Need to make a brief exam for induction of Network Administrator

[morland]

Hi,

I need to make a entrance exam to filter the many applications that we have received for the post of Network Administrator. Below are some facts that you may find useful:

1. The O/S will be Windows (most likely 2003 otherwise 2008)
   
2. The Client PC's will be running Windows XP or Vista
   
3. The position will also require administration of MS-Exchange server
   
4. The position will require setting up the whole show (all the equipment and the LAN is already in place)
   
5. The candidate will need to gave a solid understanding of Active Directory, How to make use of Group Polices, and whatever else comes to your mind
   
6. We would like the person to be familiar with solutions like Wingate (or whatever is out there) to control misuse of the internet facility (simply by blocking certain sites)
   
7. It will be a LAN initially (no WAN)
   
8. There will be a router for internet connectivity
   
9. etc..
   

Can I request if the experts and gurus can share some questions (along with answers ofcourse) falling under the categories of Easy, Medium, and Difficult.

We want to get the right candidate and your help will be really appreciated. I will be glad to provide more details if needed.

Thanks

[tain]

Google can help with some of that, but it will come down to basic interviewing. Look at qualifications and experience. Find someone you trust.

Another idea is search around the forum for questions/topics that you think are relevant to the job. Then see what our community came up with as a solution. Print that out and you've got what you need

[MrJinje]

Here are 4 easy questions that would cost someone an interview

224.0.0.0

255.255.255.255

301.14.81.79

10.1.1.1

1) Ask them which IP address is Invalid = 301.14.81.79

2) Which IP is Private = 10.1.1.1

3) Which IP is the Multicast address = 224.0.0.0

4) Which is the Broadcast address = 255.255.255.255

Edited December 28, 2009 by MrJinje

[cluberti]

Those are good starts, but given this network admin "test" it should align with the business goals of the organization giving it as well. For example, knowing what tools would be used (there are lots, maybe naming one or more would be sufficient) to capture and analyze a network trace; or for another example if there are Cisco switches in the environment, knowing basic IOS commands would probably be a necessity for a network admin; another, knowledge of how to go about creating/updating/removing routing table entries on the OS(es) used in your environment would be another fairly useful question.

Also, your post seems to indicate this person is more of a SYSTEMS administrator, not necessarily just a NETWORK administrator - if so, any Windows admin worth their salt at least knows a bit of vbscript or powershell, a *good* systems administrator knows how to read and write code in C/C++ or any number of .NET languages (again, this looks like a Windows environment admin job), and a *very good* administrator can also use a debugger to solve problems. If your candidates don't know at least how to create and run vbscripts or can not answer the basic questions/answers posed here, know you are going to end up with an "average" admin at best even at that point (and likely worse). Of course this is just my opinion, but having been an admin many times over at many different places in the past, this was the one common trait amongst the "tiers" of Windows sysadmins at every place I ever worked.

Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that just about anyone can point and click or type a few commands at a terminal, and most people with a brain can do very basic troubleshooting and maintenance. However, an admin who can at least script shows some knowledge of automation, usually an indicator of administering multiple systems. An admin who can read/write code shows a deeper understanding of how programs work, with the OS, the network, etc., and an admin who can debug is someone who likely understands LOTS of things useful to being a good sysadmin, and likely knows enough about the OS and application stack (and how they do and do not work together) to be able to chew through lots of problems fairly quickly. An admin who's good with a debugger is hard to find, though if you do find one it would behoove you to keep him or her around.

There are LOTS of questions you would expect someone wanting to be a sysadmin to know, but without knowing MORE about the environment it is a bit difficult to do much more than guess at generic types of questions.

[CoffeeFiend]

any Windows admin worth their salt at least knows a bit of vbscript or powershell

QFT. Unfortunately, there's a LOT of admin folks out there who can't even do that. Admins who can't do basic stuff like this (and I've seen ridiculous numbers of them) are very inefficient.

But yeah, there's a lot of different things to cover: Active Directory, Group Policies, Exchange (good outlook knowledge definitely a plus), networking (including TCP/IP of course), IOS or Junos, etc. And preferably being fairly knowledgeable with everything else you'll need: Backup Exec or other backup software? SQL Server or other DBs? IIS? Sharepoint? Maintaining an intranet site? ... Basic knowledge of field-specific apps you use (CAD or whatever it may be) is always a plus.

[morland]

Hi All,

Thanks for your replies. Just need a basic exam so questions based on seting up a LAN, Active Directory, Group Policies, the IP address questions posted by MrJinje (for which I don;t know what are the correct answers), Basic questions related to setting up a MS-Exchange server, Data backup stuff. The set-up for which the network administrator will be hired is nothing fancy and I would rank it as a basic/standard set-up. There will be one router for use with the ISP so some questions can be based on that. We do not expect the person do have any kind of scripting/programming experience since that is not required.

So any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

P.S

MrJinje: What are the correct answers to your 4 questions.

[MrJinje]

MrJinje: What are the correct answers to your 4 questions.

Sounds like you want a simple test to weed out the lame-brains, better than wasting time to interview every candidate. Answers updated, see previous post.

So far, I have one question (thanks to Mr. Jinje).

Everybody gets one Edited December 28, 2009 by MrJinje

[morland]

Sounds like you want a simple test to weed out the idiots, better than wasting time to interview every candidate. Answers updated, see previous post.

I would not use the word idiots but yes even for a simple set-up (for which we plan to hire a network administrator) we DO want to weed out the candidates and then only invite those candidates for an interview who get a decent score on the exam first.

So I hope that everyone now understands the rationale why I would like to make an exam.

So far, I have one question (thanks to Mr. Jinje).

Can I really request help from expert forum members to help me come up with some more exams. Again something along the lines of setting up the LAN, MS-Exchange server, backup, AD, group polices, and other things.

Many advance thanks to everyone for their help.

[cluberti]

Sure, but you might also just want to search the internet for old MCSE exam questions (and answers). MCSE exams are pretty basic overall, so a good admin should be able to answer those sorts of questions for starters.

[MrJinje]

There are a few decent exchange questions here.

In case anyone is wondering, this is the second or third link from Tain's (see Post#2) google link.

[iamtheky]

I would certainly ask HOW questions.

Knowing the basics of adding a user to AD, OUs, and GPs is fun and all, but determining resourcefulness and gauging how the person works through issues will prove invaluable.

I would certainly include some logic questions just to make sure your candidate is not taking stabs by half-reading posts returned from a google search. That person will likely screw your network more times than save it.

Maybe not as in detail as http://www.west.net/~stewart/lwfaq.htm#1, but along those lines.

(again, this would be in addition to the AD issues)

I would also pose that you would like a custom, stripped, XP install; and see how many come back with Nlite as an answer. ***and eliminate them immediately from consideration, for many reasons*** (guarantee that weeds some candidates that think they are the best googlers ever)

Edited December 28, 2009 by iamtheky

[morland]

Thanks (again) everyone