The second day was built around building partitions and configuring LVM, while this day is focused on using multiple RAID options and explaining principles for choosing RAID options. Even using VMWare with a virtual machine it is a great way to teach students how to configure with software RAID. We create RAID 0,1 and 5 and also discuss other newer options like RAID 6, 10, etc. The key to learning software RAID is to build it on a virtual machine with multiple virtual drives. Once students create RAID 3 or 4 times it is going to stick with them. We also talk about the differences between using hardware RAID and software RAID as well as practice breaking and fixing RAID.
The afternoon provides students options for backup using tar, rsync and dd. This basic tools can provide system backups or provide options for user level backups. Basic scripts are written and tested during these Labs for the use of backups. Automating actions are important time savers for administrators so we examine at and cron for students to use in automated activities. This information on backups, scripts and automation is applied when we look at SSH as an option with passwordless backups on the next day.
It is amazing to me how many students struggle with SSH as most students are Windows administrators moving to Linux and are not command line comfortable. SSH is one of those key features in understanding and performing Linux administration. With the remote skills of being able to use SSH and administrator can basically be anywhere to work on a remote server.
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