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OPS235 Short-Term

Revision as of 10:39, 5 May 2015 by Msaul (talk | contribs)

[OPS235 - Short-term - Older Issues]


  1. Linux Commands. Try to bridge the gap of Linux commands throughout the OPS235 / OPS335 / OPS435 / OPS535 stream. Recommended for Winter 2015 semester to allow students to add previous reference sheets and/or lab log-books to existing material.
    (For example, allow ULI101 reference sheet to be added to OPS235 lab logbook, OPS335 contains OPS235 lab logbook notes plus ULI101 reference sheet, etc). Would it be worthwhile to print empty ULI101 reference sheet with already created section headers so they can place commands in required area (students associate the type of tool to refer to get the job done). Action taken: Murray Saul notified Mark Fernandes of idea, Mark had a discussion with some of ULI101 faculty. The decision to not have reference sheets for ULI101 course was due to prevention of students cheating if answers to final exam obtained. Suggestion was made that a template Linux command reference sheet will be made to help students study prior to ULI101 final exam, and this standardized sheet can be added to the OPS235 lab log-book. Any prospects of a carry-over sheet from ULI101 aside, it may be of use to start the semester off with a brief quiz on commonly used commands from ULI101 that get used in OPS235 (ex. cp, mv, pwd, ls, cd etc.) I have found that students often struggle with the basics at the beginning of the semester. Perhaps we could integrate these basics with some basic bash scripting quiz questions, things that might help with the first few labs. This could go hand in hand with Murray's long-term suggestion of integrating some bash scripting into the first lab.

  2. YUM Command for Local Installs. The rpm command in lab3 relating to local installs appears to be deprecated (favoring yum local install). OPS235 team to meet to discuss implementation (Status: WIP).

  3. Online Collaboration (OPS235 Instructor Resource). There is a considerable amount of work to do to ensure items are updated for OPS235 prior to semester startup. I think it would be a good idea to have a check-list for all items such as: Covering off with OPS335 for version of CENTOS to use, update lab-book semester info, update instructors and photos, testing and update links for media install, update weekly dates for notes, update professor names and sections in both main WIKI and Weekly Schedule, submit Weekly schedule to Dianna, etc.



  4. AODA Accomodation.

    Issue #1:

    It is recommended to make available for each lab or classroom a method to safely keep a door open while class is in session without propping the door open with a chair - If door is not opened, door is locked which can be a distraction for professors when delivering course material. It has been noted there is no consistency in the TEL building wrt many of the labs: Some have door stops, many do not. If door stops are not somehow attached to lab, they go missing or are used for other labs. If door is opened with propping chair, can be unsafe for students with special needs (for example blind students) and problems in the event of an emergency (for example: fire). Also, it has been noted challenges in providing Linux drivers to communicate with devices for individuals with special needs. These issues when solved should be shared in a central repository with support and suggestions to allow better access through a student's duration and with different instructors, staff.

  5. New Machine Issues (UEFI). The new machines in T3074, T4044, and T4048 among others are causing issues with certain hard drives where the system wants an EFI boot partition. I have already contacted ITS about having this disabled but if this issue is not finalized soon (who knows how fast ITS will work on this) we should ensure that by the start of next semester UEFI is disabled in the machines to make sure students can get their OS installed without any problems. As a side note, I have found that booting from a Live CD and wiping the hard drive and placing an ext4 FS on it has worked in some scenarios, but not all.

  6. Lab 2 Chart in Lab Logbook. Create an empty chart in lab2 logbook, so students can simply fill in the chart.

  7. Virtual Machine Package Installation. The installation process for the KVM/QEMU packages should be clarified to include instructions on when to use groupinstall and when to use install. Also, I have noticed in past semesters as well as the current one that KVM/QEMU will randomly go missing, causing issues with VM installation as well as VM networking. Uninstalling and then reinstalling the virtualization packages has often solved the problem, though not 100% of the time. We should look into this problem and maybe redo the VM package installation section altogether.

  8. Improve or removal of rpm comparison chart in lab3. Filling out rpm chart to learn query-option and select-option is traditionally confusing for students and is recommended by a number of OPS235 profs to improve or most likely remove from lab3.

  9. Lab 3 - view VM details. Clean-up wording to make more intuitive to OPS235 students to move to virt-manager console and view details in order to see various VM settings.

