Fall '25 Week 12
YouTube VideoResources
Video Script
Hello and welcome to the week 12 announcements video for CIS 527 and CC510 in fall 2025. So coming up this week, the Lab 6 quizzes are due on Friday. I just posted Lab 6 so you can get started on that. And then Lab 6 itself is going to be due next Friday. That’s the Friday before fall break. So make sure you get that done. And then Lab 7 will be coming up after fall break. But we’ll talk about everything in today’s announcements.
So for lab six, we’re going to focus on a couple of different things. First, we’re going to talk about setting up file servers in both Windows and Linux. We’ll set up file servers on our servers. We’ll also set up some automated drive mappings on our clients so that we can get access to those file servers automatically. And then we’ll set up an application server on Windows. We’re going to install a .NET web application on our Windows server. And then in the cloud, we’re going to make a web app in the cloud. So we’re going to install a database and a web app in the cloud. These are kind of common scenarios that you run into if you’re actually deploying your own applications on your systems. If you do any self-hosting, this will be kind of similar in both aspects there. So we’re going to take a look at some of that.
Then for lab seven, we’re going to do a smorgasbord of all the things that I wish I could get to in this class, but I don’t have enough time. And honestly, most of these things on lab seven could be entire classes unto themselves. But in lab seven, we’re going to do a little bit with backups. We’re going to do a little bit of system monitoring. We’re going to do a little bit of DevOps with webhooks. And then we’re going to do a little bit of logging as well. So lab seven is kind of a catch-all for all these other things that I really want to cover this semester.
One thing to keep in mind for lab seven, there will not be any grading meeting required for lab seven. You just submit four things on Canvas. You can submit them separately or all as one submission, however you want to do it. But basically for lab seven, because we’re coming up on finals week when lab seven is due, there’s no meeting required to get lab seven graded. Unless you don’t get something to work and you want to do a meeting just to get some partial credit for the things that are working, we can definitely do that. So really the last lab that you need to have interactive grading for is on lab six. Also a clarification on lab six, because we are not around over Thanksgiving break. If you don’t get lab six graded by the Friday before Thanksgiving break, we’re not going to assess any late penalties beyond the usual one-day late penalty until you can get graded after fall break. It’s just the way this always kind of lines up. So if you don’t get lab six done on time, you get basically an extra week to work on it for free because we’re not available to grade it. So just be aware of that.
All right. Last big thing coming up in this class is the final project. You can find the final project module in Canvas. It’s been published since the beginning, but you may have to scroll back up to the top to find it. The idea behind the final project in this class is 99, it’s about 90% a thought exercise. What I want you to do is propose some sort of IT sysadmin thing that you want to do. Pretend you’re working for a company. I’m your CIO. You have a project you want to do and you have to convince me that that project is a good idea. And so it could be building something or fixing something about your organization. It could be speccing out a web resource for a new startup, setting up laptops for high school, designing an authentication system for a company, debating thin clients versus thick clients in computing labs, debating which antivirus software to use, what platforms to deploy your software on. Just about anything is fair game that we have talked about in this class or something that you have experience in. It can be a real organization or one that you make up. Either way, you just have to set the stage by providing the appropriate background for what you’re doing. If you’re not sure what project you want to do, you can chat with me for ideas. I’m happy to do that.
What you’re going to do is write a short proposal that is due coming up soon. Check the dates on Canvas. It will tell you exactly when that’s due. I will review your proposal and basically give you a thumbs up, thumbs down that that’s a good idea. And then you’ll have a couple more weeks to wrap up your project itself. Basically, again, you’re proposing something you want to do as a sysadmin, as an IT person. You’re trying to convince me, your CIO, that it’s a good idea. I know tech, but also I’m not like in the trenches like you are. So you’re going to have to share some of the technical details. And you’re also going to do a SWOT analysis. And the project explains that a SWOT analysis looks at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the idea. Opportunities and threats are external to the idea, external to the organization. There’s some great articles online about SWOT analyses if you’ve never done that before, but that’s really what I’m looking for.
So for the final project, you’re going to turn in three things. Really, you’re only going to turn in two, and then you’re going to do three things. The first one is you’re going to turn in a written report. I give a template that just gives you some section headings. In the template, it has bulleted points under each section heading. I do not want you to write bullet points. I want you to replace those bullet points with paragraphs. The bullet points tell you what those paragraphs should cover. The template is very loose. You don’t have to follow it, but a lot of students ask me, how do I structure this project? When in doubt, use the template, use the headings. It kind of works. You’re going to research, propose it, do a SWOT analysis. You got to give me the background for everything and the SWOT analysis and then a conclusion. You know, conclusion could be very simple. Based on my SWOT analysis, I feel like the strengths outweigh the weaknesses and we can mitigate the weaknesses as I’ve described in this paper. Therefore, I think it’s a good idea. That’s a conclusion. Include graphics, data, citations as needed. Treat this like any other project that you would do in a college-level class. So you’re going to submit a written report. There is no minimum or maximum length. It’s however much it takes to convince me that it’s a good idea without being so long that I feel like I’m reading a book.
Then you’re going to do a presentation. The presentation is about 15 minutes. It’s something that you can pre-record at home. Basically, your presentation is going to be the TLDR version of your written report. Convince me it’s a good idea. Tell me your background. Tell me your analysis. Tell me your conclusion in about 15 minutes or so. Basically convince me that you have done your homework and have analyzed this project well. And then the last thing you’re going to show as part of your presentation is a small prototype. For example, if you’re playing around with a central authentication system, you might play around with a version of that. Or if you’re looking at different hosting providers, you might set up a platform on AWS and a platform on Azure. Doesn’t have to be much. I just want you to get a little bit hands-on with the idea that you’re working on. In total, I expect you to spend about two to four hours on your prototype. I don’t expect you to go very deep. I just want you to play around a little bit with something that you have proposed, install it, play around with it, load it in Docker, whatever it means. If you’re not sure what to do for a prototype on a project, chat with me. I’d be happy to help you figure that out. So, like I said, presentation, you’re going to pre-record a video. You can use Zoom or any other tools that you want. Ideally, I would like to see both slides and you as your presenter on that video. Hopefully, you have access to a webcam. If not, let me know and we can work on that. But the nice thing about pre-recorded videos, you can do as many takes as you like. You can edit it however you need. But I want to see you give the presentation. And then you can either upload the video to Canvas itself, or if it’s too large to put on Canvas, you can put it in your personal KSU OneDrive, share the link with me, and I can get it that way.
Other than that, that really covers the rest of the semester. There are two labs and a final project left. Hopefully things are going well. Lab six and lab seven generally aren’t too bad. They’re just a lot of little details and things. And especially in these two labs, I give you less of the direct instructions and more of the go do this. And then you’ll have to read some of the documentation and figure out how to do it. So hopefully things are going well. But as always, if you have questions, you can post on Ed. You can find me on Discord or Teams. You can schedule an office hours with me. I’m always happy to help. I’m always available, except for fall break when I will be gone. Other than that, hopefully things are going well. Best of luck as you work on these next couple labs. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will see you again next week.