Group Project for CS410SM

Last updated 19-Jun-95

This project is to manage a Unix system as a member of a team of administrators.

The purposes of the project are:

• To explore the system administration side of Unix
• To get hands on experience with a Unix system
• To learn about the non-tangibles of Unix work
• To understand constraints of working in groups, complete documentation techniques, and ``real-life'' problems.

The general grading on this project is as follows:

40%

System Improvement

10%

Weekly system admin meeting minutes

25%

Group work and testing. This includes the system logbook.

25%

Documentation. This includes System Notebook, summary of changes, system reviews, notices to users.

System Improvement

The goal of system administration is to provide smooth and consistent services to the users of the system at the same time that you upgrade, improve and maintain the system. All systems should be under a regular backup regiem. The goal of this project is to qualitatively improve the services that the users see with out any interruptions in service.

Weekly meeting minutes

To check your progress throughout the term, you should have weekly meetings with your team. At each meeting, you should discuss:

• a list of the members present, with email addresses, time and length of the meeting.
• The prioritized list of tasks that you as a team are working on:
  • what tasks were accomplished.
  • what tasks were delayed.
  • who is responsible for each task.
• A discussion of problems encountered and solutions tried.
• A discussion of new facts, things learned, new techniques and other information that have been discovered.
• A piece of the system review completed.

IMPORTANT:

In the process of spending a lot of effort not getting anywhere, it is possible to flunk this class. Make sure that you are making regular progress on improving the system. If you are not able to meet the following checkpoints, consider dropping the class.

Group Definition

Group Definition checkpoint due: Thursday, the first week of class.

Choose a group of 3 to 5 members. Collect the following information for each of the members of your group:

• Name
• Telephone Number
• Times and days when most likely to be available at the preceding telephone number
• email address
• Technical strengths and interests.

Be sure to include this information for yourself, as well. In addition to the preceding information about the individual members of your group, include a weekly date, time, and place when your group will meet, and also who is in charge of the agenda and minutes for the meeting.

Email this information to blajmi

NOTE:

In order for the group to receive complete credit for this checkpoint, ALL members of the group must INDIVIDUALLY email this information in.

System Review

System Review checkpoint due: Thursday, the second week of class.

The system review is a tool that allows you to get an idea of how the system is put together and how much you know about the system. I expect there will be some blank spots left in the review. Since we will request a second review at the end of the class, this will give a standard by which to measure the improvement in the system.

Mail in a copy of the system review completed for your system to blajmi

System Log

As an ongoing part of the work that you do on your system, you should document all activity. This activity should be in a system log that all system administrators have access to. Each change to the system should be documented with:

• What was done and why - one sentence.
• When it was done - date/time.
• Who did the work - name/email.
• How it was done - list of files modified, etc.
• Pitfalls - anything that confused you.
• Parameters - Any "magic information" you used.

If you opt to store this log on-line, new information should be printed and kept in the system notebook (q.v.)

System Notebook

The system notebook is a hardcopy notebook which details the critical information that a Unix administrator would need in a time of crises. This note book needs to be in hard copy, because in a time of crises, the system is often down. This notebook should include all magic parameters for the system, an overview of the system, all the needed phone numbers and procedures that a unix admin would need to know to dig your system out of trouble.

Communication

System administration does not happen in a vacuum. The users of the system are the key to a happy system. You will need to post information on a regular basis to newsgroups and the motd file so that you properly set the expectations of the users of your system for what they can expect of the system, both for down time and improvements. The goal for system support is NO SURPRISES Tell people ahead of time what you are doing.

Use motd, news and msgs to communicate what you are doing with the users of the system.