Network and Systems Administrator Technical Training

Explore home and online labs to replicate network and sysadmin skills using Packet Tracer for visualization, VirtualBox for Windows Server and Active Directory, and practical, step-by-step labs.

Explore building a Windows home lab with VirtualBox to practice Windows Server 2019 and Active Directory, including setting up a domain controller, joining clients, and cloning configurations.

Identify two paths for learners—job seekers and those developing skills—and preview two videos on hands-on setup, the job-seeking focus, and growing within your admin role.

Explore the OSI seven layers and how ISO standards govern device interoperability, from application traffic to physical cabling, via encapsulation and de-encapsulation.

Explore TCP's connection-oriented three-way handshake, sequencing, acknowledgement, and sliding window flow control. Contrast UDP's fast, connectionless delivery with these concepts.

Learn to capture and analyze network traffic with Wireshark, compare TCP and UDP behavior, apply filters, read IP and MAC layers, and understand denial of service basics.

Take a quick check to ensure you practice with Wireshark on your virtual system, build home labs, and replicate demos to gain hands-on experience as a network and systems administrator.

Explore when to use straight-through versus crossover cables for like and unlike devices, and how mdix ports auto negotiate to connect switches, routers, hubs, and computers.

Learn how to provision a brand-new Cisco router or switch using a console cable, connect a laptop via RJ-45 to DB-9, and use terminal software to access the device.

Diagnose production network issues through real case studies, identify the correct cable at the demarcation point for a DSL modem, and verify connectivity with ping and traceroute.

Capture and analyze IPv4 headers with Wireshark, select a specific network interface card, and learn TCP and UDP protocol numbers, plus SPAN and RSPAN concepts for remote monitoring.

Explain the difference between class ranges and RFC 1918 private addresses, and how private IPs, public IPs, DHCP, NAT, and VPNs enable communication in home and enterprise networks.

Explore the DHCP process (discover, offer, request, acknowledgement) and how a DHCP server assigns IP addresses to hosts, with UDP ports 67/68 and broadcast 255.255.255.255, and the relevance of DHCP snooping.

Explore how a DHCP server with two NICs assigns IPs from separate subnets, one per NIC, and how APIPA addresses in the 169.254.x.x range appear.

Leverage the DHCP client identifier, option 61, to uniquely identify a client by MAC address for IP assignment and use firewall rules to differentiate access for the CEO and others.

Set up a DHCP server in a lab, configure a scope, and test automatic and static IP addressing with gateway and DNS settings.

Install and configure a dhcp server to automatically assign ip addresses to hosts, reducing administrative overhead. Verify dynamic ip allocations in a practice lab environment.

Install and configure a dhcp server to automatically assign ip addresses to hosts on the network. Create and activate a 192.168.0.0/24 scope with a default gateway, then verify allocation.

Install and configure a dhcp server to automatically allocate ip addresses, verify the allocation of dynamically allocated ip addresses, and configure ip helper forwarders for cross-network segments.

Explore how DNS resolves domain names to IP addresses via host files, routers, and resolvers, with root servers, top-level domains, and common records such as A, AAAA, and CNAME.

Install and configure an internal dns server and a secondary dns server for high availability, translating hostnames to ip addresses and managing dns records in a windows lab.

Install and configure an additional DNS server for internal network, set up a forward lookup zone for practice labs dot com, and enable zone transfers.

Configure a DNS server and an alternate DNS server, create DNS records mapping hostnames to IP addresses, and test resolution by flushing and registering DNS entries.

Learn how ipv4 addresses identify each host by combining network id and host id in a 32-bit dotted decimal address, and examine ipv4 header fields, ttl, and fragmentation basics.

Explore private IPv4 addresses (RFC 1918), compare static and dynamic IP assignment, and learn how NAT and PAT map internal networks to public addresses.

Explore the fundamentals of IPv6, its advantages over IPv4, and core concepts such as neighbor discovery, mandatory IPsec, multicast without broadcast, anycast, and automatic IP assignment without DHCP.

Learn to use the traceroute tool to map the real-time path of IP packets from source to destination, showing hops and how DNS resolution or firewalls affect results.

Explore the netstat tool for displaying current network connections and port activity, using options like -n, -a, and -b to identify tcp connections, local addresses, and listening ports.

Explore why servers matter for network and systems administrators, covering Windows servers, DHCP, and basic services, plus hands-on virtual lab work with Active Directory.

Master essential Windows Server services, including DNS name resolution, host file mapping, Wins, and DHCP, plus Active Directory concepts for domain structures and group policy.

Identify storage technologies and architectures, including RAID, NAS, SAN, and iSCSI, and manage disks, partitions, volumes, and file systems with hot spares and fault tolerance.

Explore how active directory provides centralized authentication across domains, trees, and forests. See how domain controllers, objects, and services such as certificate service, federation service, and rights management enable access.

Practice lab exercise two walks you through renaming a new server computer running Windows Server 2019 using PowerShell after verifying the hostname, with changes taking effect after restart.

Configure a static IP address and the preferred DNS server, then verify with ipconfig /all and ping the domain controller.

Add lab computers to the active directory domain using PowerShell, including credentials and restart, then enable Windows remote management and access remote sessions to lab machines.

Carry out practice lab tasks by installing Active Directory Domain Services using PowerShell commands, copying and pasting commands from the content viewer, and monitoring progress in server manager.

Promote this machine as an additional domain controller using the command line, then verify completion after system restart and complete the replica domain controller setup.

Configure Active Directory sites and subnets to enable inter-site replication by creating a new site named America-HQ and adding subnets 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24 associated with the site.

Create an inter-site IP site link and configure its schedule to manage Active Directory replication, then move a domain controller to the appropriate site using Active Directory Sites and Services.

Monitor and troubleshoot Active Directory replication using PowerShell and repadmin. Execute manual replication of AD DS data through Active Directory sites and services.

Explore the Active Directory schema by using the MMC to add the Active Directory Schema snap-in, then inspect user classes, their attributes, and password properties including Unix user password.

Explore Active Directory configuration by viewing partitions, connecting to domain naming context, and expanding the configuration to inspect the distinguished name, attributes, and OUs in the practice lab.

Manage Windows user and group accounts using Active Directory and local groups, assign permissions and group policy, and understand domain versus local administrator roles.