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Server Hardware Installation and Management - 18%

1. Enclosure sizes
2. Unit sizes
   - 1U, 2U, 3U, etc.
3. Rack layout
   - Cooling management
   - Safety
   1. Proper lifting techniques
   2. Rack balancing
   3. Floor load limitations
   - Power distribution unit (PDU)
   - Keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) placement
   - Rail kits

- Power cabling

1. Redundant power
   - Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
   - Separate circuits
   - Separate providers
2. Power connector types
3. Cable management

- Network cabling

1. Redundant networking
2. Twisted pair
3. Fiber
   - SC
   - LC
   - Single mode
   - Multimode
4. Gigabit
5. 10 GigE
6. Small form factor pluggable (SFP)
7. SFP+
8. Quad small form factor pluggable (QSFP)
9. Cable management

- Server chassis types

1. Tower
2. Rack mount
3. Blade enclosure

- Server components

1. Hardware compatibility list (HCL)
2. Central processing unit (CPU)
3. Graphics processing unit (GPU)
4. Memory
5. Bus types
6. Interface types
7. Expansion cards

1. 0
2. 1
3. 5
4. 6
5. 10
6. Just a bunch of disks (JBOD)
7. Hardware vs. software

- Capacity planning
- Hard drive media types

1. Solid state drive (SSD)
   - Wear factors
   1. Read intensive
   2. Write intensive
2. Hard disk drive (HDD)
   - Rotations per minute (RPM)
   1. 15,000
   2. 10,000
   3. 7,200
3. Hybrid

- Interface types

1. Serial attached SCSI (SAS)
2. Serial ATA (SATA)
3. Peripheral component interconnect (PCI)
4. External serial advanced technology attachment (eSATA)
5. Universal serial bus (USB)
6. Secure digital (SD)

- Shared storage

1. Network attached storage (NAS)
   - Network file system (NFS)
   - Common Internet file system (CIFS)
2. Storage area network (SAN)
   - Internet small computer systems interface (iSCSI)
   - Fibre Channel
   - Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

1. Remote drive access
2. Remote console access
3. Remote power on/off
4. Internet protocol keyboard-video-mouse (IP KVM)

- Local hardware administration

1. Keyboard-video-mouse (KVM)
2. Crash cart
3. Virtual administration console
4. Serial connectivity
5. Console connections

- Components

1. Firmware upgrades

- Drives
- Hot-swappable hardware

1. Drives
2. Cages
3. Cards
4. Power supplies
5. Fans

- Basic input/output system (BIOS)/Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)

Server Administration - 30%

1. Graphical user interface (GUI)
2. Core
3. Bare metal
4. Virtualized
5. Remote
6. Slip streamed/unattended
   - Scripted installations
   - Additional drivers
   - Additional applications and utilities
   - Patches
7. Media installation type
   - Network
   - Optical
   - Universal serial bus (USB)
   - Embedded
8. Imaging
   - Cloning
   1. Virtual machine (VM) cloning
   2. Physical clones
   3. Template deployment
   4. Physical to virtual (P2V)

- Partition and volume types

1. Global partition table (GPT) vs. master boot record (MBR)
2. Dynamic disk
3. Logical volume management (LVM)

- File system types

1. ext4
2. New technology file system (NTFS)
3. VMware file system (VMFS)
4. Resilient file system (ReFS)
5. Z file system (ZFS)

1. Domain name service (DNS)
2. Fully qualified domain name (FQDN)
3. Hosts file

- Addressing protocols

1. IPv4
   - Request for comments (RFC) 1918 address spaces
2. IPv6

- Firewall

1. Ports

- Static vs. dynamic

1. Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP)

- MAC addresses

1. Print
2. Database
3. File
4. Web
5. Application
6. Messaging
7. Baselining
   - Documentation
   - Performance metrics

- Directory connectivity
- Storage management

1. Formatting
2. Connectivity
3. Provisioning
4. Partitioning
5. Page/swap/scratch location and size
6. Disk quotas
7. Compression
8. Deduplication

- Monitoring

1. Uptime
2. Thresholds
3. Performance
   - Memory
   - Disk
   1. Input output operations per second (IOPS)
   2. Capacity vs. utilization
   - Network
   - Central processing unit (CPU)
4. Event logs
   - Configuration
   - Shipping
   - Alerting
   - Reporting
   - Retention
   - Rotation

