SRE / sysreseval Documentation

Utilisation

• Overview
  • Student Workflow
  • Monitoring of a session
  • Running exams
  • Post-exam workflow
  • Web server (remote use)
• Exam Administration
  • Lifecycle at a glance
  • Setting up an exam — sre set-exam
  • Monitoring an exam
    • Clean up after an exam
  • Exam-only labs
  • Post-exam workflow
    • Inspect a single archive
    • Re-grade with a corrected project file
    • Per-student PDF reports + summary spreadsheet
    • Export to a spreadsheet
• Web server (remote use)
  • Architecture
  • Installation
    • From a checkout
    • Debian packages
  • Configuration
    • agent.toml
    • web.toml
    • Authentication by the reverse proxy
    • The connection log
    • The archives of the evaluations
    • Re-evaluated archives
    • User groups
    • Exams
    • Web conference (BigBlueButton)
    • Securing the pool (mutual TLS)
    • A whole site at once (scripts/make-web-hosts.sh)
    • A pool of workstations
  • What the users see
    • Instructors
    • Administrators
    • The Display tab
  • Security
  • Limitations
  • Development
  • Stress test
    • Stage 1: a fake pool, no Docker
    • Stage 2: the production pool

Authoring Labs

• Lab Authoring Guide
  • The authoring workflow on the CLI
    • sre check [-p] <lab> [<state>]
    • sre start --debug-project [-p] <lab> [--xauth-file <path>]
    • sre connect <running_lab> <device> and sre exec <running_lab> <device> <command…>
    • sre state <running_lab> <state_name>
    • sre eval <running_lab>
    • sre wipe
  • Identifying a running lab and where its files live
  • The four classes at a glance
  • Data class
    • IP helper functions (from /opt/sre/lib/ips.py)
    • IPv6 labs
    • compute_pre_generate and compute_post_generate
  • Flavor class
  • NetScheme class
    • Declarations and accessors
    • Machine constructor parameters
    • Network parameters
    • Switches and VLANs
    • Instructor-only texts — instructor()
    • Numbered sections, references and table of contents — info_subtitle(), info_toc()
  • State methods
    • Lifecycle states: save / restore
    • @sre_state decorator
    • Per-machine operations
    • File transfer between host and container
    • Host-side operations
    • Switch operations
    • Multi-step state setup — the step parameter
    • Reading command results — multi_pass=True
    • Network config helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/net_config.py)
    • State helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/state_helpers.py)
  • Grade class
    • The grading lifecycle
    • Grade parts
    • Self-eval vs instructor-eval scope
    • Questions
    • Cheat answers
    • Letter grades vs numeric marks
    • Bonus elements
    • Overriding mark_exo_eval() to adjust the overall mark
    • Grade methods
  • Grading Library Reference
    • DHCP helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/dhcp.py)
    • Mail helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/smtp.py)
    • TLS helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/tls.py)
    • DNS helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/dns.py)
    • HTTP proxy helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/http_proxy.py)
    • VRRP / keepalived helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/vrrp.py)
    • VoIP helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/voip.py)
    • SNMP helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/snmp.py)
    • Nagios helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/nagios.py)
    • Prometheus helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/prometheus.py)
    • Central logs helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/rsyslog.py)
    • NetFlow helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/netflow.py)
    • Traffic generator (from /opt/sre/lib/traffic.py)
    • TCP port helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/grade_helpers.py)
    • OSPF helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/frr.py)
    • BGP helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/frr.py)
    • RIP helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/frr.py and /opt/sre/lib/rip.py)
    • Standard machine wiring (from /opt/sre/lib/std.py)
    • Miscellaneous generators (from /opt/sre/lib/utils.py)
    • Network inspection helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/net_config.py)
    • Switch helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/switch.py)
    • Ping helper (from /opt/sre/lib/ping.py)
    • SSH helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/ssh.py)
    • Packet capture helpers (from /opt/sre/lib/pcap_gen.py)
  • Module-level Attributes
    • Lab identity and presentation
    • Student self-evaluation
    • Automatic evaluation
    • Archives and recordings
    • State machine and flavors
    • Networking
    • Filesystem and export
    • Schema rendering
  • Complete Minimal Example
  • The list of labs
    • What is a lab, and its name
    • Exam-only labs
    • Titles: sre make-titles and titles.json
    • The title of a directory
    • The order of a directory: "@sort"
• Hubs, switches and VLANs
  • In the GUI
    • The Networks tab
    • The console of a manageable switch
  • In a lab
    • Declaring the kind of a network
    • Running switch commands from a state
    • Grading the configuration of a switch
    • A complete example
  • On the command line
  • Limits
  • What a host needs
  • Tests
• Translating a Lab
  • Internationalization with tr() / make_tr()
  • Marking strings that must NOT be translated: no_tr()
  • Centralizing translations with _TRANSLATIONS
    • Where to put _TRANSLATIONS
    • Dynamic strings with format placeholders
  • Translation toolchain
    • 1. prepare-sre-translations — migrate and scaffold
    • 2. check-sre-translations — verify consistency
    • 3. add-sre-translations — machine-translate missing strings
  • Complete translation workflow
  • Switching the default language: --change-default-language
    • Prerequisites
    • Example: switching to English as a pivot before translating

