Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab 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! 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 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 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 Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.5/15
Slideshow Time! 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 ethernet card Runs NetBSD 1.6.2/sparc 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! 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 :-) Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.9/15
Restricting Access to Lab Machines 23 22 21 Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.10/15
Restricting Access to Lab Machines 23 22 21 23 22 21 23 22 21 Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.10/15
Restricting Access to Lab Machines 20023 20022 20021 10023 10022 10021 23 22 21 Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.10/15
Restricting Access to Lab Machines 20023 20022 20021 10023 10022 10021 23 22 21 Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.10/15
Software Apache Postgres IPfilter NetBSD Solaris PHP Perl Bourne shell 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 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! 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: Linux, Windows Funding!!! Internationalisation Implement a tutoring system Think about user modeling Funding! Very very badly wanted! Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.14/15
Thank you! http://www.feyrer.de/vulab/ hubert@feyrer.de Funding offers welcome! Sysadmin Training in the Virtual Unix Lab p.15/15