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Remote unix Learning Environment (RULE)
Teaching Unix - How RULE makes teaching Unix easier and more effective
As the RULE system takes advantage of preexisting Windows PCs, there is
no need to invest in dedicated Unix hardware and software.
Each virtual host has its own file system, this limits damage, intentional or
otherwise to the virtual host in question, while other virtual hosts on the primary
host remain unaffected. Because it is possible to limit potential damage to
a specific RULE host virtual host users can be given administrator rights.
As administrator rights are required for configuring and running most network
servers, this in turn allows students the opportunity to learn through
`hands-on experience' how to configure and run these services as if they had
their own Unix machine.
Running a number of virtual hosts on one machine offers a number of advantages
over running the same number of physical machines.
The cost of one machine, even with a large hard drive and extra RAM is
significantly less than the cost of the number of physical machines that can
be configured as virtual hosts on a single primary host.
Having the functionality of multiple Unix hosts available on a single machine,
allows firewall and QoS rules to be simplified. One or more RULE primary
hosts can be made available to students through a firewall/bridge machine,
ensuring that irresponsible behavior by a student or students using the RULE
system, does not adversely affect the campus LAN.
The RULE system allows for centralised administration of jailed hosts, with the
ability to allow control of groups of jails to lab demonstrators, so they can
maintain the jailed hosts used in their labs without time consuming interaction
with system administrators. Centralised administration and multiple level
access control allow RULE to maximise student exposure to Unix while
minimizing the impact on the network administrators.
Because RULE utilises preexisting Windows PCs, increasing the number of
virtual hosts available to students is as simple as adding more virtual hosts to an
existing RULE primary host server or adding a new RULE primary host server if required.
The number of potential RULE `terminals' available for students is limited by the
number of Windows PCs on the campus LAN.
How RULE Teaches Unix from Windows
As those who are familiar with Unix will know, Unix is a command line oriented
operating system. This means that it is possible to control a Unix machine
through a simple text console.
Many people are familiar with the `telnet' application which has been used
for many years to gain remote access to Unix machines. In recent years it
has been all but replaced by the more secure `Secure Shell' (ssh) which is what
RULE uses to allow students access to their jailed hosts.
There are a number of ssh clients available for the Windows platform, one of
the most popular free ssh clients is `Putty' which is the ssh client of choice
for use with RULE. Students can login to their virtual hosts using Putty from
any Windows machine on the campus LAN just as if they were logging into a standalone
Unix machine.
While virtual host access to various services (including The Internet)
can be configured via the RULE system bridge/firewall. It is possible
to configure file copying to and from students Windows PCs through PSCP/PSFTP
which are part of Putty or WinSCP another free Windows SCP client.
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