OPS235

This is a draft only!
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on this information.

Quick Links
Weekly Schedule Course Outline Fedora Project Fedora documentation
Assignments
Assignment 1 Assignment 2

Welcome to OPS235 - Introduction to Open System Servers

What This Course is About

This course is the second in a series of courses about Linux technologies:

• ULI101 taught you to be Linux users. In OPS235, you will move from being a Linux user to being a Linux system administrator.

• As a system administrator, you will be responsible for installing, configuring, adjusting, maintaining, and troubleshooting the operation of computer systems. This is a lot of responsibility, and with that responsibility comes power. You will be able to change anything on the system, and you will also have the ability to damage or destroy the system.

• In this course you use a removable disk pack with the lab computers to set up a Linux system. You will also set up four additional Linux systems using "Virtual Machines", and therefore gain experience with different types of system configurations as well as setting up networking between systems.

• Later courses (OPS335 and OPS435) teach you to administer Linux servers (web servers, DNS servers, FTP servers, file sharing servers) -- and to use scripting to boost your system administration efficiency.

Learning by Doing

Most of the learning in this course occurs through the hands-on problem solving that takes place in the eight labs and two assignments.

Requirements for Success:

• It is very important to stay up-to-date with the coursework, and to practice until you have confidently mastered each task.

• All of the software used in this course is open source software, so you are free to use, modify, and redistribute it. This means that you can install it as many times as you want on as many different computers as you would like. It also means that you can tinker with it -- you can take it apart, see how it works, and put it back together in the same or a different way, limited only by your time and ambition. You are encouraged to experiment and question liberally.

• The notes that you make during the labs and assignments are your reference material for the quizzes, tests, and assignments. Take really good notes, and if you have questions, experiment and consult with your professor.

• Carefully read ALL lab instructions and check your work regularly. The labs have been designed with backup safeguards to prevent the student from losing their work. On the other hand, students may lose their work if they fail to follow lab instructions or accidentally forget their removable hard disks in the workstation's hard disk bay drive!

Weekly Schedule

• Weekly topic, lab, and assignment information is available on the OPS235 Weekly Schedule page.

Supplies Checklist

Needed by the second class: Fedora 16 Live CD (x86_64). Download and Burning Options: Freedom Toaster (in the Open Lab) -- however, this machine has problems with some types of DVDs. Seneca's mirror of the Fedora project: http://belmont.senecac.on.ca/fedora/releases/16/Live/x86_64/Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso (This is very fast, but is only accessible from within Seneca's network - you can't access this from home. You can burn this disc on the machines in the Open Lab.) Main Fedora Repository: http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/16/ (Accessible from any Internet connection.) SATA Hard disk in removable drive tray (at least 160GB). Please buy the tray from ACS or the bookstore as not all trays are compatible. USB flash drive (64MB or more - 2GB or larger recommended). Warning: anything on this flash drive will be erased! Lab log book (PDF). Please note that you can use your log book during the quizzes, written tests, practical tests and the final exam. It's also the record that you have completed the labs, so don't lose it!

Freedom Toaster in Tel Open Lab (Convenient, but machine has problems with some types of DVDs)

Needed for week 2:

• Fedora 16 installation DVD (x86_64)

Download and Burning Options:

• Freedom Toaster (in the Open Lab) -- however, this machine has problems with come types of DVDs.
  
  
• Seneca's mirror of the Fedora project: http://belmont.senecac.on.ca/fedora/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64/iso/Fedora-16-x86_64-DVD.iso
  (This is very fast, but is only accessible from within Seneca's network - you can't access this from home. You can burn this disc on the machines in the Open Lab).
  
  
• Main Fedora Repository: http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/16/
  (Accessible from any Internet connection.)

Note:

Bring all of these supplies to each class.
Even after installation, the Live CD, Installation DVD, and flash drive may be required.

Place your Full Name and Contact Information on the hard disk tray cover and directly on the disk drive.
Use an adhesive label and permanent marker, or a white marker on the black cover.

Always "double-check" that you have removabled your hard disk tray prior to exiting the lab room.
You may have your hard drive tray stolen which will result in lost work!

Do not share your OPS235 disk drive with another course.
The work you do in this course will render your other work inaccessible and may erase it.

You do not need to purchase a textbook for this course.
We will be using online resources instead.

Optional (non required) Reading Materials:

• Fedora Linux Toolbox.

Faculty

During the Winter 2012 semester, OPS235 is taught by:

• Chris Tyler (Section A)
• Brian Gray (Section B, C)
• Murray Saul (Section D, E, F, G)

Course Information

• Course Outline
• Course Policies
• School of Computer Studies Homepage (includes class cancellation information and general bulletins)

Tips and Suggestions

• Always shut down your system under software control, rather than using the reset or power buttons. You can shutdown using the GUI or with the poweroff, reboot, init, or shutdown commands. Shut down your virtual machines before shutting down your main system.
• If you get a message about the gnome-power-manager configuration at the login screen, you may have run out of disk space. Switch to a character-mode virtual terminal (for example, switch to VT2 by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F2). Login and take a look at the available space (with the command: df -h). If the / filesystem is full, delete some files (such as unused VM images in /var/lib/libvirt/images) and then reboot the system.
• Fedora 13 Slowdowns: If your system is becoming very slow from time to time, it is probably due to a known issue with the Intel video driver, kernel, NICs, storage system, and hardware detection software (!). See Bug 523646 on the Fedora Bugzilla system. A fix for this problem is apparently in the works -- update your system regularly so that you get the fix as soon as it is available.
  • Workaround: Type this command as root (be patient, it will take a minute or two for the system to return to normal speed): killall hald devkit-disks-daemon

This is a Wiki!

You can edit these pages! Please feel free to fix typos or add links to additional resources. Please use this capability responsibly.