An overview of the course material
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The material can be found at:
Can you open this in your browser?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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How we developed the course.
- We did a concept map on paper.
- Then we created a template for each lesson plan.
- We used the lesson plan to develop each lesson.
- We gave trial deliveries of each lesson to guinea pigs.
- We modified the lessons to match what we learnt from the trial delivery.
The lesson plans are in the repository, under the "Planning" folder. They give a high level overview of each of the lessons.
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Do you think we have kept the lesson plans up to date?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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Answer: We have tried. But like so much documentation in the software world, we struggle :(
But in getting to grips with a lesson, reading the lesson plan and ensuring that you understand the concepts the lesson is attempting to convey is quite handy.
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Can you find and open the lesson plans?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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Follow along in the lesson plan as we discuss the lessons.
Lesson 0101 - OpenStack mapped by the Dashboard
We do a high level drive through of the dashboard: and keep the learners engaged by playing a game of follow my leader: and by asking questions as we go. At the end the instructor may launch an instance: but it's not intended for the class to follow suite...
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What's an ephemeral disk?
- A quantum disk
- A disk that moves from VM to VM
- A disk that only exists for the life of its VM
- A made up word set
- Something victorians put their tea cups on
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Answer: C. A disk that lives only for the lifetime of its associated VM.
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What is a NeCTAR image?
- A picture at an exhibition
- A representation of NeCTAR
- What NeCTAR's marketing arm presents to the world
- A serialized copy of the entire state of a computer system stored in a file
- A fine piece in the NeCTAR art collection
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Answer: D. Essentially a file that contains the contents of a hard drive.
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No one really does anything in this lesson!
Is that a problem?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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Discuss that we've tried mixing lesson 1 and two up: and that we've had best success by introducing the concepts and then the hands on work.
Lesson 020 - Your free computer: up and running
We get the students to create their own security group, keypair and then launch their own instance.
We scaffold this by giving them checklists to follow.
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Jared's lesson
Don't print out the checklists!
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BTW: this is how we communicate key pairs (give a run through of Pem the greek merchant banker...)
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Then:
- Lesson 033 - Accessing your new computer
- Lesson 034 - An introduction to the command line
- Lesson 035 - Updating your new computer
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Our most ambitious lesson grouping so far!
But why the grouping?
History, history and history. We originally gave this introduction at ResBaz - were students already had done an introduction to the command line. So we didn't want to bore them. Then there was the retrofit to match Intersects training. So the idea is that you can drop the central lesson if need be: or replace some of the lessons with your own ssh shell on Windows, rather than using putty.
We introduce the command line, ssh, sudo, package management and show security groups in action.
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Our biggest problem...
The amazing teleporting terminal!
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Hence our increasingly laboured explanations around terminals...
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Our ssh analogy
Have you got a better one?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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Our eve in the middle analogy
Have you got a better one?
- G = Yes.
- R = No.
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We had to put this in because when we first started delivering this course the NeCTAR scheduler was aggressively reusing IP numbers and users would run into this issue often. Now that Neutron is in the mix this no longer the case. But we suspect that people may still run into the warnings occasionally.
Lesson O4O - Moving data to and from your new computer
We get our learners to use scp and CyberDuck to move data to and from their remote machines.
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Moving data: our top researcher request!
Hence it's worth spending time on...
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Lesson 050 - We can still run our graphical applications
We launch and run graphical applications via XWindows over ssh.
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Graphical applications: our top promoter request!
Of interest...
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Lesson 060 - Snapshots, backups and vertical scaling
We dive deeper into snapshots and scaling.
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Why are NeCTAR snapshots broken?
- They are just too easy to do: suspicious enough!
- The magic nostrums aren't up to the task!
- They are not broken! How dare you!
- The state of the machine is not captured
- Cosmic rays can flip their bits.
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Answer: D. Whilst E is a topic for a good debate, the answer is: D. The state of the machine is not captured
This seems to be a little known fact :(
We teach a work around that gives faultless snapshots.
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Anyone care to guess our technique?
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Answer: Yes, we shut the VM down. Note: Not terminate!!
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Do you know the differences between:
- A soft reboot of a VM
- A paused VM
- A stopped VM
- A hard reboot of a VM
- A terminated VM
?
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A soft reboot tries to do a graceful reboot (you ask the OS to reboot). A paused VM is simply halted in memory, ready to be started again. A stopped VM has its state written to the host machines disk, ready to be resumed from there. A hard reboot just reboots the machine! (you press the button)
Lesson 070 - Transient storage and sharing
We have a very clumsy display that transient storage is not to be relied on.
And also do some vertical scaling and public sharing of snapshots.
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Vertical scaling: an often featured support request.
Strangely, people want to keep their IP numbers...
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Lesson 080 - The object store
We dive into the Object Store
It's a very simple lesson.
We introduce containers, objects, and get them upload, download and make public an image.
We also, if time permits, get them to work through connecting CyberDuck to the object store using Intersects training material.
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True or False: Knowledge is as perishable as a fresh fish!
- G = True.
- R = False.
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A False - Is the knowledge that you have, somehow, in some strange quantum way, flipping from correct to wrong with the passage of time?
Or is it simply that the knowledge available is exploding? Sure, some of the knowledge we may hold dear may turn out to be incorrect (Carbohydrates are good for you?), but the majority still holds true. Pythagoras still Rulez!
Lesson 090
We dive into Security.
We explain the shared security model, and give some basic tips on staying safe in the cloud.
This the messiest and least explored lesson, as you'll be able to tell by the lesson plan and that there is more than one lesson.
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True or False: Discovery trumps explanation
- G = True.
- R = False.
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A True and False - Both sides have a point. If you can learn quantum physics by discovery: well, why are you in this room? Research has shown that pure discovery learning doesn't work: but guided investigative learning can be very effective in certain settings.