Technical Workshops

AfNOG workshops offer advanced training to operators of existing African Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who are participants in the process of developing and enhancing a national Internet with regional and international connectivity.

Each workshop builds upon the experiences of the previous ones, and those prior to AfNOG conducted by ISOC under what was called INET held during 1993-2000 period at various locations around the world.

View a report (in French and English) on the AfNOG 2002 Training Programs and how they helped to develop Africa's Internet infrastructure: [PDF]

Specific Goal Of The Technical Workshop

The goals of the workshop are:

• To train a critical mass of trainers and professionals in network infrastructure and services to be able to support an extension of Internet-related activities within the African countries represented.
• To identify and share individual and institutional contacts as well as information sources that will assist the process of national development, using international Internet connections.
• To build robust professional linkages between all participants in the programs so that the mentor-student and colleague-colleague relationships formed during the workshop and conferences will remain strong and of continuing usefulness well beyond the workshop and conference.
• To increase the level of co-operation among existing projects and activities for establishing public data networks in Africa.
• To train people and groups of people who will return to their country and region and who will teach others what they have learned at the workshop.

Workshop Structure And Program

An intensive instructor led program is conducted for the workshops, usually composed of 4 (four) instructional tracks. Participants are expected to attend only one of the three instructional tracks presented in English, and one in French, since the tracks run concurrently. All participants engage in extensive hands-on training, setting up and managing prototype infrastructure and services.

The course descriptions below include for each instructional track:

• Who should attend this course.
• What you need to know to enter this course and benefit from it (Prerequisites).
• What you will learn in this course (Subjects).

Track SA-E: Unix System Administration

Overall objective: After attending this track, students will be able to install, upgrade, secure and competently manage the Unix operating system on standard PC hardware, and use it to provide essential Internet services on a network. It is aimed at students who are technically competent but may have had little or no prior exposure to the Unix environment.

Who should attend: Technical staff who are now providing Internet Services, or those who will be involved in the establishment and/or provisioning of basic national Internet Services in the country.

Prerequisites: Experience in managing PCs and installing software (such as installing the 'Windows' operating system), but not necessarily Unix. Some prior Unix/Linux experience would be of great benefit.

Training is hands-on in a well-equipped computer laboratory. All software installation on these machines will be performed by the students themselves.

The topics are expected to include:

• Differences between Unix and Windows
• Differences between FreeBSD and selected other types of Unix/Linux
• Installation of FreeBSD
• Essential command-line utilities and scripting
• Administering, Maintaining and Securing FreeBSD Servers
• Installing Software Packages using ports and packages
• Maintaining Software Packages using ports and cvsup
• The internal operation of Internet mail, web and DNS services will be outlined, and students will configure their machines to provide these services in a way which can support future growth.

Track SS-E: Scalable Internet Services

Overall objective: After attending this track, students will be able to build large-scale, resilient service platforms to support very large customer bases.

Who should attend: technical staff who are now providing Internet Services to a regional/national organisation or in a service provider environment, with a growing user base.

Prerequisites: Extensive experience with installing and administering some version of Unix/Linux, installing software packages, extracting information from 'man' pages, creating configuration files etc. Those who are not fully comfortable with Unix would most likely find track E0 more appropriate.

Training is hands-on in a well-equipped computer laboratory, making use of practical exercises to apply the techniques learned.

The topics are expected to include:

• Scalability pitfalls
• Approaches to clustering and resilience
• Design and scaling of a web cache (Squid)
• The Domain Name System
• Operation of Internet mail
• Configuration of an MTA (Exim)
• Design of a large-scale mail cluster
• Database backends
• Cryptographic techniques and applications (ssh, ssl, certificates)
• Server performance optimisation and monitoring; configuration management.
• Securing and monitoring large-scale servers and services

Track SI-E: Scalable Network Infrastructure

Overall Objective: After attending this track, students will be able to configure and operate larger scale backbones.

Who should attend: Technical staff who are now operating a wide area TCP/IP network, likely with international and/or multi-provider connectivity. Those who will be involved in the establishment and/or operation of a basic national network infrastructure in the country.

Prerequisites: experience using TCP/IP-based networking technologies.

Topics are expected to include:

• Basic routing
• OSPF routing
• BGP routing (limited)
• Management of router configuration
• NOC (Network Operation Center)
• Exchange points between networks
• Network Security

Track SI-F: Infrastructure Reseaux IP (Atelier SI-E en Français)

INFRASTRUCTURE RESEAUX focalisé sur la mise en place et l'exploitation de réseaux utilisant routeurs et switchs, dimensionnés pour supporter de larges sites interconnectés.

• Base des reseaux IP
• Bases de configuration des routeurs Cisco
• Routage statique (utilisation d'Unix et de Routeur Cisco)
• OSPF
• Architecture d'un reseau redondant
• BGP
• NOC services et application
• Securite Reseau

On-Line application forms / Les formulaires de candidature

AfNOG Meetings

The on-line application system is available here.
Les formulaires de candidature en ligne est disponible ici.