More than 300,000 UNIX installations worldwide support over a million users. In comparison with other existing operating systems, UNIX offers more flexibility and a greater set of comprehensive services. Its powerful features permit many users to use one system, and the multitasking capacity allows users to perform several processes at the same time. Its support of open systems architecture, and its unique multitasking features, have made UNIX one of the most popular operating systems today.

The Certificate Program in UNIX is designed for those currently in the computer industry who want to upgrade their skills, and for those with basic computer literacy who want to enter this fast-growing field. The program curriculum combines theory and practical applications. Students learn skills that are immediately applicable in the workplace as well as C Programming, the language in which most networking software is written.

Many of the courses in the UNIX certificate program may be used to satisfy requirements in the Information Technology and Data/Telecommunications Certificate Programs, as well as the A.S. or B.S. degrees in Information Technology.

Note: The UNIX Certificate is available in accelerated and online formats.

Required Courses: (4)
90.267 C Programming
90.311 Introduction to the UNIX Operating System
90.312 Shell Scripting
90.360 Introduction to Data Structures

Electives - Choose 2:
90.268 C++ Programming
90.269 Advanced C++
90.313 UNIX Internals Overview
90.316 UNIX System Administration
90.318 Advanced UNIX Internals/Tuning
90.319 Introduction to Linux
90.321 Linux System Administration

Course Descriptions

90.267 C Programming
Introduces students to the techniques of programming in C. The language syntax, semantics, its applications, and the portable library are covered. This course is not an introductory course in programming. However, it will teach some of the basics in the first few weeks. Students should have a working knowledge of at least one high-level programming language.
Prerequisite: Previous programming experience
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Students may not receive credit for both the 90.211/90.212 sequence and 90.267
This course qualifies for free MSDNA software!

90.268 C++ Programming
This course will cover the C++ language and show the student how to use the language. We will cover class construction, operator overloading, virtual functions, templates, and introduce the student to the IO streams. Inheritance and its use in creating extendible libraries will be presented. Object-oriented concepts will be presented in the context of the C++ language and its support for object-oriented programming.
Prerequisite: 90.267 or 90.212
Credits: 3
Special Notes:
This course qualifies for free MSDNA software!

90.269 Advanced C++
Serves as a continuation of 90.268, with emphasis on Object Oriented Programming with C++. Design issues and programming guidelines will be discussed. Inheritance, dynamic binding, overloaded operators, abstract classes, and class hierarchies will be covered in more detail, with course projects concentrating on these areas.
Prerequisite: 90.268, experience with Data Structures.
Credits: 3
Special Notes:
This course qualifies for free MSDNA software!

90.311 Introduction to the UNIX Operating System
Addresses manipulating and maintaining files within the UNIX file system; creating and editing text files using the vi and ed editors; using pipes, redirection, and filters; using advanced text processing utilities; using electronic mail; writing and debugging shell scripts; submitting and executing processes.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

90.312 Shell Scripting
Teaches the students the techniques of programming in the high-level programming language of the Bourne, Korn and BASH Shells. The course covers the building blocks necessary to create portable shell scripts that can be used as new utilities for computers running either UNIX, Linux, or the Cygwin environment on Windows.
Prerequisite: 90.311, and 90.267 or 90.212
Credits: 3

90.313 UNIX Internals Overview
Focuses on the fundamentals of UNIX kernel architectures. Topics covered in this course are: the file system, process creation, signals, process scheduling, context switching, memory management, virtual memory device driver basics and the I/O subsystem, system boot, the init process.
Prerequisite: 90.312.
Credits: 3

90.316 UNIX System Administration
Addresses the fundamentals necessary to set up/adjust a UNIX system to produce an efficient and secure operating system environment. System starting and shutdown, file system partitioning and maintenance, user and group administration, backup and recovery, setting up terminals, printers and communications devices are topics which will be discussed.
Prerequisite: 90.312
Credits: 3

90.318 Advanced UNIX Internals/Tuning
This course provides an overview of performance and tuning principles and tools in the UNIX operating system. The course covers principles of performance analysis and usage of performance measurement tools, such as sar, vmstat, iostat, and nfsstat. Coverage is given on how to identify memory, I/O, and CPU bottlenecks, and it gives recommended solutions. Since knowledge of several of the major OS kernel subsystems is required to understand the information provided by the performance monitoring tools, the course provides an in-depth view of the operating system's major kernel subsystems. These include virtual memory system, process lifetime cycles and scheduling and the UNIX file system. The course will describe the kernel subsystems of a typical UNIX operating system and as needed, add the differences between the different flavors of UNIX, such as BSD and SYSTEM V. The course will also include some simple rules of thumb to guide the tuning process.
Prerequisite: 90.313.
Credits: 3

90.319 Introduction to Linux
Course addresses management of the Linux file system and utilities; file editing; file permissions; pipes, redirection, and filters; text handling utilities; mail facility; BASH shell, variables, and basic scripts; process management; and shell programming basics. Course content mirrors 90.311 but focuses on usage of Linux as an alternative UNIX-based operating system. Students will be exposed to Linux principles through hands-on labwork utilizing a Linux server.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

90.321 Linux System Administration
The course will start by exploring the booting and setting up stand-alone system. Students will learn how to set up and manage user accounts, how to manage other resources such as disk space, CPU usage and user access to shared resources with maximization of security in mind. Since virtually all systems are networked today we will proceed to learn about e-mail (POP and SMTP protocols), Web servers and networking services. The course will present the following Internet services: DNS, FTP, telnet, HTTP (Apache Web Server), SSH. The intranet topics will be discussed including Network File System (NFS), Network Information Services (NIS) and interoperability with Windows system via Samba. At the conclusion of the course students will explore topics in networking: network configuration, security and interoperability.
Prerequisite: P: Shell Scripting experience
Credits: 3

90.360 Introduction to Data Structures
This course presents the basic concepts of data. It covers stacks, queues, linear, and linked lists using C. Trees, graphs, search, and sorting techniques also will be covered.
Prerequisite: 90.267, or 90.212 and 90.364
Credits: 3
Special Notes:
This course qualifies for free MSDNA software!

Certificate Requirements

Students enrolled in UMass Lowell certificate programs must complete the indicated series of certificate program courses, generally consisting of both required courses and electives. Students may complete the certificate programs at their own pace, enrolling in one or two courses per semester (which is the average recommended course load). Students should anticipate at least two hours of preparation for every hour of classroom instruction and they are required to maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or better to receive the certificate.

Courses held on campus typically meet one night per week, three hours each night, for 14 weeks during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters (Summer courses are also offered over two 6-week condensed sessions). Call for a course bulletin or check our website course listings for specific course scheduling information.

For students who are pursuing a certificate program online, UMass Lowell's online courses generally meet for 14 weeks, and students log on to their course site one or more times per week to retrieve lectures and assignments or to participate in a chat session. For more information on online course listings, please refer to the UMass Lowell online course website at http://continuinged.uml.edu/online.