Installation and Setup

• Installation and Setup
  • Prerequisites
  • Deployment layout
  • Debian package
  • Updating
  • Running the installer
  • Install manually
  • Post-install steps
    • 1. Deploy and verify
    • 2. Enable X11 access for lab virtual machines
    • 3. Restricting student access to Docker
    • 4. Sharing evaluation archives for sre watch
    • 5. Pre-loading Docker images
    • 6. Stopping the projects when the machine halts
  • Reference
    • Build targets
    • Tests
    • Building the documentation
    • Network plugin for the switch types
    • Dependencies

Reference

• GUI Reference — sysreseval
  • Launching
  • Opening a project
  • Saving and restoring a project
  • Exporting a project
  • Project tabs
  • Instructor mode
  • Exam mode
  • Settings
• CLI Reference — sre
  • Global options
  • Dual commands
    • sre start [-d data] [-p] [--flavor … | --flavor-json … | --set-flavor-name …] [--xauth-file <file>] [--instructor-mode] <lab> [data_version]
    • sre stop <running_lab>
    • sre stop-all
    • sre save [-o <file>] [--full-images] <running_lab>
    • sre restore [--instructor-mode] <save_file | ->
    • sre wipe
    • sre connect [--shell <shell>] [--exec <argument…>] [--no-records] <running_lab> <device>
    • sre eval [-p path] [--auto-eval] <running_lab>
    • sre state <running_lab> <state_name>
  • Admin-only commands
    • sre exec [--shell <shell>] <running_lab> <device> <command…>
    • sre set-instructor-mode <running_lab> and sre remove-instructor-mode <running_lab>
    • sre eval-all [--display-grades / --no-display-grades]
    • sre check [-p] <lab> [<state>]
    • sre watch [--timeout <sec>] [--interval <sec>] [-H <regexp>] [-S <time>] [-L] <dir…>
    • sre preload-images [--random-delay <sec>] [--progress] <file_or_dir…>
    • sre make-titles [-o <file> | -r] [-d] <directory>
    • sre update [--main | --ref <tag|branch|commit>] [--check | --force] [-y] [--venv]
  • Exam management
    • sre set-exam [options]
    • sre del-exam
    • sre save-records -d <dir> [--only-last-record]
  • Post-exam management
    • sre cat [options] <file…>
    • sre check-eval [-s <srelab>] <file…>
    • sre re-eval -s <srelab> -p <prefix> [-d <outdir>] [-r] [--update-web] <file_or_dir…>
    • sre sheet -o <output.ods> [-r] [-S <time>] [-F <time>] [--separate-instances] <file_or_dir…>
    • sre outline [-o <summary.ods>] [-d <pdf_dir>] [-r] [-S <time>] [-F <time>] [--lang <lang>] [--no-timeline] [--remaining-time] [--separate-instances] [--users-file <file>] <file_or_dir…>
  • Internal commands (GUI-only)
    • sre list [--with-titles] [--include-exam-only]
    • sre export <running_lab> [--sep <N>] [--curved] [--shapes] [--reverse] [--random-seed <N>]
    • sre report <sheet|outline|summary> [--lang <lang>] [--separate-instances] [--bonus-in-prefix] [--no-timeline] [--remaining-time] [--no-parts] [-o <file>]
    • sre pre-start-exam
    • sre start-exam
    • sre eval-exam
    • sre end-exam
• Exam Reference
  • exam.json — single source of truth
  • GUI exam logic
  • Commands
• Runtime & Internals
  • Architecture
  • Filesystem layout
    • Running lab directory
  • Configuration
    • Constants (src/SRE/params.py)
    • Environment variables
    • Locale
  • Dynamic module loading
  • Data serialization
  • Test execution
  • Switches
  • Course text (informations)
  • Progress reporting
  • Security model
  • Archive format
  • Save file format