Systems Administration: users, networks and updates

01

Know what you manage: inventory and the admin log

In simple words

A school librarian knows every book in the library and who borrowed it. A systems administrator does the same with computers, programs and accounts. You cannot protect something you do not know you have.

Key facts

Before this course: IT Support in Practice (course 7.10.2). You can already isolate problems, use recovery tools, test a network layer by layer and work tickets. Now you move from fixing one computer to looking after a whole small office.
A systems administrator (sysadmin) looks after the shared parts: accounts, permissions, the network, updates and backups.
The CIS Controls v8.1 are a widely used list of 18 security controls. The first two are about knowing what you have:
Control 1: Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets (devices).
Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets (programs).
Others that this course touches: 5 Account Management, 6 Access Control Management, 7 Continuous Vulnerability Management, 8 Audit Log Management, 11 Data Recovery, 12 Network Infrastructure Management.
A simple asset inventory has one row per device: name, type, owner or user, location, operating system and version, serial number, purchase date, and whether it is backed up.
A software inventory lists each program, version, who uses it, and where the licence is kept.
An account inventory lists each user account and each admin account, what it can access, and the date it was last reviewed.
An admin log (change log) records every change: date, who made it, what changed, why, and how to undo it. It saves hours when something breaks later.
Keep passwords out of the inventory and the log. They belong in a password manager.

Step by step

Open a spreadsheet and make three tabs: Devices, Software, Accounts.
Walk through the office (or your home) and add every device, including printers, the router and phones that read work email.
For each computer, write the operating system and version (Windows 11: Settings > System > About; Mac: Apple menu > About This Mac).
In the Software tab, list the main programs on each computer and their versions.
In the Accounts tab, list each person's account and mark which accounts are administrators.
Make a fourth tab called Admin log with the columns date, who, what changed, why, how to undo.
Write your first log entry: "Created inventory".
Check: you can answer "how many computers do we have, and which ones are not backed up?" in under a minute.

LESSON 01Know what you manage: inventory and the admin log

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:10

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Before you fix the office, count it. Every laptop, every printer, every account."
[Screen: a spreadsheet with Devices, Software, Accounts tabs] "One row per device. Who uses it, what system it runs, is it backed up?"
[Text on screen: You cannot protect what you do not know you have] "That is why the first two CIS Controls are inventories."
[Host] "And from today, every change goes in the admin log. Future you will say thank you."

Try it now

Build the inventory for your home or a pretend office of five people. Mark in red any device that is out of date, has no backup, or that nobody owns. Write three log entries for changes you would make first.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Systems Administration: users, networks and updates" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Know what you manage: inventory and the admin log".

What the lesson teaches:
- Before this course: IT Support in Practice (course 7.10.2). You can already isolate problems, use recovery tools, test a network layer by layer and work tickets. Now you move from fixing one computer to looking after a whole small office.
- A systems administrator (sysadmin) looks after the shared parts: accounts, permissions, the network, updates and backups.
- The CIS Controls v8.1 are a widely used list of 18 security controls. The first two are about knowing what you have:
- Control 1: Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets (devices).
- Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets (programs).
- Others that this course touches: 5 Account Management, 6 Access Control Management, 7 Continuous Vulnerability Management, 8 Audit Log Management, 11 Data Recovery, 12 Network Infrastructure Management.
- A simple asset inventory has one row per device: name, type, owner or user, location, operating system and version, serial number, purchase date, and whether it is backed up.

The exercise I'm working on:
Build the inventory for your home or a pretend office of five people. Mark in red any device that is out of date, has no backup, or that nobody owns. Write three log entries for changes you would make first.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Know what you manage: inventory and the admin log" from the course "Systems Administration: users, networks and updates".

Here's what the lesson says:
A school librarian knows every book in the library and who borrowed it. A systems administrator does the same with computers, programs and accounts. You cannot protect something you do not know you have.

The activity:
Build the inventory for your home or a pretend office of five people. Mark in red any device that is out of date, has no backup, or that nobody owns. Write three log entries for changes you would make first.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

CIS, CIS Controls v8.1 list: www.cisecurity.org/controls/cis-controls-list
Microsoft Support, Which version of Windows am I running: support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-version-of-windows-operating
Apple Support, Find out which macOS your Mac is using: support.apple.com/en-us/109033

My notes

I learned this

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