Week 2 - Progressive Learning

📖 This Week's Scenario: Your small business is growing! You need to create accounts for 5 new employees, organize them by department, ensure they can only access appropriate files, and monitor that all systems are running smoothly. Start with the Easy level and work your way up!

EASY LEVEL - Using GUI (Graphical Interface)

Activity 1: Creating Users with GUI (20 mins)

Goal: Learn to create user accounts using the graphical interface - just point and click!

🪟 Windows Server 2019 - GUI Method

Step 1: Open Computer Management

1. Right-click on Start Menu
2. Click Computer Management
What you see: A window with a tree on the left
Why this tool: Central place to manage users, disks, services

📸 Take a screenshot of Computer Management window opened

Step 2: Navigate to Users

1. In the left pane, expand Local Users and Groups
2. Click on Users
What you see: List of existing users (Administrator, Guest, etc.)
These are: All user accounts on this computer

Step 3: Create a new user

1. Right-click on empty space in the middle pane
2. Select New User...
3. Fill in the form:
• User name: JohnDoe
• Full name: John Doe
• Description: Marketing Employee
• Password: Password123!
• Confirm password: Password123!
• Uncheck: "User must change password at next logon"
4. Click Create
5. Click Close
What happens: JohnDoe appears in the user list!

📸 Take a screenshot of the New User dialog AND the user list showing JohnDoe

Step 4: Create a second user

Repeat Step 3, but this time create:
• User name: JaneSmith
• Full name: Jane Smith
• Description: IT Staff
• Password: Password123!
Why two users: Practice makes perfect, and we'll need them for groups!

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - GUI Method

Step 1: Open Users Settings

1. Click on Activities (top-left corner)
2. Type: Users
3. Click on Users icon
Alternative: Click power icon (top-right) → Settings → Users
What you see: Your current user account

📸 Take a screenshot of Users settings window

Step 2: Unlock to make changes

1. Click Unlock button (top-right)
2. Enter your password when prompted
3. Click Authenticate
Why unlock: Creating users needs administrator privileges
Security note: This prevents unauthorized changes

Step 3: Add a new user

1. Click the + (plus) button
2. A dialog appears with two options:
• Select Standard (for regular user)
• Full Name: John Doe
• Username: johndoe (automatically filled)
3. Click Add
4. Now set the password:
• Click on johndoe in the users list
• Click Password field
• Select "Set a password now"
• Enter: Password123! (twice)
5. Click Change
What happens: John Doe now has an account!

📸 Take a screenshot showing johndoe in the users list

Step 4: Create a second user

Repeat Step 3, but create:
• Full Name: Jane Smith
• Username: janesmith
• Password: Password123!
Now you have: Two users ready for the next activity!

💡 What to Submit: Screenshots showing: (1) Computer Management/Users window with both users visible, (2) One screenshot of the New User creation dialog

Activity 2: Creating Groups and Adding Members (20 mins)

Goal: Organize users into groups - like departments in a company.

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

Step 1: Navigate to Groups

1. In Computer Management (still open)
2. Click on Groups (under Local Users and Groups)
What you see: Existing groups like Administrators, Users, Guests
What groups do: Easier to give 10 people permission at once than individually

Step 2: Create Marketing group

1. Right-click on empty space
2. Select New Group...
3. Fill in:
• Group name: Marketing
• Description: Marketing Department
4. Don't add members yet - just click Create
5. Click Close
What happens: Marketing group appears in the list

📸 Take a screenshot of the New Group dialog

Step 3: Add JohnDoe to Marketing group

1. Double-click on Marketing group
2. Click Add... button
3. Type: JohnDoe
4. Click Check Names (it will underline JohnDoe)
5. Click OK
6. Click OK again to close properties
What happens: JohnDoe is now a Marketing member!
Real scenario: JohnDoe can now access all Marketing folders

📸 Take a screenshot showing JohnDoe listed as a member of Marketing

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - GUI Method

Note: Linux GUI doesn't have easy group management like Windows. We'll use a simple terminal command for this part, but don't worry - it's just one easy command!

Step 1: Open Terminal

1. Press Ctrl + Alt + T
2. A black window opens - this is Terminal
Don't worry: We'll only use very simple commands

Step 2: Create Marketing group

1. Type this command exactly (then press Enter):
sudo groupadd marketing
2. Enter your password when asked
What this does: Creates a group called "marketing"
No error message = success!

Step 3: Add johndoe to marketing group

1. Type this command:
sudo usermod -aG marketing johndoe
What this means:
• sudo = do this as administrator
• usermod = modify user
• -aG marketing = add to group marketing
• johndoe = the user we're adding
Again, no error = success!

