Exam prerequisites/preparations¶

This week is the final week of labs, which means there's some organizational stuff to do.

Mandatory feedback for improvement of the course¶

The OIS feedback system is not specific enough for our needs, so we gather our own feedback.

Please go to link https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScKUeJ6723jMJXEz9SYc0OPR6gvwqp3rqYJfvO-8s-nGGXpWg/viewform?usp=sf_link

And fill out this form. This form is only used for improving the course in the future. The UUID or Matrix in the first question is to make sure that everyone fills it out.

You can use anything you want in the UUID field, just make sure it's not easily guessable. If you use the UUID, make sure to remember it to add it in the next part.

Linking your VM to a real person¶

Due to the fact that we allowed you to use any VM name possible, we now have to make sure your machine belongs to who claims it belongs to. For this reason we ask you to do the following task:

Full name: <your_full_name>
VM name: <your_VM_name>
Matrix number: <your_matrix_number>
Email address: <your_email_address>

UUID: <your_used_uuid>

After having done this, make sure all your Nagios checks are green. If they are, you can continue.

Completing labs¶

Contact a TA through Slack (preferred) with the following content or send an email to (sysadunitartu@gmail.com)[mailto:sysadunitartu@gmail.com]:

• Your name
• Your vm_name
• Your email address you have used in ETAIS
• Date when you want to take your first exam attempt

Then we will validate that everything is green on Nagios, see if you have any questions and make sure your VM is fully functional. If everything is okay, we will let you to the exam.

Make sure to read the exam page in courses to understand the format and requirements of the exam.

Ansible for Exam preparations¶

This documentation provides details for the three-tiered exam preparation using Ansible roles, each designed to prepare you differently for the exam challenges.

General Information¶

Each role offers a different level of difficulty and is meant to simulate conditions similar to the actual exam. They introduce failures which are progressively complex across the tiers. You will have full visibility into what each role does. It's recommended to try and fix the issues without previewing the solutions to better understand the relationship between failures and the errors they cause.

Installation and Setup¶

To use these roles, you need to run them on your VM with root or sudo privileges. The recommended folder layout for all tiers is:

ansible
├── hosts
├── roles/
└── playbook.yml

Tier 1 Role

Download the Tier 1 role with: git clone https://gitlab.cs.ut.ee/systemadministration/tier1.git

Tier 2 Role

Download the Tier 2 role with: git clone https://gitlab.cs.ut.ee/systemadministration/tier2.git

Tier 3 Role

Download the Tier 3 role with: git clone https://gitlab.cs.ut.ee/systemadministration/tier3.git

Running the Playbook¶

Add the appropriate role to your playbook.yml for the tier you are preparing for. Below is an example for setting up your playbook:

- hosts: localhost
  user: centos
  become: yes
  become_user: root
  roles:
    - tier1  # Change this to tier2 or tier3 as per the role you are preparing with

Execute the playbook with the command:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Important Note¶

Only run these playbooks after you've completed the labs associated with each tier. Running them prematurely may lead to unintended breakdowns of your machine.

Each playbook is designed with its respective complexity:

• Tier 1: Introduces simple failures.
• Tier 2: Includes problems similar to those in the exam.
• Tier 3: Contains more challenging issues than typically asked in the exam. Completing this tier indicates a strong readiness for the exam.