Open System Application Server

Fall 2024

Overview

• Introduction and Learning Outcomes
• Course Evaluation and Promotion Policy
• Online Format
• Lab Submissions
• Quizzes and Tests
• Assignments
• Course Policies

Introduction

This subject teaches the maintenance and administration of a Linux server. Students will learn to install and upgrade the operating system software, set up user accounts, manage current files systems, back up and restore files, install and configure servers, modify system start-up sequences, administrate common services and modify basic network configurations. Students will also be able to modify the configurations using scripting tools.

Learning Outcomes

• Install software to provide end-users with access to commonly used networking services.
• Configure various client/server software packages to provide file-sharing and interoperability between various platforms.
• Diagnose malfunctions with computers and the network to ensure the maximum availability of network services.
• Implement data/device recovery policies to ensure minimal network downtime and data loss.
• Configure authentication and logging services to ensure secure access to a network and provide network monitoring.

Course Evaluation

Promotion Policy

• Complete all assignments in a satisfactory manner
• Achieve 50% in the course overall

Class Format

• Two classes per week
• First (online) class is lecture
• Second class is lab

Lectures

• Lectures are performed live on some online video platform, recordings will be available.
• Attendance is not mandatory, but recommended. If you’re not able to attend a live lecture, you don’t have to tell me, but do watch the recording when you can in order to not fall behind.

Labs

• Second class is treated as a lab period.
• This is a perfect time for questions, and to get unblocked if something’s going wrong.
• This will be in-person.
• there will demonstrations, additional questions, discussion, etc.

Lab Instructions

• This course is about learning by doing. So most of our time will be spent on the labs.
• Lab instructions are found on the Wiki which you should bookmark.
• Pay close attention to the Submission Requirements.
• Complete the Submission on Blackboard.

Labs that are partially complete will only earn you partial marks.

Lab Deadlines

• Labs are on the weekly schedule. For example Lab 1 is scheduled for Week 2.
• If you miss the deadline, you can still submit but there will be a late penalty of -50%.

Quizzes and Tests

• Quizzes are based on labs, so if you are falling behind you won’t do well.
• Quizzes will be done in-person. No Exceptions.
• No communication between students is allowed. No tools such as LLMs are permitted.

Assignments

• Assignments must be completed in order to pass the course.
• Please ask me for assistance if you get stuck!

Course Policies

• Getting Help
• Asking Questions
• Late Policy
• Missed Assessments
• Academic Integrity

Faculty Information

This is me:

Eric Brauer eric.brauer@senecapolytechnic.ca website

Email me or ask me in class. Please allow 24 hours for a reply.

Getting Help

Getting stuck is all part of the process! I appreciate getting your questions and feedback, less so the night before a deadline… 😑

Come to class. Additionally, you could:

• Contact the Learning Centre for tutoring, learning groups, etc.
• Ask me! Well before the deadline! We will discuss common issues and questions in tutorial.

Getting Help II

In order to resolve your issue, I need information. When you contact me for help, please provide:

1. What part of the lab/assignment are you working on?
2. What output/result are you expecting?
3. What are you getting instead of the expected result?
4. What specific error messages are you getting?
5. What have you already tried?

Asking Questions About The Course

Check These Introduction Slides First!!

If your question is answered in these slides, I will not respond to your email.

If your question isn’t in these slides, please ask during class.

Asking Questions About An Assessment

• Quizzes are designed to check your comprehension, and are useful for preparing for the big tests! I will always provide feedback.
• If you don’t see feedback, please let me know (it’s probably an issue with Blackboard).

I DO NOT CHANGE QUIZ/TEST SCORES UNLESS THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE MATH

If you believe there’s a problem with the score I gave you, be prepared to demonstrate that your answer is correct.

Unsolicited emails asking for marks without cause will be ignored

📭 Email Etiquette 🙄

Yes, apparently this is needed

• Please tell me what section you are in.
• Please keep your message brief. You should include your request/question in the subject line.
• Please review the course introduction slides and announcements before you send an email.
• Don’t use an LLM to generate your message. What it communicates to me if that you don’t actually care about whatever you’ve asked it to generate words about. (If you did care, you would spend time writing the email yourself).
• If you don’t receive a reply, the answer to whatever you asked is NO or Come to class and we’ll figure it out.

What Not To Do

If you have problems, Do Not delete your instances and start over.

• Doesn’t fix the actual issue
• Students will forget an important step the second time
• You can’t do this in the workplace you will be fired

Late Policy

• Labs can be submitted late but will only get partial marks (50%).
• For assignments, missing a deadline means a -10% deduction in mark per business day.
• For special circumstances, please contact me well in advance.

Missed Quizzes/Tests

• There are a few legitimate reasons for missing an assessment. These must be backed up with documentation.
• If you are going to miss an assessment, you must let me know before the assessment has started.
• If you miss a quiz with a legitimate reason, you will be exempt from the quiz.
• If you miss a test with a legitimate reason, you will be required to write a make-up assessment.

Academic Integrity

The college has a zero tolerance policy in regards to cheating. All work submitted must be your own. There is no communication between students allowed during assessments.

• Plagiarism in the workplace will get you fired
• On the other hand, it is expected that junior developers will make mistakes
• Ask for help instead. Honest efforts will get partial marks, plagiarism will get you an academic integrity violation and a zero / F / Discharged from the college.

What Makes It Plagiarism?

• When providing help to other students, use pseudocode to explain a concept. Find a similar example.
• Generally, sharing a line or two of code is not an issue. However if you are sharing a script file, you are committing an academic integrity violation.

Next Steps

• Complete course introduction quiz
• Bookmark the Wiki
• Set up your Linux VM
• Create AWS account using email sent to you