Fellow Linux admins - need help with class...

[id10t]

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

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

[Alan A]

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?

[Anemyasko]

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.