Resources
Video Script
Hello, and welcome to the week four announcements video. I’m really glad to be here once again, I am back in Kansas so I can finally do these videos from my home studio. First off some quick things hopefully by now you’re done with lab three, if not, you should be getting done with that pretty quickly. So if you haven’t yet scheduled a grading time with BreAnn or myself and we can get lab three taken care of. Also make sure you check out on Piazza we had some issues with SNMP and lab three. So if you’re struggling on the SNMP, part of lab three, there is some information on Piazza that will help you out with that. Also, don’t forget the week two discussion response, the first discussion that we had with Seth Galitzer, that is due today by midnight. All you have to do is answer the few questions I posted on Canvas and then upload your response to Canvas by midnight tonight. Then starting today at 4pm is the week three discussion where we have Adam and Kyle the two Beocat sysadmins coming to talk about how they work with a high performance computing infrastructure, such as Beocat, they always give really interesting talks, so I’m hoping everybody can make it. And then also, don’t forget, you should be starting on lab four. Generally lab four is regarded as one of the harder labs in this class, and it will be due next Monday.
So, some tips for lab four, you’re going to need either four or five virtual machines. Usually you need a Windows Server, a Windows 10 client an Ubuntu server that you can reuse from your lab three, and then you’ll also need at least one Ubuntu client. You can either do it with two different snapshots or what I’ve started doing is actually just making a second Ubuntu client for the Windows Active Directory on Ubuntu part it’s up to you and how much space and resources you have available. This is by far the most taxing lab in terms of size. Lab six, we will use four of these VMs again in lab six, so you will need to keep them around. Basically, in this lab, you end up doing three things, you set up a Windows Active Directory server, and then connecting a Windows 10 client to that, then you set up an Ubuntu LDAP server and connect an Ubuntu client to that. With Ubuntu 20, we added the need for TLS certificates. So you’ll learn how to make that connection much more secure. Thankfully, you can just follow the guide for that. And then we will add an Ubuntu client to the Windows Active Directory. And this process has actually gotten super simple. A lot of people are really happy with the new process on Ubuntu 20. So the Ubuntu LDAP got a little harder, the Windows AD got a little bit easier. So it all works out.
So one thing I really wanted to talk about is getting help. We had several students with lab three that contacted us for grading, and then told us they ran into issues with the lab and weren’t able to get it to complete. But nobody asked us any questions. And so I really want to stress to you, please, please feel free to get help anytime you get stuck. There’s absolutely no expectation from either BreAnn or myself that you will be able to complete this class without asking questions. That’s part of the point. However, I don’t give you all the answers in the lab instructions, because if I did that, then the class would be kind of pointless. So there’s this weird gray area where I expect you to figure some things out on your own. But I also expect you to run into issues and have questions. So don’t be afraid to ask us for help. This is literally what BreAnn and I are paid to do. It’s especially what BreAnn is paid to do. But it’s also what I’m here to do. So to get help Piazza is key post on Piazza early, post on Piazza often, ask us all those questions. Read the other posts that your fellow students have posted and respond with your own information if you have any input. I added a new extra credit assignment to the class, helping hands, so that if you are active on Piazza and you are answering questions from other students, you can get extra credit points for that. Also on Piazza so we do ask that if you don’t if you feel comfortable, we would prefer that you ask your post. We would prefer that you ask your question publicly, that way other students can see the troubles that you’re having and can help you out. I understand that sometimes that can be a little bit uncomfortable if you have… if you feel like you have a stupid question or something. And that’s okay. Imposter syndrome was totally a thing. But also, I’m an introvert. I hate asking questions. And so you’re also welcome to ask your question anonymously. And so your fellow students won’t see who you are,. Obviously, if you post some identifying details in your post that’s on you, but you can ask your question anonymously. Only BreAnn and I will know who you are. Or you can ask it privately, in which case BreAnn and I are the only ones that can see the post. Sometimes we have been known to take that private post and make a short tl;dr version of it and post that as an anonymous post so that we can at least get that answer out there for people. If you’re truly stuck and you can’t get help on Piazza, you can always schedule a one on one time with BreAnn or myself to get help. We generally prefer that if you can ask the question first on Piazza and then we will direct you to a one on one. But if you want to schedule a one on one, you’re more than welcome to do that; both BreAnn and I have Calendly links available that you can use anytime you’d like. And like I said, once again, emphasis on there is no expectation that you will be able to complete this class without getting help. That is totally fine. It is what we’re here to do. So feel free to ask us questions anytime you have to.
So a quick summary of some of the changes we made in this class over the past few weeks. Most of these have already been announcements in Piazza or in Canvas. But just to clarify: the late policy, we have updated the late policy so that it only counts on working days only. And a working day is anytime where we would normally be in class. So for example, this Friday, the Fourth of July holiday does not count. We do need to work a little bit with Canvas to make sure that that’s getting applied properly, but we will look into that. So if the lab is due on Friday and you turn it in sometime before Monday at 7pm you’ll only be one day late. So we will make sure that that gets applied. If you have have a question on grading or you feel like the late policy was applied in the wrong way on any of your assignments, please let us know, and we will look into that. The new Canvas gradebook with this late policy is new to us. And so we’re still figuring out some of the quirks and tricks to make it actually work. The second thing we discovered is, if you have a late policy that is applied such that you end up getting a zero on a lab, even if you submitted it, it wasn’t unlocking the next module in Canvas. We have fixed that by assigning a minimum grade of 2%, which means that each lab assignment the minimum grade, if you submit it, is one point, so at least you will get that point so that you can move on to the next lab. One thing that I didn’t have in my slides here, but I want to mention really quickly, if you are done with a lab assignment and you’d like to move on to the next lab assignment, you can always go to the source website for this class, which is cis527.russfeld.me. And that has all of the textbook content for this course including all of the lab assignments. The only thing that isn’t there is some of the Canvas specific stuff like the quizzes and the discussions. And so for example, if you’re done with lab three and you’re waiting to get graded, you can go ahead and start watching the videos for lab four on that website. Again, it’s cis527.russfeld.me. We talked about this already, we added an extra credit assignment for the helping hands. Also just to clarify the extra credit in the class. Usually when you do something, we record a point or two points. And then at the end of the semester, we will scale those appropriately sized; there is a cap of 5% in extra credit in this class, so feel free to keep active and then at the end of the semester, we will scale it to make it basically match the amount of extra credit work that you have done up to 5% of the final grade in this class. Also, finally, K-State has implemented a mandatory mask policy on campus. This should not affect us but because we are 100% online class but that statement has been added to the syllabus and just be aware If you are on campus for any reason, you are required to wear a mask, at least as long as this order is in effect. I really encourage you to do that; it’s important for you to stay safe and stay healthy. So please keep that in mind.
All right. Quick overview of the discussions - we had our first discussion last Monday was Seth Galitzer at 4pm on Zoom, I thought it was really fantastic. It was great to hear a lot of the stuff that Seth does and some of the background. So don’t forget live discussions are every Monday at 4pm via Zoom, you can find the Zoom link on the Canvas homepage. Attendance is highly recommended but not required. We would really like to see you there. I think it’s a great chance to interact with other students in the class with industry folks and get some questions answered from me and from BreAnn. If you’re not able to attend, the video will be posted on Canvas usually shortly after the session is done. So you can watch that video and then respond to the discussion prompt on Canvas. Usually I ask a few questions about something the participants shared with us or some of the discussion or some of the things that they told us about. So you should be able to answer those questions pretty easily by watching that video. This week, like I said, we have Adam and Kyle, who are the two Beocat system administrators. They’re going to talk all about how they work to set up a high performance computing infrastructure, how they monitor it, how they maintain it. It’s usually really cool. So I’m looking forward to that. So we’ll see you today at four o’clock for that. Next week. We’re inviting a few students from the K-State Cyber Defense Club to discuss their infrastructure for basically simulating all sorts of different scenarios. They use it for training for their cyber defense competitions. So it’s something really cool that you might not be aware of that we have at K-State. So we’re going to have Caleb Fleming and probably a couple others from the cybersecurity club. Come talk about that. I have also tentatively scheduled K-State’s CIO to come in one of the last two weeks of the class. I’m still working on scheduling with him, but I am super duper excited that I was able to get him, at least tentatively confirmed to come talk to this class. It’s always one of the great speakers to try and get in is K-State’s CIO so that you can get kind of a top down view of what’s going on at K-State. If you don’t know our current CIO actually started about a week before the Hale Library fire and so he quite literally had a trial by fire his first couple weeks here. So hopefully he can tell us some stories about that.
