Competencies: Networking > Network Services
Network Services
Body of Knowledge
| Topic | Description | Relevance | Career Tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
DNS Fundamentals |
Name resolution hierarchy, recursive vs authoritative, record types (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, PTR), TTL, caching behavior. |
Critical |
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, SRE |
DNS Server Administration (BIND) |
Zone file management, primary/secondary configuration, zone transfers (AXFR/IXFR), views for split-horizon, logging and troubleshooting. |
High |
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer |
DNSSEC |
DNS Security Extensions, zone signing, key management (ZSK/KSK), chain of trust, NSEC/NSEC3, DNSSEC validation configuration. |
Medium |
Security Engineer, Systems Administrator |
DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (DoH/DoT) |
Encrypted DNS protocols, privacy implications, enterprise deployment considerations, recursive resolver configuration. |
Medium |
Security Engineer, Network Engineer |
DHCP Fundamentals |
Address allocation lifecycle (DORA), options (gateway, DNS, domain), lease management, relay agents (option 82), conflict detection. |
Critical |
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer |
DHCP Server Administration |
ISC DHCP, Kea DHCP, Windows DHCP Server, pools and scopes, reservations, failover configurations, IPAM integration. |
High |
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer |
NTP and Time Synchronization |
Stratum hierarchy, NTP vs SNTP, chrony vs ntpd, time source selection, authentication, PTP (IEEE 1588) for precision timing. |
High |
Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, SRE |
RADIUS/AAA |
Authentication, Authorization, Accounting; RADIUS protocol, attribute-value pairs, VSAs, proxy and accounting, FreeRADIUS configuration. |
Critical |
Security Engineer, Network Engineer, IAM Engineer |
SNMP |
Network management protocol, versions (v1/v2c/v3), MIBs, OIDs, traps vs polling, security considerations, SNMPv3 authentication/encryption. |
High |
Network Engineer, SRE, Systems Administrator |
Syslog |
Centralized logging, severity levels, facility codes, rsyslog/syslog-ng configuration, log forwarding, log analysis integration. |
High |
Systems Administrator, Security Engineer, SRE |
TFTP/FTP/SFTP |
File transfer protocols for network device management, firmware upgrades, configuration backup, security tradeoffs. |
Medium |
Network Engineer, Systems Administrator |
IP Address Management (IPAM) |
Centralized IP tracking, DHCP/DNS integration, NetBox, phpIPAM, Infoblox, subnet planning, IP allocation workflows. |
High |
Network Engineer, Cloud Architect |
Personal Status
| Topic | Level | Evidence | Active Projects | Gaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
DNS / BIND |
Advanced |
Built BIND9 HA pair (primary/secondary) for domus-digitalis.dev — forward zones, reverse zones, DNSSEC-aware forwarding, split-horizon DNS; manages CHLA DNS entries |
No DNSSEC signing, no anycast DNS, no DNS-over-HTTPS deployment |
|
DHCP |
Advanced |
DHCP server configuration on VyOS and ISC DHCP; option 82 relay, pool management, static reservations; CHLA DHCP scope management |
No Kea DHCP, no large-scale IPAM integration |