BSc (Hons) Computer Science with

Network Security
Cohort: BCNS/16A/FT

Examinations for 2017 / Semester 1

Resit Examinations for BCNS/15A/FT &
BCNS/15B/FT

MODULE: OPERATING SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION

MODULE CODE: OSS2113C

Duration: 2 Hours 30 minutes

Instructions to Candidates:

1. This paper contains four questions

2. Answer all four questions
3. Questions may be answered in any order but your answers must
show the question number clearly.
4. Always start a new question on a fresh page
5. Total marks 100.

This question paper contains 4 questions and 3 pages.

Page 1 of 4
Operating Systems Administration (OSS2113C) SITE/June 2017 Sem 1
QUESTION 1: (25 MARKS)

(a) List five responsibilities of an Operating System. (5 marks)

(b) Give four reasons to justify the use of the Linux Operating System. (4 marks)

(c) What does the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard define? (8 marks)

d) Write the Linux command to provide full permissions to the user, group and
anyone of the file named admin002 using chmod with 3 octal digits. (3 marks)

e) Explain the command chmod a+x admin001. (3 marks)

f) If the command chmod 000 myfile has been executed, what happens to the
permissions and who can access myfile?
(2 marks)

QUESTION 2: (25 MARKS)

(a) Define the term ‘process’ and what are the different constituents of a process.
(5 marks)

(b) What is meant by a process control block? (4 marks)

(c) Which information is held in a process control block? (5 marks)

(d) State three primary process operating states? (3 marks)

(e) Which transitions are possible between each of the states? (3 marks)

(f) Explain the difference between a process and a thread? (5 marks)

Page 2 of 4
Operating Systems Administration (OSS2113C) SITE/June 2017 Sem 1
QUESTION 3: (25 MARKS)

(a) Describe what is meant by a critical section.4 (5

marks)

(b) Give three examples of a critical section. (3 marks)

(c) State two hardware and two software approaches to mutual exclusion.
(4 marks)

(d) What is a semaphore? (3 marks)

(e) Contrast the difference between a weak and strong semaphore.

(4 marks)

(f) Describe process interaction in terms of competition and cooperation

(6 marks)

QUESTION 4: (25 MARKS)

(a) Define a ‘file’ and list four objectives of the file management system.
(5 marks)

(b) Explain the difference between contiguous and non-contiguous storage. Provide
disadvantages of contiguous storage in your answer. (6 marks)

(c) Describe two non-contiguous storage methods and discuss their suitability for
random access. (4 marks)

(d) Describe three types of file access methods. (6 marks)

(e) Why is fragmentation a problem and how can it be avoided? (4 marks)

Page 3 of 4
Operating Systems Administration (OSS2113C) SITE/June 2017 Sem 1
 ***END OF QUESTION PAPER***

Page 4 of 4
Operating Systems Administration (OSS2113C) SITE/June 2017 Sem 1