ISEA

For Bridging ISEA Module

Student: Lam Thanh Chieu Kaplan ID: CT0382466 Murdoch ID: 35614306

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Lab 1a - Setting Up Linux

• Installed Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS on UTM (Apple Silicon Mac)
• Used ARM64 ISO for Apple Silicon compatibility
• Configured VM with 4 CPUs, 8GB RAM, 60GB storage
• Resolved ISO boot loop by detaching ISO and selecting "Boot from next volume"
• Successfully booted and logged into Ubuntu Server

Lab 1a - Basic Linux Commands

• pwd - shows current directory
• ls, ls -la, ls -lah, ls -alt - list files with various detail levels
• cd /etc, cd /var, cd /home, cd ~ - directory navigation
• mkdir mylab - created new directory
• touch mylab/text.txt - created empty file
• cp README.md README_backup.md - copy a file
• mv README_backup.md README_copy.md - rename/move a file
• cat README.md - view file contents
• man ls - view manual pages
• uname -a - system/kernel information
• lsb_release -a - Ubuntu version details
• hostnamectl - hostname information
• ps -e - list all running processes
• top - live process monitor (press 1 for CPU cores, q to exit)
• ip a - network interface and IP address
• whoami / sudo whoami - current user vs root privileges

Lab 1b - Linux Services

• Installed Apache2 web server: sudo apt install apache2 -y
• Installed nmap: sudo apt install nmap -y
• Verified Apache running: sudo systemctl status apache2
• Tested web server locally: curl http://127.0.0.1
• Installed and managed SSH: sudo apt install openssh-server -y
• Started, stopped and checked SSH: sudo systemctl start|stop|status ssh
• Configured UFW firewall: enabled firewall, allowed ports 80 and 22
• Scanned open ports with nmap: nmap 127.0.0.1
• Downloaded 3 Gutenberg books using wget
• Created tar archive: tar cf books.tar books
• Compressed with bzip2: bzip2 books.tar → produced books.tar.bz2

Lab 1b - Linux Permissions

• Created users: alice, bob, mallory using sudo adduser
• Created group: sudo groupadd labgroup
• Added alice and bob to labgroup; mallory excluded
• Created shared directory: sudo mkdir /home/shared
• Created 10 files inside shared directory
• Set ownership: sudo chown -R alice:labgroup /home/shared
• Set permissions: sudo chmod -R 750 /home/shared
  • alice (owner): read, write, execute
  • bob (labgroup): read and execute only
  • mallory (no group): permission denied
• Verified by switching users with su [user] -s /bin/bash

Lab 1b - Searching Filesystems

• Used find . -name "*.txt" to locate files by extension
• Used find . -type f -size +100k to find files over 100KB
• Used find . -type f -printf '%T+ %p\n' | sort -r | head for recently modified files
• Used grep -r "the" . | wc -l to count matches recursively
• Used grep -r "ISEA" /home/ltc/ to search file contents

Lab 2a - Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

• Compared TCO of two printers over 5 years:
  • Printer A: HP DeskJet 2755e (Budget Inkjet)
  • Printer B: Brother HL-L2350DW (Entry Laser)
• Assumptions used: 750 pages/week, 40 hrs power/week, 5-year period, SGD $0.30/kWh
• Calculated fixed costs (printer purchase) and variable costs (ink/toner, paper, electricity, maintenance)
• Laser printer proved more cost-effective at high volume despite higher upfront cost
• Created 3-year cumulative cost projection
• Analysed break-even point and cost per page
• Tool used: Microsoft Excel

Lab 2b - Cloud Computing (Microsoft Azure)

• Attempted AWS EC2 but encountered account restrictions on new account
• Successfully deployed Ubuntu VM on Microsoft Azure for Students
  • VM Name: ISEA-VM
  • Region: Central India
  • Size: Standard_B2ats_v2 (2 vCPUs, 1GB RAM) - US$8.69/month
  • OS: Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS
• Connected via SSH from Mac terminal: ssh isealab@20.244.8.195
• Updated OS packages: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Lab 2b - Bash Scripting

• Created myscript.sh with echo, date, whoami, uptime commands
• Created loops.sh with if statement and for loop
• Made scripts executable with chmod +x
• Ran scripts with bash scriptname.sh

Lab 3a - DNS Configuration

• Registered free subdomain: isealab.mooo.com via FreeDNS (freedns.afraid.org)
• Created A record pointing isealab.mooo.com → 20.244.8.195
• Opened port 443 (HTTPS) on Azure VM firewall
• Verified DNS propagation using nslookup isealab.mooo.com → confirmed IP 20.244.8.195
• Installed Apache2 web server on Azure VM
• Confirmed Apache welcome page loading at http://isealab.mooo.com

Lab 3a - SSL Certificate (Let's Encrypt)

• Installed Certbot via snap on Azure VM
• Ran sudo certbot --apache for domain isealab.mooo.com
• Certificate successfully issued by Let's Encrypt
• HTTPS enabled at https://isealab.mooo.com
• Verified lock icon in browser showing Let's Encrypt as issuer
• Certificate valid from 29 March 2026 to 27 June 2026
• Tested auto-renewal with sudo certbot renew --dry-run - all renewals succeeded

Lab 3b - Server Automation (Bash + Cron)

• Created test directory structure in ~/Documents with 10 files across 2 folders
• Wrote backup script testscript that:
  • Copies ~/Documents to ~/backup/
  • Creates timestamped zip file (e.g. 29_03_26.zip)
  • Logs completion to ~/backup.log
• Made script executable with chmod +x
• Moved script to /usr/bin/testscript for system-wide access
• Scheduled with cron: 0 * * * * isealab /usr/bin/testscript (runs every hour)
• Challenge 1: Added @reboot /usr/bin/testscript to run at boot
• Challenge 2: Installed figlet and neofetch for system info display

Lab 4a - Additional Server Service (MySQL)

• Chose MySQL as the additional server service
• Installed MySQL: sudo apt install mysql-server -y
• Verified MySQL running: sudo systemctl status mysql - Server is operational
• Ran sudo mysql_secure_installation to secure the installation
• Logged into MySQL: sudo mysql
• Created database: CREATE DATABASE isealab;
• Created table: CREATE TABLE students (id, name, course)
• Inserted record: INSERT INTO students VALUES ('Lam', 'BRG-ISEA')
• Queried data: SELECT * FROM students - returned 1 row successfully
• MySQL version: 8.0.45