- Data migration and transfer

1. Infiltration
2. Exfiltration
3. Disparate OS data transfer
   - Robocopy
   - File transfer
   - Fast copy
   - Secure copy protocol (SCP)

- Administrative interfaces

1. Console
2. Remote desktop
3. Secure shell (SSH)
4. Web interface

1. Active-active
2. Active-passive
3. Failover
4. Failback
5. Proper patching procedures
6. Heartbeat

- Fault tolerance

1. Server-level redundancy vs. component redundancy

- Redundant server network infrastructure

1. Load balancing
   - Software vs. hardware
   - Round robin
   - Most recently used (MRU)
2. Network interface card (NIC) teaming and redundancy
   - Failover
   - Link aggregation

1. Direct access (bridged)
2. Network address translation (NAT)
3. vNICs
4. Virtual switches

- Resource allocation and provisioning

1. CPU
2. Memory
3. Disk
4. NIC
5. Overprovisioning
6. Scalability

- Management interfaces for virtual machines
- Cloud models

1. Public
2. Private
3. Hybrid

1. Bash
2. Batch
3. PowerShell
4. Virtual basic script (VBS)

- Environment variables
- Comment syntax
- Basic script constructs

1. Loops
2. Variables
3. Conditionals
4. Comparators

- Basic data types

1. Integers
2. Strings
3. Arrays

- Common server administration scripting tasks

1. Startup
2. Shut down
3. Service
4. Login
5. Account creation
6. Bootstrap

1. Labeling
2. Warranty
3. Leased vs. owned devices
4. Life-cycle management
   - Procurement
   - Usage
   - End of life
   - Disposal/recycling
5. Inventory
   - Make
   - Model
   - Serial number
   - Asset tag

- Documentation management

1. Updates
2. Service manuals
3. Architecture diagrams
4. Infrastructure diagrams
5. Workflow diagrams
6. Recovery processes
7. Baselines
8. Change management
9. Server configurations
10. Company policies and procedures
    - Business impact analysis (BIA)
    - Mean time between failure (MTBF)
    - Mean time to recover (MTTR)
    - Recovery point objective (RPO)
    - Recovery time objective (RTO)
    - Service level agreement (SLA)
    - Uptime requirements

- Document availability
- Secure storage of sensitive documentation

1. Per-instance
2. Per-concurrent user
3. Per-server
4. Per-socket
5. Per-core
6. Site-based
7. Physical vs. virtual
8. Node-locked
9. Signatures

- Open source
- Subscription
- License vs. maintenance and support
- Volume licensing
- License count validation

1. True up

- Version compatibility

1. Backward compatible
2. Forward compatible

Security and Disaster Recovery - 24%

1. Data at rest
2. Data in transit

- Retention policies
- Data storage

1. Physical location storage
2. Off-site vs. on-site

- UEFI/BIOS passwords
- Bootloader passwords
- Business impact

1. Data value prioritization
2. Life-cycle management
3. Cost of security vs. risk and/or replacement

1. Bollards
2. Architectural reinforcements
   - Signal blocking
   - Reflective glass
   - Datacenter camouflage
3. Fencing
4. Security guards
5. Security cameras
6. Locks
   - Biometric
   - Radio frequency identification (RFID)
   - Card readers
   - Mantraps
   - Safes

- Environmental controls

1. Fire suppression
2. Heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC)
3. Sensors

1. Length
2. Lockout
3. Enforcement

- Permissions and access controls

1. Role-based
2. Rule-based
3. Scope based
4. Segregation of duties
5. Delegation

- Auditing

1. User activity
2. Logins
3. Group memberships
4. Deletions

- Multifactor authentication (MFA)

1. Something you know
2. Something you have
3. Something you are

- Single sign-on (SSO)

1. Hardware failure
2. Malware
3. Data corruption
4. Insider threats
5. Theft
   - Data loss prevention (DLP)
   - Unwanted duplication
   - Unwanted publication
6. Unwanted access methods
   - Backdoor
   - Social engineering
7. Breaches
   - Identification
   - Disclosure