Step 4: Verify it worked

1. Type: groups johndoe
What you see: johndoe : johndoe marketing
This means: johndoe is in both johndoe group (his own) and marketing group
Success!

📸 Take a screenshot of the terminal showing the groups command output

Activity 3: Setting Folder Permissions (20 mins)

Goal: Create a folder that only Marketing group can access.

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

Step 1: Create Marketing folder

1. Open File Explorer (Windows Key + E)
2. Go to C:\ drive
3. Right-click → New → Folder
4. Name it: MarketingFiles
What we have: Empty folder that anyone can access (we'll fix that!)

Step 2: Open folder properties

1. Right-click on MarketingFiles folder
2. Click Properties
3. Click the Security tab
What you see: List of users/groups that can access this folder
Currently: Everyone can access it

📸 Take a screenshot of Security tab before changes

Step 3: Add Marketing group

1. Click Edit... button
2. Click Add...
3. Type: Marketing
4. Click Check Names
5. Click OK
6. Select Marketing in the list
7. In the permissions below, check these boxes under "Allow":
• ✅ Read & execute
• ✅ List folder contents
• ✅ Read
• ✅ Write
8. Click Apply
9. Click OK twice
What this means: Marketing group can now read and write files here!

📸 Take a screenshot showing Marketing group with permissions checked

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - Mixed Method

Step 1: Create marketing folder (File Manager)

1. Open Files (file manager icon)
2. Go to Home
3. Right-click → New Folder
4. Name it: marketing_files
Note: Use lowercase and underscores (Linux naming convention)

Step 2: Change folder ownership (Terminal)

Open Terminal and type these commands one by one:

cd ~ (go to home folder)
sudo chgrp marketing marketing_files
What this does: Changes group ownership to marketing

sudo chmod 770 marketing_files
What this does: Owner full access, marketing full access, others no access

Step 3: Verify permissions

Type: ls -ld marketing_files
You should see: drwxrwx--- ... marketing
This means: Marketing group has full access (rwx = read, write, execute)

📸 Take a screenshot showing the ls -ld output

💡 What to Submit: Screenshots showing folder permissions configured for Marketing group on both systems.

Activity 4: Checking Services (15 mins)

Goal: Make sure important services are running.

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

Step 1: Open Services

1. Right-click Start Menu
2. Click Computer Management
3. Expand Services and Applications
4. Click Services
What you see: Huge list of Windows services
Status column: Shows if service is Running or Stopped

📸 Take a screenshot of Services window

Step 2: Check Print Spooler service

1. Scroll down and find Print Spooler
2. Look at Status column - should say "Running"
3. Double-click on Print Spooler
What you see: Properties window with service details
Startup type: Should be "Automatic"
What this means: Printer service starts when computer boots

Step 3: Practice stopping and starting a service

1. With Print Spooler properties open
2. Click Stop button
3. Wait... Status changes to "Stopped"
4. Click Start button
5. Status changes back to "Running"
6. Click OK to close
Why practice this: Sometimes you need to restart services after updates

📸 Take a screenshot of Print Spooler properties showing it's Running

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - Simple Terminal

Step 1: Check SSH service

Open Terminal and type:
systemctl status ssh
What you see:
• Active: active (running) - Good! Service is working
• Or inactive (dead) - Service is stopped
Press Q to exit this view
What SSH is: Lets you connect to this computer remotely

📸 Take a screenshot showing ssh service status

Step 2: See all running services (simple view)

Type: systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running
What you see: List of active services
Look for: Green dots (●) = running
Press Q to exit when done looking

🎯 Easy Level Summary

What You Completed:

✅ Created 2 user accounts using GUI (JohnDoe, JaneSmith)
✅ Created a Marketing group
✅ Added users to groups
✅ Set folder permissions for groups
✅ Checked services are running

💡 Ready for more? When you're comfortable with these GUI methods, try the Medium level to mix GUI with some basic commands!

MEDIUM LEVEL - Mixed GUI & Commands

Activity 1: Advanced User Management (20 mins)

Goal: Use both GUI and commands to efficiently manage multiple users.

