ellie@usenix.ORG (Ellie Young) (08/25/90)
Large Installation Systems Administration IV Conference and Tutorial Program October 17-19, 1990 Colorado Springs, Colorado Wednesday, October 17 TUTORIAL: Topics in Large Installation Systems Administration INSTRUCTORS: Rob Kolstad, Jeff Polk, Sun Microsystems Evi Nemeth, Trent Hein, University of Colorado A two-track tutorial program will be held in conjunction with the Conference. This program allows attendees to choose which sections of the tutorials most interest them. Participants can change between the tracks at each topic change to the session which appears most interesting to them. The tutorial notes will include viewgraphs from both tutorial tracks. A box lunch is included in the registration fee. 9:00 +---------------------------------------------------------+ | PERL, part 1 | 10:15 |- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -| | [break] | 10:40 |- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -| | PERL, part 2 | 11:30 |---------------------------------------------------------| | Network Functionality | | | SNMP, BIND | sendmail 1 | 12:30 |---------------------------------------------------------| | - - - - l u n c h - - - - | 1:30 |---------------------------------------------------------| | Dynamic Routing Strategies | | | gated/egp/rip | sendmail 2 | | NTP (time Protocol) | | 2:30 |----------------------------|----------------------------| | Case studies: | | | SLIP | Ethics, patents, | | optimal NFS configs | privacy, security | 3:30 |----------------------------|----------------------------| | [break] | 4:00 |----------------------------|----------------------------| | Security: | question | | Kerberos IV | and | | COPS | answer | 5:00 +---------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------------------------------------------- PERL UNIX gurus are often considered to be the "local experts" on the entire gamut of UNIX tools: "awk", "sed", shell scripts, and C. Each of these has its strengths and weaknesses, along with various idiosyncrasies. Larry Wall (famous for authoring "patch") has written another fine program - - a complete interpretive language, called "PERL", (Practical Extraction and Report Language). It combines all the best features of C, "sed", "awk", shell programming, database access, and text manipulation into one giant, kitchen-sink language. This combined track will leverage your C programming skills into the PERL environment and supply you with dozens of examples so that you can start using its power as soon as it is up on your system. This is a new offering. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NETWORK FUNCTIONALITY Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP): Today it is possible to query and configure gateways and other network building blocks from the comfort and convenience of your own keyboard, thanks to SNMP. A brief overview of SNMP as well some examples will be presented. BIND (named & friends): Dynamic name resolution is essential to any modern site connected to the Internet as well as large independent networks. The most popular method of name resolution is via BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain server). This session will discuss how to configure and debug the primary daemon associated with BIND (named(8)), the resolver library routines, and debugging tools such as nslookup(1). Familiarity with the domain hierarchy and host addressing is assumed. This is a new offering. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- sendmail This session will concentrate on modifying, programming, and debugging sendmail configuration files. Not only will syntax and semantics be covered but also test and verification techniques. The full two hours will allow examination of several exemplary pieces of configuration files and a complete explication of testing and verifying sendmail configuration files. This is an expanded version of previous sendmail talks by Evi Nemeth and Rob Kolstad. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DYNAMIC ROUTING STRATEGIES How do you set up a network with redundant gateways so that if one goes down the other steps in as a backup? What is RIP and EGP, and when should you use them? How do you conjure up a gated configuration file? This session will answer these questions and more. Network Time Protocol (NTP) Is network time synchronization important to you? It is if your site uses NFS and utilities like make(1). More accurate and reliable than traditional timed(8), NTP is available for most popular machines. Here we'll discuss what it is, and how to install and configure it. This is a new offering. