Summer 1999 CS 691X UNIX System Administration

Logistics

The class meets TTh 1-3:20pm, in ECS 237. The class is scheduled to run for eight weeks.

Each monitor in the lab must be powered off or set on a screen saver at the end of each class. Please turn them off for the weekend.

Textbooks

Linux Kernel Internals, Beck et al, second edition, Addison-Wesley.
UNIX System Administration Handbook, Nemeth et al, second edition, Prentice Hall.

Objectives

To learn basics of UNIX system administration
Emphasis on problem-solving, as opposed to cookbook solutions
To demonstrate skills in setting up and operating heterogeneous networks.

Requirements

Build a UNIX site, with users, groups, shared printers, shared filesystems, etc. (40%)
Present a chapter from the Nemeth or Beck book to the class. Use HTML. (20%)
Do a small kernel modification, and install it on your PC. (10%)
Conduct and present an individual or small group project. All projects will be presented to the class at the end of the term, in lieu of a final exam. Projects may involve outside reading or other research. Group projects will involve an implementation. (30%)

Course Outline

This course is scheduled to run for eight weeks, two sessions per week. So the sessions are numbered 1-16 in the list below.

May 25
- Introduction
- Overview of lab facilities
- Demo: installation of Redhat LINUX 5.2
- Students make an inventory of the PCs in the lab, noting (when possible) the memory and disk situations, and the machine's IP address.
- Reading assignment for next session: Chapters 1 and 2 of Nemeth
May 27
- We installed Redhat 5.2 Linux on the machines in the ECS 237 lab. Each machine's IP address is 130.85.99.9+n, where n is the number assiged to the PC. For example, PC 13 gets the IP 130.85.99.22.
- The broadcast mask should be 255.255.255.0, and the name servers set to 130.85.1.4 and 130.85.1.5.
- The generic multisync monitor seems to work for all the machines, and the Mach 64 video card. Some machines may need different settings.
- Let's use the same root password on all machines in the lab. That password will be cs691x.
June 1
- Charles Nicholas presented Chapter 1 of Nemeth's book Chapter 1. Kim Grempler and Leon Dague presented Chapter 2 in two parts: Kim's part and Leon's part. Some helpful pieces of information:
  - To get out of X Windows, type CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE
  - To do a clean reboot, we recommend the command sync;sync;reboot. To stop the system, as you would before powering off, use sync;sync;halt.
  - To make the slides for your chapters, I recommend HTML, or use Powerpoint with HTML as the output format. Please email to me a copy of your HTML, preferably as a tarfile, so that I can put it on the course web page.
- Discuss the Linix loader, known as LILO. More on Booting a Linux System
- June 3
  - Cindy Johnson presented Nemeth Chapter 3. (Powerpoint version.)
  - Harry Chen presented Nemeth Chapter 4
  - By now, we should have finished installing Linux on the Pentiums, Discuss the following questions:
    1. Where does LINUX keep its logs?
    2. Where are the rc scripts, which get run at boot time?
    3. Where are the HOWTOs?
- June 8
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 5 (Julie Jiao)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 6 (Debbie Merson)
- June 10
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 7 (Alhabashi Khattab)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 9 (Zhao Ying and Andrej Cedilnik)
  - Several commands in the /sbin directory, with the term 'mod' in the command name, are applicable to Linux loadable kernel modules. Examples include 'lsmod' and 'modprobe'.
  - Reading assignment: chapters 1 and 2 of Linux Kernel Internals
  - Demonstrated compilation of the Linux kernel, using 'make xconfig'. It's also possible to use 'make config' or 'make menuconfig'. In general, a brand new kernel should be put onto a floppy for initial testing. The command 'dd bs=8192 if=zImage of=/dev/fd0' can be used for this purpose, without changing the kernel on the hard disk. The command 'make zdisk' will issue the dd command for you.
- June 15
  - We need to figure out the characteristics of these monitors if we're to use 'make xconfig' effectively.
  - Demonstrate a kernel recompile.
- June 17
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 10 (Zheng Yan)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 11 (Honglin Su)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 12 (Haiying Bao)
- June 22
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 13 (Liang Xu and Jihong Chen)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 14 (Kejian Wu, Yiqing Ren, Xiao-min Su)
- June 24
  - Discussion of Beck Chapter 3 (Grant Braught)
  - Discussion of Beck Chapter 4 (Scott Jiang)
- June 29
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 16. Yun Wan's part and Shanshan Liu's part.
  - Discussion of Beck Chapter 6 (Ying Ouyang)
- July 1
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 23 (Quanhua Lu and Bo Ye)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 31 (Dan Winter)
- July 6
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 15 (Mihir Pise)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 17 (Shilang Tang)
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 22 (Chaitanya)
- July 8
  - Discussion of Nemeth Chapter 29 (Lianhe Shao)
  - Begin project demos
- July 13
  - Project demos
- July 15
  - Project demos
  - Hand in all project writeups!

Projects

The group and/or individual projects.

Useful Links

Microsoft's Powerpoint Viewer for Windows 95/98 and NT

The following XF86Config file seems to work well for the machines in the lab ECS 237. This file should be placed in the directory /etc/X11.

This page is the responsibility of Charles Nicholas and Gary Burt. If you wish, you can send mail to me with comments or questions. This is not an anonymous mail service.