🪟 Windows - Command Prompt Method

Create users with commands

Open Command Prompt (cmd) as Administrator:
net user JohnDoe Password123! /add /fullname:"John Doe" /comment:"Marketing"
net user JaneSmith Password123! /add /fullname:"Jane Smith" /comment:"IT Staff"
Why commands: Much faster than clicking through GUI for multiple users
Verify: net user (shows all users)

Create group and add members

net localgroup Marketing /add /comment:"Marketing Department"
net localgroup Marketing JohnDoe /add
Verify: net localgroup Marketing
Pro tip: Much faster than GUI for bulk operations

📸 Take a screenshot showing the net localgroup Marketing output

Set folder permissions (command)

Create folder: mkdir C:\MarketingFiles
Set permissions: icacls C:\MarketingFiles /grant Marketing:(OI)(CI)M
Breaking it down:
• /grant = give permissions
• (OI)(CI) = inherit to subfolders and files
• M = Modify (read, write, delete)
Verify: icacls C:\MarketingFiles

🐧 Linux - Terminal Commands

Create users with commands

sudo adduser johndoe
Follow prompts (set password, full name, etc.)
sudo adduser janesmith
View all users: cat /etc/passwd | grep -E "johndoe|janesmith"

Create group and add members

sudo groupadd marketing
sudo usermod -aG marketing johndoe
sudo usermod -aG marketing janesmith
Verify both members: getent group marketing
Should show: marketing:x:1001:johndoe,janesmith

📸 Take a screenshot of getent group marketing output

Create and secure folder

sudo mkdir /home/marketing_files
sudo chgrp marketing /home/marketing_files
sudo chmod 770 /home/marketing_files
Add sticky bit for security:
sudo chmod +t /home/marketing_files
What sticky bit does: Users can only delete their own files
Verify: ls -ld /home/marketing_files

Activity 2: Service Management & Monitoring (25 mins)

🪟 Windows - Services via Command Line

Query service status

sc query Spooler
Shows: Current state, if running, PID
Alternative: net start (lists all running services)

Stop and start service

net stop Spooler
net start Spooler
Or restart: sc stop Spooler && sc start Spooler
Why && : Means "do second command only if first succeeds"

View running processes

tasklist
Shows: All processes with PID and memory usage
Find specific process: tasklist | findstr "chrome"
Sort by memory: Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) for better view

📸 Take a screenshot of tasklist output

🐧 Linux - systemctl Commands

Check service status

systemctl status ssh
systemctl status cron
Check if enabled at boot: systemctl is-enabled ssh

Manage services

sudo systemctl stop cron
sudo systemctl start cron
Or restart: sudo systemctl restart cron
Enable at boot: sudo systemctl enable cron

Monitor processes

ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10
Shows: Top 10 CPU-hungry processes
Real-time monitoring: top (press Q to exit)
Better tool: htop if installed (sudo apt install htop)

📸 Take a screenshot of top command showing processes

Activity 3: System Monitoring (20 mins)

Check disk space

GUI: Open This PC to see drive space
Command: wmic logicaldisk get size,freespace,caption
What you see: Size and free space in bytes
Tip: Divide by 1073741824 to get GB

View event logs (GUI)

1. Right-click Start → Event Viewer
2. Expand Windows Logs
3. Click System
Look for: Red (Error) and Yellow (Warning) icons
Double-click an event to see details

📸 Take a screenshot of Event Viewer showing system logs

Check disk space

df -h
Focus on Use% column - over 90% is bad
Check folder sizes: du -sh /home/*
What this shows: How much space each user's home folder uses

Check memory and CPU

Memory: free -h
CPU: lscpu
System uptime: uptime
Uptime shows: How long system has been running, load averages

View logs

System log: sudo tail -50 /var/log/syslog
Login attempts: sudo tail -50 /var/log/auth.log
Search for errors: sudo grep -i error /var/log/syslog | tail -20

📸 Take a screenshot showing log file output

🎯 Medium Level Summary

New Skills Learned:

✅ Command line user management (net user, adduser)
✅ Command line permission management (icacls, chmod)
✅ Service management via commands (sc, systemctl)
✅ Process monitoring (tasklist, ps, top)
✅ System resource checking (wmic, df, free)
✅ Log file analysis (Event Viewer, /var/log)

💡 Ready for the challenge? The Hard level uses PowerShell and advanced Terminal commands - perfect for becoming a power user!

HARD LEVEL - PowerShell & Advanced Terminal

Activity 1: Scripted User Management (25 mins)

Goal: Create multiple users efficiently using scripting techniques.

