CS class accounts - faculty

This page is for faculty teaching CS courses that will use class accounts on the CS server. If you are a student, see CS Accounts and CS Lab Computers.

Getting Started

For each CS course that uses the CS server, there will be a separate account for each student. The usernames start with the course number. For example, the accounts for CS 151 are cs15100, cs15101, cs15102, etc. The instructor account to manage assignments is just the course number (so for CS 151, the instructor account to manage assignments is cs151). You should normally be given more student accounts (cs15100, cs15101, etc.) than there are students in the class.

It is normal to reserve one of the student accounts for instructor use, so that you can test things out the way things are for students. For example, for CS 151, the account cs15100 might be reserved for use by the instructor.

Account Logins

The scripts that the CS sys admin runs to create the accounts will leave the login names and passwords in the instructor's permanent CS account. For example, Jeff Kinne's permanent CS account is jkinne; if Jeff Kinne is teaching CS 151, then the login information for the cs151 class accounts will be left in ~jkinne/accts/. The file ~jkinne/accts/cs151.out contains login name and password for all of the cs151 class accounts (cs151 is the instructor account, and the student accounts are cs15100, cs15101, etc.).

Assigning Accounts to Students

The instructor can assign accounts to students however they like. The usual way is to assign them in alphabetical order (so cs15101 would be assigned to the first student in the gradebook, cs15102 for the next, and so on). Note that students can change their course schedule up to 7 days after the start of term, so if you assign accounts before that point, you may need to assign additional ones as students add the course to their schedule.

Once you have decided how to assign the accounts, you need to share the username and initial password with each student. Options for how to do this... One option - create a 0 point assignment in the course in Canvas, and leave the username and password as a comment to the grade. Another option - store the usernames and password in a spreadsheet that also has the student name and email addresses, and make a script to email the initial username and password to each student.

Student First Time Logging in

Students will connect to the server the first time using ssh, putty, or some other ssh client. Students can see here for options - Linux - System Setup.

The first time each student logs into the system, it will ask for the password an additional time and then ask for their name, office, etc. You should have them type in their real name (just like it shows up in Canvas), and leave the other fields blank.

You should have the students change their password to something they will remember. They use the passwd command to do this.

Handin

The handin system is a series of scripts that can be used for students to handin assignments on the server. The assignments get copied into the instructor account (i.e., for CS 151 they get copied into the cs151 account). To understand how this works, read Handin, and then read the man pages on the server: handin, handin.config, ccu, igf.

Student Forgets Password

If a student changes their password and forgets it, the CS sys admin can reset their password to what it was originally (which the instructor will also have from when the accounts were created).