Frequently Asked Unix System Administrator Interview Questions

A UNIX system administrator is a person who manages the multi-user computer system in an organization. He or she supports, monitors, tests and troubleshoots hardware and software problems. They also install new software releases, upgrade the system, perform procedures to prevent the spread of viruses, evaluate and install patches and resolve software related problems. An interview is a recruitment process in which an interviewer asks questions related to the job from an interviewee. It is a two way communication process. Given below are some common interview questions that come up again and again during interviews for this post.1. What do you understand by semaphore?A semaphore is a kind of inter process communication resource which is used for synchronization and mutual exclusion between any two asynchronous processes.2. How will you define a COM?COM is the short form for Component Object Model. It is a Microsoft platform for software components which is used to enable cross-application communication and dynamic object creation in any programming language that supports the technology. COM is often used in the software development world as an umbrella term that encompasses the OLE, ActiveX, COM+ and DCOM technologies. 3. What do you mean by UNIX?UNIX developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs. It runs on a range of computers from microprocessors to the largest mainframes. 4. Define some of the functions of a kernel?The kernel is a part of the Operating System that interacts directly with the hardware of computer, through device drivers that are built into the kernel. It provides set of services that can be used by programs, insulating these programs from the underlying hardware. A kernel is responsible for managing computer memory, allocating resource of the computer, controlling access to the computer, maintaining file system and handling interrupts and errors.5. What skills will you bring to our organization?Well, I am familiar with Sun, Solaris and Cisco Hardware, TCP/IP, Jumpstart, VERITAS Volume Manager, C-shell, Perl Oracle 8i, My SQL, Solaris Production, Apache, Sun Server, UNIX and Linux.6. What occupation specific tasks have you undertaken in your previous organization?In my previous organization I used to monitor and tune system, develop and maintain the documents, library and procedural documents and install and configure the modem, routers, hubs and LAN terminal servers.These are some of the important interview questions that are frequently asked. Do not forget to say "thank you" to the person or people who interviewed you.