🪟 Windows - PowerShell Advanced

Create users with secure passwords

$Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "Pass123!" -AsPlainText -Force
New-LocalUser -Name "JohnDoe" -Password $Password -FullName "John Doe" -Description "Marketing"
New-LocalUser -Name "JaneSmith" -Password $Password -FullName "Jane Smith" -Description "IT Staff"
View all users: Get-LocalUser | Format-Table Name,Enabled,Description

Bulk create users from array

$Users = @( @{Name="User1"; FullName="Alice Brown"; Dept="Sales"}, @{Name="User2"; FullName="Bob Wilson"; Dept="Sales"}, @{Name="User3"; FullName="Carol Davis"; Dept="IT"} ) $Password = ConvertTo-SecureString "Pass123!" -AsPlainText -Force foreach ($User in $Users) { New-LocalUser -Name $User.Name -Password $Password -FullName $User.FullName -Description $User.Dept Write-Host "Created user: $($User.Name)" -ForegroundColor Green }

What this does: Creates 3 users automatically!
Real world: Create 50 users in seconds with this method

Advanced group management

New-LocalGroup -Name "Marketing" -Description "Marketing Department"
New-LocalGroup -Name "Sales" -Description "Sales Department"
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Marketing" -Member "JohnDoe"
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Sales" -Member "User1","User2"
View members: Get-LocalGroupMember -Group "Sales"
List all groups: Get-LocalGroup | Sort-Object Name

📸 Take a screenshot of Get-LocalGroupMember output

Advanced permission management

New-Item -Path "C:\MarketingFiles" -ItemType Directory
New-Item -Path "C:\SalesFiles" -ItemType Directory
$Acl = Get-Acl "C:\MarketingFiles"
$Permission = "Marketing","Modify","ContainerInherit,ObjectInherit","None","Allow"
$AccessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule $Permission
$Acl.SetAccessRule($AccessRule)
Set-Acl "C:\MarketingFiles" $Acl
Verify: Get-Acl "C:\MarketingFiles" | Format-List

🐧 Linux - Advanced Terminal & Scripting

Create users with useradd (advanced)

sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash -c "John Doe - Marketing" johndoe
echo "johndoe:Password123!" | sudo chpasswd
Breaking it down:
• -m = create home directory
• -s /bin/bash = set default shell
• -c = comment/description
• chpasswd = set password from command

Bulk create users with script

Create a file: nano create_users.sh
Paste this script:

#!/bin/bash # Bulk user creation script USERS=("alice:Sales" "bob:Sales" "carol:IT") for USER in "${USERS[@]}"; do USERNAME=$(echo $USER | cut -d: -f1) DEPT=$(echo $USER | cut -d: -f2) sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash -c "$DEPT Employee" $USERNAME echo "$USERNAME:Password123!" | sudo chpasswd echo "Created user: $USERNAME in $DEPT" done

Save (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter)
Make executable: chmod +x create_users.sh
Run: ./create_users.sh

Advanced group and permission setup

sudo groupadd marketing
sudo groupadd sales
sudo usermod -aG marketing johndoe
sudo usermod -aG sales alice,bob
sudo mkdir -p /data/{marketing,sales}
sudo chgrp marketing /data/marketing
sudo chgrp sales /data/sales
sudo chmod 2770 /data/marketing /data/sales
The 2 prefix: Sets SGID bit - files inherit group ownership

📸 Take a screenshot of ls -la /data output

Activity 2: Advanced Service & Process Management (25 mins)

🪟 PowerShell Service Management

Query services with filtering

Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Running"} | Sort-Object DisplayName
Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.StartType -eq "Automatic" -and $_.Status -eq "Stopped"}
What this finds: Services that should be running but aren't!
Export to file: Get-Service | Export-Csv C:\services.csv

Service dependency analysis

Get-Service -Name "Spooler" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ServicesDependedOn
What this shows: Services that Spooler needs to run
Get-Service -Name "Spooler" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty DependentServices
What this shows: Services that need Spooler to run

Advanced process management

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 | Format-Table Name,CPU,WorkingSet -AutoSize
Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.WorkingSet -gt 100MB} | Sort-Object WorkingSet -Descending
What this finds: Memory-hungry processes
Kill a process: Stop-Process -Name "notepad" -Force

📸 Take a screenshot of top CPU consumers

🐧 Advanced systemd Management

Service analysis & filtering

systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running --no-pager
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=failed
What failed shows: Services that crashed
systemctl list-unit-files --type=service --state=enabled
Shows: Services that start at boot

Service dependency tree

systemctl list-dependencies ssh
Shows: Everything SSH needs to run
systemctl list-dependencies ssh --reverse
Shows: Services that depend on SSH

Advanced process management

ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -10
ps aux --sort=-%cpu | awk 'NR<=11{print $0}'
Find process by name: pgrep -a firefox
Kill process: pkill firefox
Process tree: pstree -p

📸 Take a screenshot of memory-sorted processes

Activity 3: System Monitoring & Automation (20 mins)