- Mitigation strategies

1. Data monitoring
2. Log analysis
   - Security information and event management (SIEM)
3. Two-person integrity
   - Split encryption keys tokens
   - Separation of roles
4. Regulatory constraints
   - Governmental
   - Individually privileged information
   1. Personally identifiable information (PII)
   2. Payment Card Industry DataSecurity Standard (PCI DSS)
5. Legal considerations
   - Data retention
   - Subpoenas

1. Disable unused services
2. Close unneeded ports
3. Install only required software
4. Apply driver updates
5. Apply OS updates
6. Firewall configuration

- Application hardening

1. Install latest patches
2. Disable unneeded services, roles, or features

- Host security

1. Antivirus
2. Anti-malware
3. Host intrusion detection system (HIDS)/Host intrusion prevention system (HIPS)

- Hardware hardening

1. Disable unneeded hardware
2. Disable unneeded physical ports, devices, or functions
3. Set BIOS password
4. Set boot order

- Patching

1. Testing
2. Deployment
3. Change management

1. Company policies
2. Verify non-utilization
3. Documentation
   - Asset management
   - Change management

- Media destruction

1. Disk wiping
2. Physical
   - Degaussing
   - Shredding
   - Crushing
   - Incineration
3. Purposes for media destruction

- Media retention requirements
- Cable remediation

1. Power
2. Networking

- Electronics recycling

1. Internal vs. external
2. Repurposing

1. Full
2. Synthetic full
3. Incremental
4. Differential
5. Archive
6. Open file
7. Snapshot

- Backup frequency
- Media rotation
- Backup media types

1. Tape
2. Cloud
3. Disk
4. Print

- File-level vs. system-state backup
- Restore methods

1. Overwrite
2. Side by side
3. Alternate location path

- Backup validation

1. Media integrity
2. Equipment
3. Regular testing intervals

- Media inventory before restoration

1. Hot site
2. Cold site
3. Warm site
4. Cloud
5. Separate geographic locations

- Replication

1. Constant
2. Background
3. Synchronous vs. asynchronous
4. Application consistent
5. File locking
6. Mirroring
7. Bidirectional

- Testing

1. Tabletops
2. Live failover
3. Simulated failover
4. Production vs. non-production

Troubleshooting - 28%

1. Question users/stakeholders and identify changes to the server/environment.
2. Collect additional documentation/logs.
3. If possible, replicate the problem as appropriate.
4. If possible, perform backups before making changes.
5. Escalate, if necessary.

- Establish a theory of probable cause (question the obvious).

1. Determine whether there is a common element or symptom causing multiple problems.

- Test the theory to determine the cause.

1. Once the theory is confirmed, determine the next steps to resolve the problem.
2. If the theory is not confirmed, establish a new theory.

- Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem.

1. Notify impacted users.

- Implement the solution or escalate.

1. Make one change at a time and test/confirm the change has resolved the problem.
2. If the problem is not resolved, reverse the change, if appropriate, and implement a new change.

- Verify full system functionality and, if applicable, implement preventive measures.
- Perform a root cause analysis.
- Document findings, actions, and outcomes throughout the process.

1. Predictive failures
2. Memory errors and failures
   - System crash
   1. Blue screen
   2. Purple screen
   3. Memory dump
   - Utilization
   - Power-on self-test (POST) errors
   - Random lockups
   - Kernel panic
3. Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) battery failure
4. System lockups
5. Random crashes
6. Fault and device indication
   - Visual indicators
7. Light-emitting diode (LED)
8. Liquid crystal display (LCD) panel readouts
   - Auditory or olfactory cues
   - POST codes
9. Misallocated virtual resources

- Causes of common problems

1. Technical
   - Power supply fault
   - Malfunctioning fans
   - Improperly seated heat sink
   - Improperly seated cards
   - Incompatibility of components
   - Cooling failures
   - Backplane failure
   - Firmware incompatibility
   - CPU or GPU overheating
2. Environmental
   - Dust
   - Humidity
   - Temperature

- Tools and techniques

1. Event logs
2. Firmware upgrades or downgrades
3. Hardware diagnostics
4. Compressed air
5. Electrostatic discharge (ESD) equipment
6. Reseating or replacing components and/or cables

1. Boot errors
2. Sector block errors
3. Cache battery failure
4. Read/write errors
5. Failed drives
6. Page/swap/scratch file or partition
7. Partition errors
8. Slow file access
9. OS not found
10. Unsuccessful backup
11. Unable to mount the device
12. Drive not available
13. Cannot access logical drive
14. Data corruption
15. Slow I/O performance
16. Restore failure
17. Cache failure
18. Multiple drive failure