So a quick overview of the schedule. Don’t forget the week two discussion is today at 4pm. The week one discussion response, if you weren’t able to attend and participate in person, is due tonight by midnight. This Thursday, BreAnn is unavailable, she’s got some other things going on. So if you try and schedule a meeting with her, her calendar will be completely blocked out on Thursday. I should still be available on Thursday so you can schedule with me. Friday, July 3rd is a student holiday because the Fourth of July is on a Saturday, so Friday, neither BreAnn or I will be effectively available. I will probably still be watching Piazza every once in a while over those couple of days, but I don’t make any guarantees that I will be quick. The week three discussion is next Monday at 4pm. Again, that’s the cybersecurity students. Lab four is due Monday by 7pm. So make sure you take that into account that both BreAnn and I will be unavailable from about 4pm till 5:30pm on Monday, so make sure you get your time scheduled. But the end of that discussion time might be a really good chance to talk to your fellow students and talk to BreAnn and I if you have any last minute questions on lab four. And then finally, the week two discussion response if you’re not able to attend today is due Monday, July 6 at midnight. So lots of things coming up.
Finally, a quick reminder, don’t forget this class does include a final project. Your final project is to do something system administration or it related. You can change something you can build something you can design a support infrastructure for something, you can do things like automation and DevOps. You can look at the infrastructure. You can look at different services that are available. There’s a full video online talking about different project ideas and the specifics of this project. You can work in teams on this final project. And in just a bit, probably before this video goes live, I will post a looking for group post on Piazza so you can collaborate with your teammates there and try and figure out if there’s somebody in the class that shares an interest with you and would like to work together. Don’t forget your proposal is due Friday, July 24. That is one week before the end of the semester. I encourage you to do it much before then. But that is the official last date that you can submit a proposal for full credit. And then the project itself is due then Friday, July 31. For the project, you will schedule a one on one time with me for a presentation, usually about 45 minutes between your presentation time and all the quick Q&A at the end. And so keep that in mind that last week of the class after lab seven is due we’ll spend most of that week doing final project presentations. Again, schedule your time early, so you can reserve the time you want. That way you don’t end up with this situation where you’re looking for a time, the day it’s due, and there’s no time left because they’re already booked. So keep the final project in mind. If you’re not sure what you want to do, and you want to talk with me about some possible project ideas, I’d be happy to do that I’ve got a few ideas that I can kind of pitch around and see if there’s something you’re interested in.
So finally, don’t forget to keep in touch, I am here to help, BreAnn is here to help. I really wish we could teach this class in person. The discussions that we used to have in the lecture of this class were some of the most fun I had teaching at K-State. But we can still do that - we have our Piazza discussion board, we have our Zoom weekly discussions. I’m on Tea Time office hours every Tuesday and Friday, although we won’t be on this Friday because of the holiday. BreAnn and I both host one on one office hours that you’re welcome to join. I’m also on the K-State Rocket.chat server. You can find me on K-State’s Microsoft Teams. Go to my website. I’m easy to find about anywhere. Please feel free to keep in touch, ask us questions, we’d love to hear from you.
And that’s it. So, good luck with the rest of the semester. Good luck on lab four. Like I said, lab four can be a little tricky. You need to make sure you follow the instructions really closely. The same advice applies for all the other labs, make snapshots often and don’t be afraid to roll back to a snapshot and try again, if something doesn’t work. There are lots of things that you can do that makes this go a lot simpler. So I wish you the best of luck. I will look forward to seeing most of you today at 4pm for a live discussion. And as always, if you have any questions, please post on Piazza