Comprehensive system information

Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object CsName,OsArchitecture,OsTotalVisibleMemorySize,OsFreePhysicalMemory
Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem | Select-Object Name,Used,Free
Get-CimInstance Win32_Processor | Select-Object Name,NumberOfCores,NumberOfLogicalProcessors,MaxClockSpeed

Advanced event log analysis

Get-EventLog -LogName System -EntryType Error -Newest 20 | Format-Table TimeGenerated,Source,Message -Wrap
Get-EventLog -LogName Security -InstanceId 4625 -Newest 10
What 4625 is: Failed login attempts
Get-EventLog -LogName System | Group-Object EntryType | Sort-Object Count -Descending
Shows: Count of errors, warnings, information

📸 Take a screenshot of error log summary

Create monitoring script

Create file: C:\monitor.ps1

# System Health Monitor $Date = Get-Date $Report = "System Report - $Date`n`n" # Disk Space $Disks = Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem | Where-Object {$_.Free -ne $null} $Report += "=== Disk Space ===`n" foreach ($Disk in $Disks) { $PercentFree = [math]::Round(($Disk.Free / ($Disk.Used + $Disk.Free)) * 100, 2) $Report += "$($Disk.Name): $PercentFree% free`n" } # Services $StoppedServices = Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.StartType -eq "Automatic" -and $_.Status -eq "Stopped"} $Report += "`n=== Stopped Services (Should be Running) ===`n" $Report += $StoppedServices.Name -join "`n" # Save report $Report | Out-File C:\system_report.txt Write-Host "Report saved to C:\system_report.txt" -ForegroundColor Green

Run: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\monitor.ps1

System information gathering

df -h | awk 'NR==1 || $5+0 > 80 {print $0}'
What this does: Shows only partitions over 80% full
free -h && echo "---" && uptime && echo "---" && lscpu | grep "Model name"
One-liner system summary!

Advanced log analysis

sudo journalctl -p err -S today
Shows: All errors from today
sudo journalctl -u ssh.service --since "1 hour ago"
Shows: SSH logs from last hour
sudo grep "Failed password" /var/log/auth.log | wc -l
Counts: Failed login attempts

📸 Take a screenshot of journalctl error output

Create monitoring script

Create file: nano ~/monitor.sh

#!/bin/bash # System Health Monitor echo "=== System Health Report ===" echo "Date: $(date)" echo "" # Disk Space Alert echo "=== Disk Space (>80% usage) ===" df -h | awk 'NR==1 || $5+0 > 80' echo "" # Memory Usage echo "=== Memory Usage ===" free -h | grep "Mem:" echo "" # Failed Services echo "=== Failed Services ===" systemctl list-units --type=service --state=failed --no-pager echo "" # Recent Errors echo "=== Recent System Errors (last 10) ===" sudo journalctl -p err -n 10 --no-pager echo "Report complete!"

Save, make executable: chmod +x ~/monitor.sh
Run: ./monitor.sh

🎯 Hard Level Summary

Advanced Skills Mastered:

✅ Bulk user creation with scripts
✅ Advanced ACL/permission management
✅ Service dependency analysis
✅ Complex filtering and sorting
✅ Event log analysis & pattern matching
✅ System monitoring automation
✅ Creating reusable monitoring scripts

🎓 Congratulations! You've completed the advanced level! These scripting skills will make you highly efficient at system administration. Practice these regularly to become a power user!

🖥️ Week 2: User Management, Services & System Monitoring

Activity 1: Creating Users with GUI (20 mins)

🪟 Windows Server 2019 - GUI Method

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - GUI Method

Activity 2: Creating Groups and Adding Members (20 mins)

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - GUI Method

Activity 3: Setting Folder Permissions (20 mins)

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - Mixed Method

Activity 4: Checking Services (15 mins)

🪟 Windows Server - GUI Method

🐧 Linux Ubuntu - Simple Terminal

🎯 Easy Level Summary

What You Completed:

Activity 1: Advanced User Management (20 mins)

🪟 Windows - Command Prompt Method

🐧 Linux - Terminal Commands

Activity 2: Service Management & Monitoring (25 mins)

🪟 Windows - Services via Command Line

🐧 Linux - systemctl Commands

Activity 3: System Monitoring (20 mins)

🎯 Medium Level Summary

New Skills Learned:

Activity 1: Scripted User Management (25 mins)

🪟 Windows - PowerShell Advanced

🐧 Linux - Advanced Terminal & Scripting

Activity 2: Advanced Service & Process Management (25 mins)

🪟 PowerShell Service Management

🐧 Advanced systemd Management

Activity 3: System Monitoring & Automation (20 mins)

🎯 Hard Level Summary

Advanced Skills Mastered: