FAQ

Will there be lectures?

There will be no classical lectures! You will be provided with lab materials which you have to work through in labs and then spend extra time on your own
(https://courses.cs.ut.ee/2022/sa/spring/Main/Labs).

Will there be zoom calls/or equivalent in during labs?

TAs have not planned to host zoom calls or any other video call style activites.

I can not access my VM?

Virtual machines that the students are working on are located in University of Tartu internal network. To access your VM make sure you are running University of Tartu VPN service: UT VPN Guide
While running University of Tartu VPN make sure any VPN service that you could be running on your own is disabled. Having more than one VPN running will most likely cause one of them to function unintentionally - UT VPN settings will most likely get overridden by other VPN services.

Where can I get help regarding the labs?

• The course has official slack: utsystemadmin-cts1095.slack.com
• Write to channel #general when you want help from anyone currently taking the course.
• Write to the group chat that you have been specifically assigned to.
• Write directly to the TAs whose group you have chosen.
• Use google to find answers to problems you have with the tasks or when debugging errors. LTAT.06.003's content and environment is not unique in any way compared to carrying out similar tasks in Amazon Cloud or Microsoft Azure - which means you can easily google for solutions.

My service/machine/x was working before, but it is broken now!?

You are responsible of the configuration of your machine and ensuring that the configuration is persistent. We will intentionally restart your machines and other schenanigans periodically. This technique is called Chaos Engineering, the idea is to make sure you do not build an fragile machine which can not handle enterprise level cloud infrastructure fluctuations. You can familiarize yourself with the idea behind this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_engineering

The labs are way too long?!

The LTAT.06.003 is worth 6 course points. Meaning an average student is expected to spend roughly 156 hours per semester working on the course. This course has 10 weeks of new content. 10 * 2 = 20 hours spent in labs with TAs guidance. There's also 2 hours planned for the exam. Meaning that the student is expected to spend 134 hours working on the course independently (156 - 20 - 2 = 134). Which means that per lab, the student is expected to spend on average 13,4 hours doing individual work.

When will labs take place?

Teaching assistants will be present in course's slack and classrooms during the following times:

• Group 1
  • Monday: 10:15 - 12:00: Sander Kuusemets, Mait Tenslind
• Group 2
  • Monday: 14:15 - 16:00: Vladislav Tuzov, Anders Martoja
• Group 6
  • Tuesday: 10:15 - 12:00: Mait Tenslind, Vladislav Tuzov
• Group 3
  • Wednesday: 8:15 - 10:00: Sander Kuusemets, Vladislav Tuzov
• Group 4
  • Wednesday: 14:15 - 16:00: Ott Oopkaup, Anders Martoja
• Group 5
  • Wednesday: 16:15 - 18:00: Ott Oopkaup, Mait Tenslind

When will new lab content be released?

Lab content will be released on Mondays for the following week.

Where can I find the labs?

here.

The labs get less and less descriptive over the course?!

That is by design, we will get you started with detailed step-by-step instructions on how to to complete the exercises. As you gain knowledge and experience, the level of detail decreases. This is again to imitate real-life, where everything is not always laid out in a perfect step-by-step manner. You are again expected to utilize Google to help yourself and the course slack is also at your disposal.

How many labs will there be?

The course will contain 10 new labs, which are spread across 12 weeks.

The course is 16 weeks long and only 12 weeks of work?

The last weeks of the course are meant for students to prepare for the exam. The TAs will still be present in slack during the days specified above to help the students.

This course does not have a prerequisite course? There should be some linux fundamentals stuff?

This course does not have a mandatory prerequisite course. University of Tartu Operating systems course does serve as a nice preparation for this course. The first lab in this course is meant to serve as a soft refresher for people with preexisting linux knowledge and to help those who have not touched linux before.

The TA left abruptly when the lab ended?

TAs are available on slack during the specified lab times. After the lab ends they are not obliged to stay available.

The TAs give very shallow or not specific enough answers to my questions.

The TAs are here to guide you, to point to towards solutions, but they are not obliged to do your work for you. Utilize slack and google to your heart's content. Do not take this as you should not ask for help, most definitely do ask for help. If one TA does not respond ask from another. Do bear in mind, however, that the TAs will probably not give you the list of commands to complete your lab, but try and guide you towards figuring out the solution yourself.

The course encourages to create Ansible playbook to setup VM can I use the same playbook for the exam?

Yes. You can use the playbook you have written. We strongly encourage to write scripts or any other automation that could help you either during the course or in the exam.

Is attending the labs mandatory?

No. We do not enforce attending labs in any way. You can do this course at your own pace.

When is the deadline for the labs?

One week before the exam.

