About

Please follow these instructions in this order to ensure the system does not become corrupted.

Step 0 - Confirm List of Courses with Faculty

A few weeks prior to the start of each quarter, it's a good idea to send an email to all faculty using the system to confirm that the list of courses listed in config.txt (i.e., valid_classes=abdabcabc) is accurate. If you skip this step, you can add the classes later, but it may take up to two days for the process to complete (see Other Tasks below).

Step 1 - Delete Prior Quarter Data

This step will destroy all student work, so be sure to communicate with Faculty to prevent catastrophic loss!

When the term is over and all faculty grades have been submitted, you can run the remove_term.pl script to remove old student accounts and clear out the term-specific stuff from the faculty folders. To prevent catastrophic data loss, this script does NOT use the contents of config.txt to determine which quarter it will delete. You will instead need to provide the term on the command line. By default, this script asks you to confirm before it deletes any files. Since each user has several files, this can take a LOT of time. Instead, you will almost certainly want to override this behavior by providing the -y option:

ftv-san:~# cd kmm_ftvautomation
ftv-san:~/kmm_ftvautomation# ./remove_term.pl -t 201922 -y

Failing to delete previous data before adding new data will likely prevent you from removing any data in the future!

Step 2 - Request Update of Argos Student Data Export

Data from Banner is sent to the Middleware tier via Argos. To update this data, submit a ticket to ETS and request that the report be updated to use the next term. The report can be found at ETS -> Student_PROD_Scheduled -> Quarter Start -> Enrolled Class Roster -> DA F/TV Class Roster. Note that this action will only update the data placed on the Middleware tier; it will have no affect on the RAID unit until the build_term variable is changed in config.txt (see below).

Step 3 - Verify Cron Jobs have Been Disabled

By the third week of classes, the cron entry to add students should have been disabled (as faculty are not permitted to add students after the Quarterly Census.) Before continuing on, verify the cron entries have been disabled by following the "Enable cron jobs" instructions below, except toggling the switch to "Disable" instead of "enable." (Note: After you click the "Save" button at the bottom, you should notice the command on that row has switched from black text to red text.)

Step 4 - Update config.txt

It's important to ensure you do NOT use a Mac program such as Text Edit to update the config.txt file, as this can introduce unwanted ^M characters at the end of each line, which can break the system's input parser.

Settings to control the system are contained in the file /root/kmm_ftvautomation/config.txt on the RAID unit. Log into that system and update config.txt using the vi utility to reference the new quarter. Quarters must be in "Banner Term" format. This is a 6-digit number generated via the algorithm below. Note that the Academic Years used in scheduling do not follow the Calendar Year exactly, and use a "trailing year" numbering sequence that beings in summer. So the summer and fall quarters which occur in calendar year 2018 will fall in Academic Year 2019 and would be labeled as "Summer 2019" and "Fall 2019" in Banner.

Quarter Format: The 6-digit year takes the form of YYYYQC, where: YYYY is the 4-digit year (e.g., 2018); Q is the numeric representation of the quarter (1 for Summer, 2 for Fall, 3 for Winter, and 4 for Spring); C is the campus (1 for Foothill, 2 for De Anza.) Examples include: 201842 = Spring 2018 for De Anza. 201912 (Summer 2019 at De Anza - note that this takes place during calendar year 2018).

Step 5 - Wait for the Nightly Middleware Update

After both the Argos report and the config.txt file have been updated, you will need to wait one business day for the Middleware system to process the new data and update the files on the RAID system.

Step 6a - Create Initial Student Accounts with the create_term.pl Script

After the Middleware server has updated the files on the RAID unit, you can create student accounts at any time. To do so, you will run the create_term.pl script. Login to the RAID unit as root via SSH, then run the script as follows:

ftv-san:~# cd kmm_ftvautomation
ftv-san:~/kmm_ftvautomation# ./create_term.pl -t 201912

After several seconds, you should see a prompt to restart samba. Press enter to do so. (Note that this will kick any users off the system for a 2 minutes or so while the samba4 service is restarted.)

Step 6b - Email Students

The command above will not email users during the account creation process. This is to ensure that students have an opportunity to meet with their professor and learn about the system before they are provided access. Once the faculty are ready, you may email all students with the following command. Note that you will only want to do this ONCE per quarter, as the system does not keep track of which users have already be notified (see the next step for information about handling adds.)

ftv-san:~# cd kmm_ftvautomation
ftv-san:~/kmm_ftvautomation# ./create_term.pl -e

NOTE: You may want to change the text of the information sent to students at some point. You can do so by updating the file located at /root/kmm_ftvautomation/TEMPLATE_create_student.txt.

Step 7 - Enable Cron Job to Handle Students who Add

Processing adds results in a restart of the samba service, it's important that this task happen late at night/early in the morning.

Students may add the class after the course has started, so it's important to ensure these accounts are created and that students are notified of their new account. This task is accomplished via the cron system on the RAID unit. To enable the cron system, verify that the correct term is listed in the config.txt file (see above), then login to the web interface to the small tree raid and navigate to: System -> Advanced. Click the tab at the top labeled "Cron." Find the command with the Description "Process adds with Kevin's script" (if the script is disabled, it should appear in red text) and click the wrench icon at the far right of that row. NOTE: There are two scripts which look similar. One will automatically send emails when it creates accounts and the other will not; only one should be enabled at any time. At the top right corner of you screen, you should see a toggle switch labeled "Enable." Click that toggle and press the "Save" button at the bottom (NOTE: don't press "Run now" or the system will restart and kick all users off.) You may see a note at the top of the page to the effect that you need to Apply Changes for them to take effect. You can safely click the Apply Changes button without affecting users. Finally, it's a good idea to set a reminder on your calendar to disable this command during the third week of classes.

Other Tasks

Adding Classes to the Smalltree RAID System

The config.txt file contains a list of all classes for which accounts and folders should be created:

# WHICH COURSES SHOULD THE SYSTEM PROCESS
valid_classes=20,22,26,27,29,39,44A,44B,56A,57A,57B,58T,66A,67A,68A,69A,71G,71H,72G,72H,72J,82A,98,99

To add another class, simply edit the config.txt file with vi and insert the class as appropriate.

It's important to ensure you do NOT use a Mac program such as Text Edit to update the config.txt file, as this can introduce unwanted ^M characters at the end of each line, which can break the system's input parser.

Once you have added the class, it can take UP TO TWO BUSINESS DAYS for the student accounts and course folders to be created.

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