Ruankao Information System Management Engineer (Intermediate) key terms
Ruankao Information System Management Engineer (Intermediate) · Get comfortable with the vocabulary.
- Incident management
Coordinating the restoration of acceptable service after a disruption, while communicating status and managing relevant impacts. Complete root-cause investigation can continue separately through problem-management work.
- Configuration item
A component or other managed element whose state and relationships are relevant to delivering a service. Accurate ownership, versions and dependencies support impact analysis and controlled change.
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Related: Log Management, Incident Response
A system that collects, aggregates, and analyzes log data from various sources to detect security incidents and support compliance reporting.
- Incident Response
- Related: Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Business Continuity Plan
A structured approach to handling security incidents, typically including preparation, detection, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned.
- Server roles
- Related: Virtualisation, Backup and recovery
Discrete functions installed on a server operating system, such as web, mail, file, or directory services. Separating roles limits attack surface, and each role needs its own ports, storage, and update plan.
- Virtualisation
- Related: Server roles, VLAN
Running multiple isolated guest systems on shared physical hardware through a hypervisor, improving utilisation and enabling snapshots and live migration. It also changes network design, adding virtual switches and overlays.
- TLB miss
A failed lookup in the translation cache, requiring the processor’s defined translation procedure. It does not alone establish that the target virtual page is absent from physical memory.
- Page fault
An architectural exception caused by an absent or disallowed page translation or access under the platform model. Handling depends on mapping, protection and residency rather than always reading a disk.
- IPv4 addressing and subnetting
- Related: CIDR, Default gateway
Dotted-decimal 32-bit addresses split into network and host parts by a prefix length or mask. Subnetting borrows host bits to create smaller networks, and correct mask and gateway planning is fundamental to routing design.
- CIDR
- Related: IPv4 addressing and subnetting, Longest prefix match
Classless Inter-Domain Routing expresses prefixes as address plus length, such as 192.168.10.0/24, and allows route aggregation. It replaced fixed address classes and is the notation used throughout routing configuration.
- Default gateway
- Related: IPv4 addressing and subnetting, Static route
The router address a host uses when the destination is outside its own subnet. A wrong or missing gateway, or one on a different subnet, is a common cause of partial connectivity.
- ARP
- Related: MAC address, ICMP
Address Resolution Protocol maps a known IPv4 address to a link-layer MAC address by broadcasting a request and caching the reply. Stale or spoofed ARP entries cause intermittent loss or man-in-the-middle attacks.
- ICMP
- Related: ARP, Traceroute
Internet Control Message Protocol carries error and diagnostic messages between IP nodes, powering ping and traceroute. Many networks filter selected ICMP types, so blocked replies do not always mean a host is down.
- Traceroute
- Related: ICMP, TTL
A diagnostic technique that sends packets with increasing time-to-live values and collects ICMP time-exceeded replies, revealing each router hop. It helps locate where paths diverge or where filtering begins.
- TTL
- Related: Traceroute, ICMP
Time To Live is an IPv4 header counter decremented at every router; reaching zero discards the packet and triggers an ICMP message. It limits looping packets and is exploited by traceroute.
- Longest prefix match
- Related: CIDR, Static route
The rule that a router chooses the most specific matching route when several entries fit a destination. It explains why a host route overrides a summary and why default routes are used only as a last resort.
- Static route
- Related: OSPF, Default gateway
A manually configured path to a destination network, with a next hop or outgoing interface. Simple and predictable in small networks, but it does not adapt to failures unless paired with tracking or dynamic routing.
- OSPF
- Related: RIP, BGP
A link-state interior gateway protocol that floods link information, builds a common topology database, and computes shortest paths with Dijkstra's algorithm. Areas limit flooding, and neighbour adjacency requires matching parameters.
- RIP
- Related: OSPF, Static route
A distance-vector interior protocol using hop count as its metric and periodic updates, with a maximum usable count of 15. Simple to configure but slow to converge, which limits it to small or lab environments.
- BGP
- Related: OSPF, Autonomous system
The path-vector protocol that exchanges routes between autonomous systems on the Internet, selecting paths using attributes such as AS path and local preference. It scales by policy control rather than link-state flooding.
- Autonomous system
- Related: BGP, OSPF
A group of networks under one administrative authority and routing policy, identified by an AS number. Interior protocols run inside it; exterior protocols such as BGP connect it to other autonomous systems.
- NAT
- Related: IPv6, IPv4 addressing and subnetting
Network Address Translation rewrites addresses and often ports as packets cross between private and public addressing realms. It conserves public IPv4 space but complicates inbound access and protocols carrying addresses in payloads.
- IPv6
- Related: NAT, ICMP
The 128-bit successor to IPv4 with a vastly larger address space, built-in neighbour discovery, and no broadcast. Transition techniques include dual stack and tunnelling, and prefix delegation is common on access links.
- Fragmentation
- Related: MTU, PDU
Splitting an IP packet into smaller pieces so it fits a link's MTU, with reassembly at the destination. It adds overhead and risk of loss; IPv6 moves the decision to the source instead of routers.
- Encryption
- Related: Authentication, Malware
The process of converting readable data into an encoded form that unauthorized people cannot easily understand. A key is used to encrypt and typically to decrypt the data.
- Authentication
- Related: Encryption, Malware
The process of verifying a user's or system's claimed identity, often through passwords, tokens, biometrics, or multi-factor methods. It answers whether the identity is genuine.
- Phishing
- Related: Malware, Authentication
A social-engineering attack that tricks people into revealing sensitive information or clicking malicious links by impersonating a trustworthy organization or person.
- Malware
- Related: Phishing, Encryption
Software designed to harm, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system. Examples include viruses, worms, ransomware, spyware, and trojan horses.
- Digital divide
- Related: Intellectual property
The gap between people who have effective access to digital technologies and those who do not, often due to cost, location, skills, or infrastructure.
- Intellectual property
- Related: Digital divide, Malware
Legal rights that protect creations of the mind, such as inventions, artistic works, software, and trademarks. These rights control use, copying, and distribution.