Will there be any intermediate tests of any sorts?

No.

My VM crashed in some horrific manner and I seem to have lost weeks' worth of progress?

Either restore your VM from the backup you have created or use the Ansible you have written to reinstall and configure a fresh system. If you haven't created a backup or an ansible, then you will have to redo all of the labs from the beginning. Whatever your course of action, the labs will be checked one week before the exam so have them finished by then.

Still have questions about the course's administrative side?

Direct message your lab supervisor.

I did not receive an inivitation to slack or ETAIS environment?

You most likely have provided another email account to Study Information System (ÕIS). Check that email.

Still no invitation?

Send an email to sander.kuusemets@ut.ee with the email you used in Study Information System (ÕIS) and the correct email.

From which channel can I expect the course related notifications to come from?

Slack and email (You have provided to Study Information System).

Exam information

When will the exam take place?

The exam times are to be announced

How many attempts are there in the exam?

Two. Plus one follow-up exam.

How to get to the exam?

Complete all labs. Make sure all the Nagios checks are green - you have completed all the labs.
Send an email to sysadunitartu@gmail.com about having completed the labs. This email has to be sent one week before you come to the exam.
In said email include: WHEN will you take your exam (date), your name, your VM_name (matrix number) and your email address you used in ETAIS.
If those three things are not present your email will get bounced back.

Will there be a response from the sysadunitartu@gmail.com?

Yes. TA's will check each student's VM status in nagios, verify that the email contains necessary information that was mentioned above. If all is good an email reponse saying you are allowed to the exam is sent back.

Are materials allowed in the exam?

You are allowed to use your electronic materials e.g. google, personal notes etc.
You are encouraged to use your own ansible playbook which you have hopefully prepared and used during the course.
You are also allowed to use scripts that you have prepared.
You will maintain access to your course VM during the exam which serves as a good reference point for the exam.
You will have to submit your scripts, playbooks or other automation doohickeys - make sure you use your own and not someone elses.

What to expect from the exam?

You will log into ETAIS and you will see a new project in your ETAIS dashboard. Where you will need to create a new VM from a specifically provided image. From there on out you will have to make sure your exam virtualmachine gets all the nagios checks green again. Just like you did during the course.

What is the communication like during the exam should problems arise?

For the exam a new channel is created in the course's slack to where you will be added. There you can communicate with the TAs.

What are the topics for exam?

You have to fully complete a topic (all checks green) to progress in grade. And you have to complete topics in order: From DNS, Web, mail, TLS, Filesystems, Containers&Devops.

Example topics for one exam might be (And how they are graded):

• DNS - Completing all DNS tests will give you E
• Web - Completing all web tests give you D
• Mail - Completing all mail tests will give you C
• TLS - Completing all TLS tests will give you B
• Filesystem - Completing all Filesystem tests will give you A

Other exams might not include Filesystems part and change it for Containers & DevOps part.

How and when do I receive my grade?

The grading is done immediately after the exam. When you think you have done enough, you will notify the TAs in the exam channel. Afterwards the TAs will contact you directly and they will take a look at your machine. You might get asked some additional questions about what you did with your machine.

What happens if I fail - receive a grade F?

You are given another chance at the exam. From which best of two counts. E.g. your first grade was F and second attempt yielded a B, we will give you B in ÕIS.
OR you are not content with the grade you receive in the first attempt, you are free to take another shot at it. E.g. you get a D in the first attempt and an A in the second attempt, we will give you an A in ÕIS.
Best of two counts!

NB! You can not utilise the official follow-up exam as your second attempt if you got a passing grade in the first attempt.

I have already registered in ÕIS for a certain date, how does I register for the second attempt?

It is important that you choose a date in ÕIS. That way TAs can later put the best of two grade attempts grade into ÕIS. Make sure you have registered for one of the three dates.

If you have chosen the 11th of June date but would like to utilize your second attempt also. Notify sysadunitartu@gmail.com with an email with the necessary information - name, ETAIS email, vm_name and a date when you would like to take the exam. This also applies for other exam dates.

Suggestions for the exam

• Take your first exam on the 31st of May or on the 4th of June. This way you have a chance to take the exam again if necessary - talking about the two attempt policy here (follow-up exam time not counted).
• If you do not utilize the two attempt policy during the three available date, you will not get it back.
• You can use the 18th of June date ONLY if you have received a negative grade in your first attempt(s).
• About the exam dates. Make sure you have registered in ÕIS for one attempt. And then communicate with sysadunitartu@gmail.com about the exam dates when you will take your attemp(s). Basically double work for students in that sense, but allows the TAs to make sure you get your attempt(s) and the grade goes to the right place.