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CASE STUDIES SLIP: You too can have a workstation at home on the Internet! System administrators and users alike are having IP connectivity at home or at remote sites via a serial link. Case studies presented in this session will describe both a single host and a network of hosts connected (via dialup or dedicated line) to an existing computing center via SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol). NFS optimization: Should you put filesystems on user's local disks or centralize them? What about in-core filesystems? What is best for your site? This short case study discusses a few configurations and how they worked in light and heavy networking environments. This is a new offering. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ETHICS, PATENTS, PRIVACY, SECURITY Dealing with large user communities leads to new problems in data collection, patents, software licensing, security, and ethics. This session will discuss scenarios and techniques that can be applied by managers of large systems to insure happy, healthy and ethical user communities. This session is a repeat of one given at past USENIX conferences and workshops. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STATE-OF-THE-ART SECURITY Kerberos IV -- Network Authentication for the 90s: Developed at MIT/Project Athena, Kerberos is a network authentication package which can add both security and convenience to your networked workstation environment. This session will present an overview of the Kerberos system and steps to install the package at your site. COPS -- A security sanity tool that's easy and fun to use: A collection of tools which can be used to verify security on UNIX machines, COPS is available from the comp.sources.unix archive. What it checks, what its output really means to you, and other basic UNIX security ideas will be discussed. This is a new offering. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION This is your chance to ask a panel of "experts" your questions about system administration. ******************************************************************* TENTATIVE TECHNICAL PROGRAM - OCTOBER 18 - 19, 1990 Thursday, October 18 9:00 - 10:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks Steven C. Simmons, Industrial Technology Institute Keynote Address: Structural Revelation: Towards a Mythology of the System Anne G. Leonard, IBM 10:00 - 10:30 Break 10:30 - 12:00 USERS, USERS, USERS ACMAINT: An Account Creation and Maintenance System For Distributed UNIX Systems David Curry, SRI International UDB - User Data Base System Roland J. Stolfa and Mark J. Vasoll, Oklahoma State University Gaud: RAND's Group and User Database Michael Urban, The RAND Corporation newu: Multihost User Setup Stephen P. Schaefer, MCNC UNIQNAME Overview Bill Doster, University of Michigan 12:00 - 1:30 Lunch 1:30 - 2:30 PANEL: WHY DO WE KEEP RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL (AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?) 2:30 - 3:00 Break 3:00 - 4:30 MANAGING OUTSIDE SOFTWARE The Depot: A Framework for Sharing Software Installation Across Organizational and UNIX Platform Boundaries Ken Manheimer, Barry Warsaw, Steve Clark, Walter Rowe, National Institute of Standards and Technology Guidelines and Tools for Software Maintenance in a Productional Environment Kevin C. Smallwood, Purdue University Computing Center Keeping up with the Manual System Kevin Braunsdorf, Purdue University Computing Center The Answer To All Man's Problems Tom Christiansen, CONVEX Computer Corporation Life Without Root Steven C. Simmons, Industrial Technology Institute Friday, October 19 9:00 - 10:30 TOOLS FOR THE ADMINISTRATOR Trouble-MH: A Work-Queue Management System For A >3-ring Circus Tinsley Galyean, Trent Hein, Evi Nemeth, University of Colorado A Console Server Thomas Fine, Ohio State University Network Monitoring By Scripts Katy Kislitzin, Computer Sciences Corporation Using expect to Automate System Administration Tasks Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology Policy as a System Administration Tool Elizabeth D. Zwicky, SRI International Steven C. Simmons, Industrial Technology Institute Ronald E. Dalton, Industrial Technology Institute 10:30 - 11:00 Break 11:00 - 12:00 PANEL: AUTOMATED SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION - HOW DESIRABLE, HOW MUCH, HOW SOON 12:00 - 1:30 Lunch 1:30 - 3:00 MAIL AND BACKUPS - OLD PROBLEMS WITH NEW FACES Integrating X.500 Directory Service into a Large Campus Computing Environment Timothy Howes, University of Michigan A Domain Mail System on Dissimilar Computers - Trials and Tribulations of SMTP Helen E. Harrison, SAS Institute, Inc. Backup At Ohio-State, Take 2 Steve Romig, Ohio State University The AFS 3.0 Backup System Steve Lammert, Transarc Corporation 3:00 - 3:30 Break 3:30 - 5:00 WORKS IN PROGRESS, CLOSING REMARKS The registration fees are $225 for the tutorial and $200 for USENIX members ($240 for non-members) for the technical sessions. The conference brochure with full details has just been mailed. For more information regarding registration for the tutorials, technical sessions, and hotel please contact: USENIX Conference Office 22672 Lambert Street Suite 613 El Toro, CA 92630 714-588-8649 FAX 714-588-9706 EMAIL: judy@usenix.org