Linux System Administration

CTIS 486 is about learning to run a Linux box as its operator rather than just use it as a user, owning the machine end-to-end, from the kernel boot path up through the services people actually depend on. You'll spend the semester at a terminal: installing and configuring systems, managing users and permissions, automating work with bash scripts, and standing up real services like SSH, DNS, web servers, and databases, with a practical skills-based final that tests whether you can actually do the work. It's a hands-on capstone for the sysadmin side of CTIS, leaning on your earlier OS and networking background, and it's the course that turns abstract knowledge of how Linux works into the muscle memory you need for DevOps, backend, or infrastructure roles.