Fellow Linux admins - need help with class...
 

No, not asking for help with doing homework..... but assigning it :D

I teach two Linux classes at the college I work for - Fall is basic intro to Linux stuff aimed at the Ubuntu based LPI certificate, Spring is "id10t's guide to services with Linux" where we set up a local network with 4 vms (a gateway/router, a DHCP server, a DNS server both caching and a fake internal TLD, Samba server w/ PDF printer and both home directory and group based shares), and then we get out on the internet and do stuff via Linodes.

That second part is where I need help.

Currently do real DNS (w/ a subdomain off one I own), setup/configure the LAMP stack (I provide a few simple PHP pages for testing purposes), and then set up a Postfix based email server that has virtual users and virtual domains supported by a back end MySQL server.

My issue is time - I want to also bring in using nginx for both PHP/MySql stuff (different config than apache) and doing reverse proxies to other webservers like Spring/Java based microservices, etc.

I'm questioning just how valuable each of these 3 skill sets would be to potential employers. Between gmail/o365 being near universal, do I really need to go in depth on setting up a email server and having them do it? Or keep the lecture part of the content and use my own server as show-n-tell/demo for config ? Same with the LAMP stack vs. the nginx thing?

If you have a professional interest in this, the students don't do a final exam - they do a presentation of a disaster recovery/policy/procedure document that covers everything that they've done all term. I bring donuts, and we have a great time with it. Usually get a few folk from the area that are in position to hire to come in and observe... and I can get you joined in via Zoom if you care to see the results. Or if you are in the area, feel free to come by and get a donut :)

Linux admins a different group so I’m not going to opine authoritatively - but...
I was part of the DR group for a chunk of our business - non-Linux - many years ago.

I can tell you this though from a hiring perspective:
Server admin is $.
Networking is $$$.
DR is $$ but regularly ignored.
Security is $$$$.

K8S is ubiquitous - learning to run Maria in a container is way more valuable than learning to run Maria standalone, and we use nginx to reverse proxy there.

Everything is cloudy now though. Like you said - no one [you’d want to work for] self hosts mail/chat/ticketing/documentation/hr/payroll/sales etc etc.

Can you just throw xampp at them and tell them to go configure and run it if they want more detail?

I’d cover basic shell commands, file system structure, permissions, and scripting with real tasks like log parsing or backup scripts. Toss in some issues to diagnose for hands-on practice.