INFT 3026 Systems Administration: Assignment v1.2 

Objective: Small businesses and medium enterprises often require the need of an on-premises server, this is slowly transitioning to the cloud as time goes on. This server often contains their mail, website and other specific applications the business requires. This project practices team-based learning, where group members will be working together for setting up and managing a Linux server running on a virtual machine. Consider you are working for an SME with 25-30 employees. The company specializes in VR game development and software development. Your task is to work with 1 or 2 other employees to set up a server that supports daily work, including services such as instant messaging, voice conferencing, cloud storage, version control, shared calendar, webmail, etc. Although this is a group project, the assessment is highly focused on individual achievement. Please follow the guidelines and clearly indicate individual contributions in your assignment. Group Formation: Students are given an opportunity to self-nominate groups with 2 or 3 members before the end of week 5 (Apr 4). The self-nomination is through a wiki for assignment on the course website. Students without self-nomination at the beginning of Week 6 will be randomly from in Groups or allocated to existing groups. Groups can commence the work and pick the preferred topics as soon as the group is formed. Details: • Analyse software services to support business operations Discuss the requirements of software engineering and identify suitable software to facilitate remote and on-site operation. You should tailor your software to work for IT companies in general, or specifically software/game development. You should compare relevant software and identify the most suitable open-source/free software for self-hosting. • Server application installation and configuration Each group member will be responsible for installing the software they identify in the analysis. The installation should be made on one virtual machine (refer to week 4 practical session, and you can use either VirtualBox or VMware), with all member’s implementation integrated in one virtual machine for demonstration/presentation/submission. Your use of the group VM is critical for your success in the assignment. Deliverables: Group allocation (Week 1-5) • You are given an opportunity to self-nominate your group in week 4 and 5. If you do wish to self-nominate your group, you are required to create a group and get other students to join your group. If you do not join a group, you will lose 3 marks. If students are not in a group by the end of allocation, they will be randomly added to groups. Report checkpoint (Week 9) • In week 9, we run a report “checkpoint”. You are required to submit the most recent version of your report on the course website. At the checkpoint, you should have completed the introduction and software analysis sections (refer to the Final report section below). A small proportion of marks is allocated to the checkpoint, and no in- depth assessment at this stage. As long as you have these two sections ready, you’ll get the marks. Everyone needs to submit the joint report, no mark for failing to submit the joint report (i.e. if your team members submit the joint report and you don’t, they get the mark and you don’t.) Demonstration (Week 12) • In week 12, every group is required to demonstrate the operation of the service you’re responsible for (e.g. if you are setting up a webmail, you can open a browser to point your mail website to show that your mail service works.). • Each student is required to submit a screencast (recording) of the demonstration through the course website. The demonstration is up to 3 minutes per person. The demonstration should be individual, and no marks will be given for joint demonstration. Presentation (start of Week 13) • Students are required to each submit a presentation file, not one presentation per group. • Everyone is required to present their individual task in week 13. Up to 3 minutes per person. • The presentation file will be submitted through the course website. • The presentation should be individual, and no marks will be given for joint presentation. • External students are expected to submit a presentation file or video that contains audio and slides. Final report (start of Week 13) A report up-to 30 pages in length including references. The report should include the following sections: 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. Software analysis (Break down to subsections, and in each subsection indicate the team member is responsible for the analysis) 4. Implementation details (Some details can be moved to appendix, which doesn’t count towards the page limit) 5. Project management for the team 5.1 Task allocation and project management (Some details such as meeting minutes can be moved to appendix) 5.2 (Remote) Teamwork (Describe how you work with other team member(s) in this project. For this task you are not limited to self-hosting software, for example you can use Zoom.) Other guidelines • Penalties apply for reports exceeding the maximum page limit. • There is no minimum length. Lengthy report may not necessarily better. • Proper references should be provided. You can use any popular citation format that best fits your report. • You can optionally include appendix which does not count towards the page limits. An appendix is only considered an appendix if it is supporting the main text. • Please get in touch with your group members early and start your project early. Team-based system-administration is part of the exercise and part of the report marks goes to team-based project management (note: this is still not a common mark for free-riders, for instance if they never attends group meetings with good reasons as recorded in the meeting minutes.) The report will be submitted through the course website. Extension Policy: All students seeking extensions are required to: • Provide supporting evidence for the extension (e.g. medical certificate, access plan, etc) • Submit your most up-to-date report as a supporting document • Extensions CANNOT be processed through emails; it is important you submit your request on the Learnonline site. • Late submission penalty: 20% per day (including the weekend) Marks Breakdown Assessment Components Weighting Group allocation 2% Report checkpoint 3% Demonstration 10% Presentation 10% Report 75%