::#'''lab 6:'''<ul><li>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</li><li>"Change to the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory on" --> i think its supposed to say centos3 at the end there</li><li>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.</li><li>/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</li><li>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</li><li>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.<br><br></li></olul>::#'''lab 7:'''<ul><li>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.</li><li>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.<br><br></li></ul>