been deprecated in favor of TLS. You may still
see it today being used over the TLS protocol like SSL/TLS.

➢The two protocols are often used interchangeably.

➢In fact, SSL version 3.0, was essentially TLS version 1.0. But TLS's new features and
updates have made it more secure than SSL.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 22

 Configuring Security Services – TLS or SSL
➢So if you're managing an organization's website on a server, how do you enable TLS
on the server so that the site can be using HTTPS?

➢Well, you need to get a digital certificate of trust from an entity called a certificate
authority. The certificate authority grants a certificate to your website saying that it
trusts that you control the web server.

➢Once it does that, you can install the certificate on your web server. That way, when users visit your site,
they'll see the HTTPS in the URL instead of just HTTP.

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 23

 What are file services?
➢There are so many file services we can use that will allow us to be productive as an organization.

➢Employees need to be able to share files with each other, whether that's to collaborate or exchange information.

➢File storage services allow us to centrally store files and manage access between files and groups.

➢You can set up a file storage server that will let users access a shared directory to modify or add files and much, much
more.

➢In the lab you learned how to use SM (Server Manger) to share folder.
➢For more information on File services check out the link here. https://www.cloudwards.net/comparison/

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 24

 The End

System Administration and Maintenance ( Lecture Three ) 25