<div><div dir="auto">I haven’t been able to connect to the Linux lab in some time. Is it no longer available?</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Thanks,</div><div dir="auto">Matt</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 9:22 PM Jan Schaumann <<a href="mailto:jschauma@stevens.edu">jschauma@stevens.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hello,<br>
<br>
Welcome to the Spring 2018 Semester edition of CS615 "Aspects of System<br>
Administration".<br>
<br>
System Administrators need to be able to read a lot of documentation and<br>
text. By "read", we don't mean "skim quickly and tweet about it", but<br>
rather: "actually read and understand". This email will be your first<br>
exercise in this critical skill, as it contains a lot of meta<br>
information and administrativa.<br>
<br>
You may have noticed that this class does not have a "Canvas" or<br>
"Moodle" online thingy; instead, it has a lovingly hand-crafted,<br>
artisanal, locally produced, old-fashioned course website:<br>
<a href="https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/615/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/615/</a><br>
<br>
This page has all the information about the class you should need.<br>
Please do bookmark and read it carefully, if you have not done so<br>
already. Lecture slides and homework assignments will be posted there<br>
as the semester progresses.<br>
<br>
Our primary method of communication about anything relating to this<br>
class will be (aside from good old in-class face-to-face exchanges)<br>
email. Specifically: this mailing list.<br>
<br>
If you have questions, please send them to this mailing list. (If you<br>
send it to me alone, chances are I will tell you to resend the same mail<br>
to the mailing list.) If you see a question on the mailing list to<br>
which you think you know the answer, please respond on the mailing list.<br>
Being able to efficiently communicating via email is a crucial skill --<br>
you should practice it! Often times just describing your problem to<br>
somebody else helps you find the solution[1].<br>
<br>
There is also a class Twitter account: <a href="https://twitter.com/cs615asa" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/cs615asa</a> I<br>
will occastionally post (hopefully) interesting or amusing links<br>
relating to the general topic of System Administration there. You are<br>
not required to follow this account or read anything posted there ("no,<br>
this will not be on the test"), but you may still find it of interest.<br>
<br>
<br>
The area of System Administration is very wide; we cannot cover in<br>
sufficient detail every single aspect. As we go through the semester,<br>
we will follow the syllabus as outlined on the course website and each<br>
class will cover the basics of each topic. There is no required course<br>
book, but a few recommended texts are listed on the website. I may also<br>
share documents or texts as required reading on this list.<br>
<br>
For each lecture, I have linked some suggested reading on the class<br>
website. You will get the most out of this class if you prepare for the<br>
lecture by reading the referenced materials _prior_ to the lecture.<br>
This will allow you to follow along and ask questions or clarify your<br>
understanding in class interactively. Re-reading the material after the<br>
lecture is also a good idea to revisit what you have learned. For<br>
tomorrow's class, I recommend that you read the following document:<br>
<a href="https://www.netmeister.org/book/01-introduction.pdf" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.netmeister.org/book/01-introduction.pdf</a><br>
<br>
You should also feel encouraged to read up on each topic via the<br>
referenced reading materials and independent study. Please share any<br>
interesting links or articles you come across with the class on this<br>
mailing list.<br>
<br>
<br>
Each class will have a pre-class questionnaire, asking you a few basic<br>
questions about the topic at hand. This will not be graded -- there are<br>
no right or wrong answers, but responding is mandatory and not doing so<br>
will affect your grade. I will not remind you to fill these out each<br>
week; please remind yourself.<br>
<br>
I very much encourage you to revisit the questionnaire after each class<br>
to see if your understanding has improved and what you may have learned.<br>
<br>
<br>
There will be a few graded homework assignments; some of them will be<br>
individual work, and some may be group assignments. All of the<br>
assignments will require you to write up documentation how you solved<br>
the problem, as writing clear technical documentation is another<br>
important skill to hone. I know that English is not the first language<br>
for many of you: please use a spell-checker and carefully re-read your<br>
documents before submission. The same holds for your emails, by the<br>
way. How you present yourself in a text medium often speaks volumes<br>
about the level of care and attention you might give to other issues.<br>
There are a few hints at [2].<br>
<br>
<br>
Any and all work for the homework submissions must be done by you. You<br>
are always welcome to ask questions or to discuss solutions or different<br>
approaches, to work together on common problems, but you may not submit<br>
work not done by yourself. You must not copy and paste solutions from<br>
other students, from previous semesters, from the internet, from your<br>
grandma, or from anywhere else and pretend that you did the work<br>
yourself. If you do, you will receive and F and the incident will be<br>
reported to the Dean of Academics.<br>
<br>
<br>
All work for this class will be done exclusively using command-line<br>
tools on Unix systems. If you are not comfortable operating on the<br>
command-line, then this class is not for you and I recommend that you<br>
drop it. All work will be done and graded on <a href="http://linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu</a>,<br>
on which you should already have an account. (If you do not, now would<br>
be a very good time to get it.[2] You will need it for your first<br>
assignment.)<br>
<br>
We will be using Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in this class.<br>
You are not expected to be familiar with EC2, but, consistent with the<br>
above, all interactions with EC2 will be done using the command-line<br>
utilities available on <a href="http://linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">linux-lab.cs.stevens.edu</a>.<br>
<br>
Amazon offers a free tier of services for new subscribers[4]. In<br>
addition (and/or if you already have an AWS account and have used the<br>
free tier), you can apply for $35 worth of free credits via AWS<br>
Educate[5][6]. As this is a limited amount, it is important that you<br>
remember to terminate any running resources after you are finished with<br>
your assignments. You are responsible for any costs incurred beyond<br>
this amount, even if they resulted out of an error or negligence on your<br>
part.<br>
<br>
<br>
>From time to time, I will send thought exercises, problems, current<br>
issues to consider or investigate, or similar incentives for you to<br>
research a topic. I expect you to put some thought into these, but they<br>
are not graded.<br>
<br>
System Administration requires a lot of self-directed learning, critical<br>
reading, experimentation and initiative. You will get the most out of<br>
this class if you follow the examples from each lecture well beyond the<br>
homework assignments, which primarily exist because I have to give you a<br>
grade at the end of the semester. What you take away from this class<br>
and what you ultimately learn is entirely up to you.<br>
<br>
<br>
If you have managed to read (actually read!) this far: congratulations,<br>
you're off to a good start.<br>
<br>
See you in class tomorrow!<br>
<br>
-Jan<br>
<br>
<br>
[1] <a href="https://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://blog.codinghorror.com/rubber-duck-problem-solving/</a><br>
[2] <a href="https://www.netmeister.org/blog/the-art-of-plain-text.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.netmeister.org/blog/the-art-of-plain-text.html</a><br>
[3] <a href="https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/615/linux-lab.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~jschauma/615/linux-lab.html</a><br>
[4] <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/free/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://aws.amazon.com/free/</a><br>
[5] <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://aws.amazon.com/education/awseducate/</a><br>
[6] <a href="https://www.awseducate.com/Application?apptype=student" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.awseducate.com/Application?apptype=student</a><br>
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</blockquote></div></div>