System Administration Task

University of Sunderland

Faculty of Computer Science

Department of Computer Science, Engineering and Technology

CET103 – SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION

Assignment 1 of 1

2017/18

The following learning outcomes will be assessed:

Skills

1. The ability to carry out system administration tasks such as managing user and group accounts, changing file permissions and performing system backups.

2.The ability to carry out scripting in order to automate common system administration tasks.

Important Information

You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the University Infringement of

Assessment Regulations (see your Programme Guide). Plagiarism, paraphrasing and

downloading large amounts of information from external sources, will not be tolerated and

will be dealt with severely. However, you should make full use of any source material, which

would normally be an occasional sentence and/or paragraph (referenced) followed by your own

critical analysis/evaluation. You will receive no marks for work that is not your own. Your

work may be subject to checks for originality which can include use of an electronic

plagiarism detection service. Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of work, the

work must be entirely your own. The safety of your assessments is your responsibility. You

must not permit another student access to your work. Where referencing is required, unless

otherwise stated, the Harvard referencing system must be used (see your Programme Guide).

Please ensure that you retain a duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send

samples of student work to the external examiners for moderation purposes. It will also

provide you with a safeguard in the unlikely event of your work going astray.

 

Submission Date and Time Friday 9th March 2018, by 4:00pm

Submission Location By electronic submission via Canvas 

 

********************* ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS **********************

 

➢ A 64-bit internet enabled PC containing VMware Workstation 12 and suitable screen

recording software. Two excellent free screenrecording software packages that you

may want to consider using are SimpleScreenRecorder and Screencast-O-Matic. You

will also need to have Microsoft Powerpoint available on your PC.

 

Task A must be completed using VMWare Workstation 12 and suitable screen

recording software.

 

Task B must be performed inside the virtual machine that you created for Task A.

You will also need to use suitable screen recording software to complete Task B.

 

Task C must be performed using Microsoft Powerpoint.

 

➢ It is highly recommended that you complete this assignment using the University's

computers, therefore, if you wish to use your own pc/laptop, you will need to configure

it accordingly yourself.

 

************************** ASSIGNMENT TASKS **************************

 

There are three tasks in total (A, B, and C), you should attempt to answer ALL of the

questions for each of the tasks.

 

Please note: there are a total of one hundred marks available for this assignment.

 

************ Task A – Create and Configure your Virtua l Machine ************

 

A1. Log in to your PC, open up your browser, then navigate to the following URL:

https://soluslond1iso.stroblindustries.com/Solus-3-Budgie.iso

When prompted, save the ‘Solus-3-Budgie.iso’ file to a suitable location on your hard disk or

your USB stick. Please note that, depending on the speed of your internet connection, this

file may take a while to download as it is approximately 1.15GB in size.

 

Once the ‘Solus-3-Budgie.iso’ file has been successfully downloaded, you must create a

VMware Workstation 12 virtual machine to run it. Ensure that your new virtual machine is

configured as follows:

 

Setting  Value
Type of Configuration Typical (recommended)
Use ISO Image The ‘Solus-3-Budgie.iso’ file that you previously downloaded
 Guest Operating System  Linux – Other Linux 3.x kernel 64-bit
 Virtual Machine Name  CET103_Solus_VM
 Virtual Machine Location  The D:\ or E:\ drive of a PC in DGIC 220 Or RV208 OR A hard disk inside your own PC/laptop OR Your USB stick
 Maximum Disk Size  50GB
 Store virtual disk as a single file  TRUE
 Memory (RAM)  2GB

(2 marks)

A2. Run your new virtual machine inside VMware Workstation 12. When it has successfully

loaded, double click on the ‘Install OS’ icon on the desktop. An installation wizard will then

appear, ensure that you select the following values for the relevant sections of the wizard:

Language = English (United Kingdom)

Location = Find my location automatically

 

Keyboard Layout = English (UK)

Timezone = London

Disks = Automatically partition this empty disk and install a fresh copy of

Solus

Disk Configuration = Accept the default value

Hostname = cet103

Install a bootloader = True

Username = Your university login Id e.g cs0mla

Real name = Your real name

Password = Enter a password of your own choosing, then confirm it

(2 marks)

YOU MUST COMPLETE ALL REMAINING SECTIONS OF ‘TASK A’ AND ‘TASK B’

USING YOUR NEWLY CREATED ‘SOLUS’ VIRTUAL MACHINE.

