Franske ITC 2900 SP20 Possible Projects

Possible Projects

NOTE: These are some ideas, there are many other possible projects. Discuss your own ideas with the instructor to see if they might be feasible.

Power Monitoring

Research, explore, and demonstrate the use of the NUT UPS power monitoring software to manage large numbers of uninterruptible power supplies on the ITC network. Specifically, research the use of NUT and develop/implement a plan to connect a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Lite and running NUT to every UPS in the ITC labs and connect them with static IPs to the ITC network. If time allows provide centralized status reporting via MQTT.

Resources

• Lots of Raspberry Pis
• UPSs

Deliverables

• Working NUT servers on every UPS
• Documentation on setup and configuration
• Prepare a whitepaper and presentation detailing your research, testing process, and results

Network Automation

Research, explore, and demonstrate the use of network automation, the ability to configure and program network devices with software code. It's expected that you would build a small demonstration network and then install one or two network automation software packages to manage and make changes to the network.

Resources

• Cisco Routers & Switches
• 3Com/HP Switches
• Network Automation Software (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, etc.)

Deliverables

• Working network automation system
• Documentation on setup and configuration
• Prepare a whitepaper and presentation detailing your research, testing process, and results

DNS and Web Deep Dive

Introduction

Explore the operation of DNS servers, Web servers, and related services by modeling how the Internet DNS system works. Includes deploying at least a root nameserver, a few TLD nameservers, some nameservers for particular domains, delegated nameservers, as well as a root Certificate Authority, experimenting with DNSSEC and DANE, and setting up demo webservers for sample domains (utilizing the DNS infrastructure, DNSSEC, DANE, SSL/TLS certificated, etc.)

Resources

• Lots of Linux server VMs
• BIND DNS Server (and/or Unbound DNS server)
• nginx web server

Deliverables

• Public Key Infrastructure setup (certificate creation, signing, etc.)
• DNS Server hierarchy with working DNSSEC/DANE access to webservers/sample domains
• Prepare a whitepaper and presentation detailing your research, testing process, and results

Network Access Control

Introduction

The Inver Hills ITC department has an academic, demonstration, and research network ("ITCnet") which uses network devices from Cisco and HP and supports a number of virtual machines, hosts, and devices including Windows, Linux, Android, iPhone, and more. Network ports are not physically securable but it may be possible to improve security on this network by implementing some type of Network Access Control (NAC) which restricts access to network resources until a user authenticates to the network. Users on our network are stored in an Active Directory system which is also accessible through LDAP and RADIUS methods. It has been determined in previous groups that PacketFence is a reasonable option for NAC but test implementations with switches and wireless APs have not been completed. You task would be to setup and test PacketFence with the Cisco and HP/3Com switches we use as well as with the Ubiquiti UniFi APs (running OpenWrt) and to document your results.

Resources

• Cisco Switches
• HP/3Com Switches
• Wireless APs and Controllers
• Windows Server / Active Directory
• PacketFence Open Source NAC

Deliverables

• Design and implement a test network environment
• Determine, test, and document configurations which will meet the 802.1x and captive portal requirements
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Linux Software Mirror

Introduction

Your goal with this project is to create a self-updating/sustaining Linux operating system local mirror which would allow ITC students to more quickly install and update their Linux systems. The primary OS which must be supported is Debian Linux but you may choose to include other Linux distributions in the mirror as well. The mirror should include a package repository as well as an ISO repository. Your mirror needs to automatically stay up to date with the latest Linux distribution files and should support delivering files over IPv4 and IPv6. It should meet the requirements for being a public mirror.

Resources

• Linux VM
• SAN backed storage

Deliverables

• A working and self-updating Linux distribution mirror (at least for Debian, possibly other distributions as well)
• Configuration documentation of the mirror
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Internet Archiving

Introduction

In this project your goal would be to work on Internet Archival projects with the ArchiveTeam. Specifically, installing and running their Warrior VM for archival purposes as well as the ArchiveBot and possibly other archival systems.

Resources

• Linux VMs

Deliverables

• Running archival VMs
• Configuration documentation of the system
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Internet Chat Systems

Introduction

In this project your goal would be to compare and install a variety of text internet chat server systems. Examples could include IRC, XMPP (Jabber), RocketChat, Mattermost, Zulip, or Matrix.

Resources

• Linux VMs

Deliverables

• Running chat servers
• Configuration documentation of the system, comparisons of various chat server options
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Python Programming Projects

Introduction

There are MANY possible Python programming projects possible and could include local programs as well as cloud based serverless type programs (e.g. Azure Functions). Specific projects would depend on your existing Python knowledge and area of interest. Discuss these with your instructor.

Resources

• Python!
• Possibly other things depending on specific project

Deliverables

• Code as open source under MIT license
• Other deliverables depend on specific project
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Lecture Capture System

Introduction

In this project you would be installing, testing, and documenting the Opencast lecture capture system

Resources

• Lecture Capture PC
• Lecture Capture Hardware (cameras, pen display, audio interface, etc.)
• Opencast software

Deliverables

• Working lecture capture system
• Configuration documentation of the system
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations

Taken

Network Automation

Research, explore, and demonstrate the use of network automation, the ability to configure and program network devices with software code. It's expected that you would build a small demonstration network and then install one or two network automation software packages to manage and make changes to the network.

Resources

• Cisco Routers & Switches
• 3Com/HP Switches
• Network Automation Software (Ansible, Chef, Puppet, etc.)

Deliverables

• Working network automation system
• Documentation on setup and configuration
• Prepare a whitepaper and presentation detailing your research, testing process, and results

VMware Virtual Machine Automation and Permissions

Introduction

The ITC department utilizes VMware based virtual machines for a variety of classes. There is currently a manual process to create many virtual machines for each class (including virtual networks, etc.), modify them during the semester (such as wiping the virtual hard drive, etc.), and assign students permissions to them, etc. In addition there have been challenges in identifying the minimum set of permissions which students need access to in order to use the VMs in a class but not have access to interfere with other VMs running for other classes or for departmental services. Your goal is to automate as much of the deployment, configuration, maintenance, etc. as possible as well as to determine the appropriate permissions for students so they do not encounter permissions errors when completing course tasks but do not have overly broad permissions.

Resources

• VMware ESXi Servers
• VMware vCenter Server
• Test VMs
• Python programming

Deliverables

• Permissions recommendations for VMware
• VMware Automation Scripts
• Prepare a whitepaper and presentation detailing your research, testing process, and results

Canvas LMS Software

Introduction

In this project you would install and test the Canvas Learning Management System software (LMS). This is similar software to Moodle or D2L.

Resources

• Virtual Machines

Deliverables

• Design and implement a test environment
• Install the Canvas LMS software
• Prepare a written whitepaper and oral presentation detailing the process, criteria, results, and configurations