  10. Better timing with Labs 1 - 4 / Assignment #1. Currently, students should have completed lab5 to be entirely covered-off for assignment #1. Perhaps compiling source code could be incorporated into Assignment #2

  11. Lab 4 fdisk. Many students have been having issues with the fdisk functionality. There is a link with explanations for fdisk in the lab but a few lines of examples might go a long way in reminding them of the proper syntax and usage of fdisk (they should have some experience from the previous semester if i'm not mistaken).

  12. Lab4 - resize2fs Deprecated. The resize2fs command is deprecated and should be removed from notes.

  13. Lab4 - Resizing with Running mounted fs not intuitive. This section should be reworded and guide students throughout process. Students traditionally struggle with this section making lab4 longer than it should be...

  14. Lab4 Better explanation for /etc/fstab. Should be more intuitive explanation for auto mounting using /etc/fstab.

  15. Incorporate tutorial how to enter "single-user mode". Students should learn from labs how to enter "single user mode" to help with common programs such as running out of disk space and not being able to login graphically (usually copied uncompressed image to /root). Other advantages include forgetting root password,etc...

  16. Student disconnect of logging in as "root". Substantial number of OPS235 students not "cluing in" to use "root" username to log into practical test image once booted. Students may be used to "su" or "su -" but should log into system as "root" as least once.

  17. Student disconnect with their e-mail address. Students when prompted in shell script for their e-mail addresses (approx half of students) are stumped, and connect complete during test.

  18. Links to Online Man Page Resources Broken. Need to fix broken links, and check to see if there is a way to run command or program to check links of WIKI pages prior to Start of semester.

  19. New pathname for installed packages - centos7. Pathname for installed packages no longer grep -i installing /root/install.log but /var/log/anaconda/anaconda.packaging.log

  20. lab 6:
    • the part of the lab where we have the students use the timestamp to see what files they are modifying when they change their network settings, I think it would be a good idea to mention what they should expect to see after running the find command. I've just noticed many students missing info here. Pointing them in the right direction would be helpful
    • "Change to the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory on" --> i think its supposed to say centos3 at the end there
    • at least a little bit of explanation regarding mac address usage is needed. if students have restored their machines (due to a crash or something else) mac address conflicts can be an issue. I have gotten around this by suggesting to students to remove their old virtual nic and add a new one. simple but effective.
    • /etc/hosts file --> would like to see a note akin to something like this when students get to this point: "DOUBLE CHECK YOU AVE THE CORRECT ENTRIES IN ALL YOU /etc/hosts FILES". I can't even count how many students cause themselves headaches by not being careful about this
    • netstat and options --> a little clarification would be nice here to specify on which machine we are looking at netstat. I know they are technically supposed to do this across all VMs and the host but some specific examples of ports listening and being established is necessary here I think because most students gloss through this part and don't have a great handle on what they are looking at
    • iptables --> this will probably be addressed with centos7 anyway but we need more examples of rules included in the lab. I have tried to provide examples in my lab introductions and I think examples beyond http and ssh are necessary. Specifically with regards to the difference between INPUT and OUTPUT chains and dport and sport. I have consistently noticed students wrapping their heads around this and I think the solution is additional practice built into the labs.

  21. lab 7:
    • public key authentication - every semester this part of lab 7 loses students. specifically they are unsure of how to show that they are using it. some extra instructions on where and how to view the two sides of the key on each system would be helpful.
    • ssh tunnels - the portion of the lab where students use a tunnel to get around the port 80 block: ssh -L 20808:centos1:80 user@centos1 This is where I see students struggle the most every semester because there are so many other critical aspects behind this for this to succeed. The issue is that whenever I test this lab out, I'm testing on a completely clean machine so it rarely gives me problems. Students often come into this with missing things from past labs: dns info, iptables issues, services that should be on turned off and vice versa, general virtual network problems. I'm not really sure but if there is another way we could target this portion of the lab it may be worth taking a look and making a major change. I'm really not sure what the best route would be but in my opinion this is the part of all of OPS235 that requires the biggest change to make things smoother in the future.

  22. lab 8:
    • nothing big here but I would like to suggest we add a couple more vms (clones of centos3 maybe?) so we can see the dhcp server in action on a slightly bigger scale. the point of dhcp is to be used with many computers so if we could make an example of this I think it would be cool or the students.

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