Fall '25 Week 7
Resources
Video Script
Hello and welcome to the week 7 announcements video for CIS 527 and CC 510 in fall 2025. So this week you should be working on lab 3. That’s really the only thing going on this week. So lab 3 deadline is this Friday. I did say last week it was due earlier in the week, but I’ve updated the deadline in Canvas to make sure everything matches. So lab 3 will be due this Friday. So make sure you schedule a time to meet with either Josh or I to get your lab 3 graded via Zoom before or on Friday of this week. Then we have a whole week where there’s nothing really due, but you should be working on lab 4. The quizzes for lab four are going to be due Monday, October 20th. And then Tuesday, October 21st, we’re going to have our third discussion prompt, and I’ll talk about that in just a second. And then Friday, 10/24, sorry, I didn’t get that date right. Lab 4 is going to be due. So all these dates are correct on Canvas. So when in doubt, check Canvas. It should always have the correct dates.
So as you know, you’re working on Lab 3. Lab 3 is all about core networking services. Hopefully things are going well with Lab 3. If you have any questions, please make sure you check out the hints and the diagrams at the end of the textbook chapter for Lab 3. I think it gives a really good example of what everything should look like and talks you through some common debugging issues on DNS. And then, of course, if you get stuck, ask questions and let us know and we will help you out with that.
So for lab three grading, you’re going to do this grading on Zoom. So make sure you’re prepared to demonstrate all of these things. Remote connection between your two systems, static IP, DNS lookups, DNS server settings, DHCP server settings, SNMP and Wireshark. That last one, SNMP and Wireshark, we’re just looking for screenshots to show that you did the activities. That’s all you really need to do. You don’t need to actually run Wireshark or SNMP during grading. We’re just going to look at your screenshots, especially in the Wireshark screenshots. Make sure you are drilling down into that bottom section and showing us the exact packet that we’re looking for. Don’t just have a screenshot where, oh, the packet’s in there somewhere. We want you to show us the right packet and show us down in the data that you can prove that that’s the packet we’re looking for. So make sure you’re doing that.
So next week, we’re going to start working on lab four. Lab 4, we’re going to add in yet another virtual machine. This time is Windows Server. For those of you running on non-x86 or x64 hardware, this is the one you’re going to have trouble with because Windows Server does not run on ARM platforms. So you’ll need to work around that either by running it on another computer or working with me to run it in Azure or some other system. Windows Server allows us to use Active Directory, which is still the big behemoth in terms of authentication systems. We’re also going to configure OpenLDAP, which is the open source kind of competitor to Active Directory. We’re going to configure some clients. We’re also going to configure some interoperability a little bit. Big thing is with all of these labs, make snapshots. Especially the two times you’re going to want to make a snapshot for sure in this lab are before you promote your Windows Server VM to an Active Directory domain controller. I would say my lifetime success rate is about 90% at that one. So that means one in 10 times that I have tried to promote a Windows Server to an Active Directory controller, something has gone wrong. I don’t know why. And then I roll back to the snapshot and I try again. The other one that trips a lot of people up is adding the TLS certificates to an Open LDAP server. There’s a lot of commands that you have to type in. It’s all in the document. You just mostly copy paste the commands and tweak a couple of things. It is really, really hard to undo some of those changes once you make them. So again, make a snapshot before you start adding TLS certificates to your LDAP server. That way, if it doesn’t work, you can switch back to the prior snapshot, go through it again carefully, and make sure you didn’t miss anything. So just be aware of those things and make sure you’re prepared to deal with all of that.
So like I say, every time I talk about these videos, success in this class really depends on reading carefully, using your resources, and asking questions. Lab 3 and Lab 4 are the two hardest labs in this class, I believe. The later labs build on top of it, but I don’t think they’re quite as technically difficult as these two labs can be. So don’t spin your wheels. If you get stuck, take a minute, ask questions, let us know how we can help. We’d be glad to do that.
So as you saw with my announcement, I’ve had to shuffle around the discussion schedule a little bit. So it’s going to be confusing, but the dates are going to be right on Canvas. So what we have is discussion three is going to be next Tuesday, a week from this week. So it’s going to be Tuesday the 21st, or two Tuesdays from today, actually. It’s going to be Nick Eggleston and Nathan Wells. They are the two Beocat sysadmins. They’re going to be coming in Tuesday, October 21st at 2:30. So that’s going to be discussion three. The questions are going to be due, obviously, on the 21st before they speak, and then you can do your response afterward. But this is going to be discussion three, but I will get the dates out there so that it’s correct. They’re going to be out of order. But discussion three is going to be Nick and Nathan, our Beocat sysadmins. And then I rescheduled Kyle, who is supposed to speak today. I’ve rescheduled him out a couple of weeks. And so discussion two with Kyle will now be Tuesday, October 28th at 2:30. And so I will get those dates updated on Canvas if I haven’t already. So that’s coming up as well.
So once again, barring any weather catastrophes, I probably will be fully remote again this week working from my parents’ farm on Thursday and Friday. That just means email responses are a little slower. I will be watching my email, but it may take me a little bit longer to get back to you. Likewise, if you want an appointment with me on Thursday and Friday, you have to send me an email because I won’t have free calendar times. If that becomes a problem with lab three grading, I will take a look at things. I’m not afraid to waive some late penalties for lab three if we don’t have enough time to get everybody on Josh’s calendar. But just be aware, I may be working remotely for parts of Thursday and Friday this week, weather permitting. So just be aware of that. I will be catching up over Saturday and Sunday as well. So hopefully that’s everything. As always, keep in touch. Lots of good posts on Ed Discussion. You can always find me on Discord and Teams or come to office hours. I’m always happy to help. But anyway, best of luck as you wrap up lab three, and I will see you again next week.