A3. Install the following software:

- Suitable firewall configuration software

(1 mark)

- The 'SimpleScreenRecorder' application

(1 mark)

- The 'Tilda' application

(1 mark)

- 'VMware Tools'

(3 marks)

A4. Change the following settings:

- Set the default desktop theme to ‘dark

(1 mark)

- In the ‘Power Saving’ section, change the ‘Blank Screen option’ to ‘Never

(1 mark)

- Set the default system ‘boot time’ to 2 seconds

(3 marks)

 

 

A5. Create a new permanent BASH alias that has the following settings:

alias name = getsysinfo alias command = inxi -Fs

(3 marks)

 

A6. Configure the ‘Tilda' application as follows:

- Set the default ‘Position’ option to ‘Centered Horizontally’, then set a default ‘width

of 80% and a default ‘height’ of 40%

- Select the ‘Use a login shell' and 'Start Tilda hidden' options

- Add Tilda as a new startup process

(3 marks)

A7. Permanently change the format of the BASH prompt so that it also calculates and

displays the current date. Your new BASH prompt must be structured like this:

yourusername@cet103 currentdate ~ $

 

As an example, the BASH prompt for a user called 'cs0mla', who was logged in on ‘Friday 22nd

September’, would look like this:

cs0mla@cet103 Fri Sep 22 ~ $

(4 marks)

A8. Produce a series of screencasts, which demonstrate how you accomplished each of the

required elements for Task A.

 

Please note that each individual screencast MUST be sensibly named and MUST not

exceed 3 minutes in length.

(5 marks)

  

********** Task B – Create a Text Based Menu Driven BASH Script **********

 

B1. Use a suitable text editor to create a new menu driven bash script called TaskB.sh.

Save your new script to the ‘yourusername/home’ directory of your virtual machine.

 

Your menu must use suitable BASH commands to provide the following functionality :

Option 1:

Display the file permissions of your TaskB.sh script

(2 marks)

Option 2:

Retrieve all system updates for your Solus OS. You are permitted to enter any

relevant passwords at the beginning of this process but you are not permitted to type

in anything else, until all of the updates have been installed.

(2 marks)

Option 3:

Display all of the files in the ‘yourusername/home’ directory, that have been modified

over the last 24 hours.

(2 marks)

Option 4:

Copy the ‘anatine-indicator.svg’ file from the following directory:

/usr/share/icons/Papirus/22x22/panel/

then paste it onto the ‘Desktop’ of the current user. Finally, rename the copied file as

’ducky.svg’.

(4 marks)

Option 5:

Create a new tar file called ‘my_backup.tar.gz’. This file must contain a backup copy

of everything that currently exists inside the ‘yourusername/home’ directory APART

FROM .profile’ and ‘Templates’. Once you have created the my_backup.tar.gz file,

you must extract its contents into the /tmp directory.

(5 marks) 

You must ensure that your menu contains suitable ' error handling ' features .

(3 marks)

You must document your BASH code via the use of relevant comments.

(3 marks)

Your menu must be professional in appearance and usability.

(4 marks)

'Advanced' Functionality: Create your own 'advanced' system administration

functionality and incorporate the appropriate BASH code in your menu.

(15 marks)

 

B2. Produce a screencast called 'Task_B.mp4'. Your screencast must demonstrate each of

the working elements of your TaskB.sh menu. Please note that your 'Task_B.mp4'

screencast MUST not exceed 10 minutes in length.

(5 marks)

Task C – Powerpoint Presentation

Use Microsoft Powerpoint to produce a presentation (containing 12-15 slides). Your

presentation should be named 'Task_C' and must address the following areas:

 

 Any problems you faced during the assignment and how you overcame them.

(4 marks)

 Details of the research that you conducted throughout the assignment. Use

references and URLs where applicable.

(3 marks)

 What you would do differently if you were to attempt the assignment again.

(4 marks)

 A critical assessment of the Solus distro that you used for the assignment.

(10 marks)

 You MUST make substantial and relevant use of the Powerpoint 'notes' feature, to

expand on any points that you have raised in each of your slides.

(4 marks)

  

*************** ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS **************

 

You are required to submit an electronic zip file called yourname_CET103.zip’, to the

Assignments’ section of the CET103 module on Canvas, by the specified assignment

submission date and time.

 

Your submitted zip file MUST contain the following electronic files:

- Your 'Task_A' screencasts

- Your 'Task_B' screencast

- Your ‘Task C’ Powerpoint file

- Your TaskB.sh script

----------------------------End of Assignment----------------------------

Moderated: September 2017

Module Leader: Michael Lawrence