- Causes of common problems

1. Disk space utilization
   - Insufficient disk space
2. Misconfigured RAID
3. Media failure
4. Drive failure
5. Controller failure
6. Hot bus adapter (HBA) failure
7. Loose connectors
8. Cable problems
9. Misconfiguration
10. Corrupt boot sector
11. Corrupt filesystem table
12. Array rebuild
13. Improper disk partition
14. Bad sectors
15. Cache battery failure
16. Cache turned off
17. Insufficient space
18. Improper RAID configuration
19. Mismatched drives
20. Backplane failure

- Tools and techniques

1. Partitioning tools
2. Disk management
3. RAID and array management
4. System logs
5. Disk mounting commands
   - net use
   - mount
6. Monitoring tools
7. Visual inspections
8. Auditory inspections

1. Unable to log on
2. Unable to access resources
3. Unable to access files
4. System file corruption
5. End of life/end of support
6. Slow performance
7. Cannot write to system logs
8. Service failures
9. System or application hanging
10. Freezing
11. Patch update failure

- Causes of common problems

1. Incompatible drivers/modules
2. Improperly applied patches
3. Unstable drivers or software
4. Server not joined to domain
5. Clock skew
6. Memory leaks
7. Buffer overrun
8. Incompatibility
   Insecure dependencies
   Version management
   Architecture
9. Update failures
10. Missing updates
11. Missing dependencies
12. Downstream failures due to updates
13. Inappropriate application-level permissions
14. Improper CPU affinity and priority

- OS and software tools and techniques

1. Patching
   - Upgrades
   - Downgrades
2. Package management
3. Recovery
   - Boot options
   1. Safe mode
   2. Single user mode
   - Reload OS
   - Snapshots
4. Proper privilege escalations
   - runas/Run As
   - sudo
   - su
5. Scheduled reboots
6. Software firewalls
   - Adding or removing ports
   - Zones
7. Clocks
   - Network time protocol (NTP)
   - System time
8. Services and processes
   - Starting
   - Stopping
   - Status identification
   - Dependencies
9. Configuration management
   - System center configuration manager (SCCM)
   - Puppet/Chef/Ansible
   - Group Policy Object (GPO)
10. Hardware compatibility list (HCL)

1. Lack of Internet connectivity
2. Resource unavailable
3. Receiving incorrect DHCP information
4. Non-functional or unreachable
5. Destination host unreachable
6. Unknown host
7. Unable to reach remote subnets
8. Failure of service provider
9. Cannot reach server by hostname/fully qualified domain name (FQDN)

- Causes of common problems

1. Improper IP configuration
2. IPv4 vs. IPv6 misconfigurations
3. Improper VLAN configuration
4. Network port security
5. Component failure
6. Incorrect OS route tables
7. Bad cables
8. Firewall (misconfiguration, hardware failure, software failure)
9. Misconfigured NIC
10. DNS and/or DHCP failure
11. DHCP server misconfigured
12. Misconfigured hosts file

- Tools and techniques

1. Check link lights
2. Confirm power supply
3. Verify cable integrity
4. Check appropriate cable selection
5. Commands
   - ipconfig
   - ip addr
   - ping
   - tracert
   - traceroute
   - nslookup
   - netstat
   - dig
   - telnet
   - nc
   - nbtstat
   - route

1. File integrity
2. Improper privilege escalation
   - Excessive access
3. Applications will not load
4. Cannot access network fileshares
5. Unable to open files

- Causes of common problems

1. Open ports
2. Services
   - Active
   - Inactive
   - Orphan/zombie
3. Intrusion detection configurations
4. Anti-malware configurations
5. Improperly configured local/group policies

- Improperly configured firewall rules

1. Misconfigured permissions
2. Virus infection
3. Malware
4. Rogue processes/services
5. Data loss prevention (DLP)

- Security tools

1. Port scanners
2. Sniffers
3. Telnet clients
4. Anti-malware
5. Antivirus
6. File integrity
   - Checksums
   - Monitoring
   - Detection
   - Enforcement
7. User access controls
   - SELinux
   - User account control (UAC)