Setup prakti accounts

Setup prakti accounts

Shortly before a new lab course begins, initialize the prakti accounts:

• login as ubuntuadmin on the home server libra:

  ssh ubuntuadmin@libra

• become root:

  sudo su

• go to /exports/disk1/praktikum/intern/setup
• run the script setup:

  ./setup

  This script will rsync the template prakti directory to the 21 prakti home directories. It will also remove anything from the prakti home directories not present in the template
• login as ubuntuadmin on libra and set new passwords for the prakti accounts:
  • create a new random password, e.g. using http://passwordsgenerator.net/
  • set the password:

    ldappasswd -H ldap://vela -x -D "cn=admin,dc=sternwarte,dc=uni-erlangen,dc=de" -W -S "uid=USERNAME,ou=Praktikum,ou=People,dc=sternwarte,dc=uni-erlangen,dc=de"

    while adjusting USERNAME to the corresponding prakti account.
  • note the password in a file
  • do the above for all prakti accounts (as many as needed). Use different passwords for every account.
  • notify all users at remeis that the accounts have been setup and include the new passwords

After a block of the lab course is finished, you need to backup the accounts:

• get confirmation from Jörn, Uli, or Manami that all students are finished and the reports have been submitted.
• get the PDFs of the final protocols of each group and save them in

  /home/praktikum/intern/protocols_archive/

• backup the prakti accounts:
  • login as ubuntuadmin on the home server libra
  • become root
  • rsync the prakti accounts to your PC, e.g.,

    rsync -av /exports/disk1/praktikum/prakti* kreykenbohm@orion:/scratch1/DVD-Burner

  • check how much disk space is used by the accounts.
  • if more than ~4 GB are used, remove unneeded files from the prakti accounts, i.e. firefox/chrome caches, Download folders etc.
  • also add the final protocols of each group to the backup
  • get as many blank DVDs as needed
  • backup the accounts to the DVDs, e.g. using Xfburn
  • label the DVDs appropriately (year, spring/fall, block, and disk number (if applicable))
  • get jewel cases for the DVDs from the closet in the server room
  • store the DVDs in closet to the right in the meeting room

Note: the timing is especially important between the first and second block of a lab course. You have very little time to get confirmation that all groups of the first block are finished, back up all accounts, and initialize the accounts for the second block. Sometimes (if some students are not finished in time) the setup can only be done in the morning of the day when the next block begins...

Note: in some rare cases a group does not finish before the next block begins. In this case do not initialize all accounts using the setup script, but keep the account of the delayed group and only initialze the other accounts.