Welcome to OSM620 - Fundamentals of Microsoft Systems
What This Course is About
Operating systems aren’t just what power your laptop. They’re at the heart of every business, every cloud service, and every digital product.
In OSM620, you’ll go far beyond clicking around in a desktop interface: you’ll become the sysadmin for your own enterprise lab environment, building everything from the ground up, layer by layer.
This course gives you a deep, practical introduction to Microsoft Windows Server 2025, focusing on the real work that sysadmins do every day:
- You’ll install, configure, and manage multiple servers and clients in a virtualized environment, using both graphical and command-line tools.
- You’ll secure, network, and automate your systems. Learning by doing, and sometimes by breaking (and fixing) things yourself.
- By the end, you’ll have set up core infrastructure services (DNS, DHCP, routing, remote management, Active Directory, to name a few) and will be able to troubleshoot issues as they arise. Just like a real IT professional.
Whether you’re aiming for a career in IT, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, or just want to know how things really work under the hood, OSM620 is your foundation.
Learning by Doing
In this course, the labs are the course. You’ll spend most of your time building, configuring, and repairing your own lab environment. Just like in the real world.
The skills you develop here will stick with you because you’ll be the one doing the work, not just watching or reading.
Keys for Success:
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Stay hands-on and keep up: Each lab builds on the last. Falling behind will make it tough to catch up, but keeping pace will give you growing confidence every week.
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Tinker and experiment: Your virtual lab is a safe place to make mistakes. If you break something, it’s not a failure; it’s a chance to learn how real sysadmins recover and adapt.
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Take real notes: Don’t just copy steps. Write down why things work (or don’t), flag your own discoveries, and use your lab logbook as your personal playbook for assessments and troubleshooting. (This includes PowerShell commands!)
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Ask questions: If you’re stuck or just curious, reach out. Learning together is half the fun, and your professor is here to help you dig deeper and connect the dots.
Read the instructions fully, but don’t be afraid to get curious. Every click, command, and config change in these labs is a chance to build your own map of how real systems work. Make it yours.
Required Materials
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Your Seneca-based Credentials (username and password).
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500 GB External SSD or higher, using a USB-A or USB-C connection.
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OSM620 Lab Logbook - A downloadable PDF template document to be printed out. This should be filled out as you complete each lab (handwritten). You can print this out and bring it to all tests.
NOTE: If you've taken this class in a previous semester, you MAY NOT bring that version of the lab logbook to any testing.
Modes of Evaluation
Grade Breakdown
| Evaluation | Marks |
|---|---|
| Labs (8) | 20% |
| Quizzes (minimum 4) | 20% |
| Assignments (2) | 30% |
| Tests (2) | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
Promotion Policy
To obtain a credit in this subject, a student must:
- Satisfactorily complete all labs and assignments.
- Achieve a weighted average of 50% or better for the tests.
- Achieve an overall course grade of 50% or better.
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PDF Version
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