Sysadmin Training

in the Virtual Unix Lab

Hubert Feyrer

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.1/15 Background

Context: system admin training Problem: root access for users No Root - no practicing of many things Root - unknown state after exercise ⇒ Reinstall to be safe Reinstall not always an easy option!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.2/15 The Virtual Unix Lab

Installs lab machines on demand Users can book exercises for a certain time All machines will be setup identically Exclusive access during exercises Evaluation of exercise results Feedback on success of exercise Machines are re-installed from scratch for next user

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.3/15 VUlab: User Area

A user’s perspective: Login and account creation List of exercises Booking an exercise Taking an exercise Retrieving feedback afterwards

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.4/15 VUlab: Admin Area

An admin’s perspective: Manage users Manage booked exercises See group statistics Create new exercises

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.5/15 Slideshow Time!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.6/15 Server Machine

Sun SPARCstation 5, 85MHz 192 MB RAM 3* external SCSI disk additional SBus card Runs NetBSD 1.6.2/sparc

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.7/15 Lab Machines

2* Sun SPARCstation 4, 110MHz 64 MB RAM 1 GB internal SCSI disk Run NetBSD 1.6.2/sparc or Solaris 9/sparc

Goal: Virtual Machines!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.8/15 Lab Machine Installation

Server acts as DHCP, RARP and NFS server to lab network Netbooting of lab machines, after end of previous exercise (independent of running OS!) Image-deployment to lab machines via NFS (w/ some experiences from the g4u project :-)

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.9/15 Restricting Access to Lab Machines

telnet ssh ftp

23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

telnet ssh ftp

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.10/15 Restricting Access to Lab Machines

23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.10/15 Restricting Access to Lab Machines

telnet ssh ftp

20023 20022 20021 10023 10022 10021 23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

telnet ssh ftp

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.10/15 Restricting Access to Lab Machines

telnet ssh ftp

20023 20022 20021 10023 10022 10021 23 telnet 22 ssh 21 ftp

telnet ssh ftp

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.10/15 Software

Apache Postgres IPfilter NetBSD Solaris PHP Perl Bourne shell

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.11/15 Current Status

The system works Available Exercises: Network Information System (NIS) Network File System (NFS) Tested successfully in summer semester 2004 w/ 40 students during course “System Administration” Server-upgrade pending

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.12/15 Future Perspectives

Funding Define more exercises: Web- and Mail server DNS DHCP LDAP Samba Funding!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.13/15 Future Perspectives

Add more options for lab machines: Real hardware Emulated (virtual) hardware More operating systems: , Windows Funding!!! Internationalisation Implement a tutoring system Think about user modeling Funding! Very very badly wanted!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.14/15 Thank you!

http://www.feyrer.de/vulab/

[email protected]

Funding offers welcome!

Hubert Feyrer Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab – p.15/15