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 6 (six) 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 SI-E: Scalable Network Infrastructure

Overall objective: After attending this track, students will be able to configure and operate large scale networks connected to the Internet.

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..

Training is hands-on in a well-equipped computer laboratory over a five-day period.

The topics are expected to include:

  • Basic routing
  • IS-IS routing
  • BGP routing
  • Management of router configuration
  • NOC (Network Operations Centre)
  • Exchange points between networks
  • Security

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
The operating system to be used will be FreeBSD, but a summary of the differences compared to other common Unix/Linux platforms will be provided.

Applicants should indicate clearly what version(s) of Unix/Linux they currently administer.

Track CT-E: CERT Training

Overall Objective: After attending this track, students (CERT staff) handling technical operations will be able to understand the basic operation of CERT and information security topics.

Who should attend: The course is ideal for technical security staff of governments, regulators, law enforcement, academia and Internet industry.

Prerequisites: articipants must have basic technical background about the Internet technology such as network, protocols, operating systems, server,programming, database and so on. Additionally, Participants should have basic understanding of information security and recent cyber threats. This course include hands-on training, so participants have to bring their own laptop to do exercises.

Topics are expected to include:

  • Overview of Internet Security
  • Incident Analysis Basics – Log Analysis
  • Technical Overview of Information Security
  • Security Tools for CSIRT
  • Information Gathering and Analysis
  • Publishing Technical Documents
  • How to conduct Technical Training of Information Security
  • Introduction to Malware Analysis

Track NM-E: Network Monitoring and Management

Overall Objective: After attending this track, students will be able to manage diverse Network and NOC operations. This course includes a combination of theory and lab, with lab work accounting for approximately 60% of the total course.

Who should attend: Engineers and system staffs at ISPs and large networks including academic networks who are involved system management, network monitoring, and network management. The course is for those who need to manage diverse Network and NOC operations.

Prerequisites:

  • Good knowledge of Unix/Linux, IPv4 addressing and general network concepts
  • A laptop with wireless capability, or notice to instructors that you will need a workstation during class
Topics are expected to include:
  • General Network Management and Planning Principles
  • Network Operations Center overview
  • Documentating your network, including a discussion of available tools and the use of Netdot as a resource.
  • SNMP and other network management Protocols
  • MRTG/RRDTool, Nagios, Netflow/NfSen, SmokePing, Cacti
  • Ticketing systems such as Request Tracker (RT).
  • Scripting and adapting tools to your system
  • Rancid and SVN for configuration management
  • Log management and monitoring

Track NM-F: SURVEILLANCE DU RESEAU ET GESTION

Un atelier de formation de 5 jours pour ceux qui sont appelés à gérer des réseaux et les centre d'opérations associés (NOC). Un mélange de théorie et pratique, avec un travail en atelier qui représente environ 60% du total de la formation. Les thèmes abordés:

  • Principes de base sur la supervision et la gestion des réseaux
  • Survol d'un centre d'opération de réseau (NOC)
  • Documentation de votre réseau, discussion sur les outils
  • SNMP comme protocole de supervision du réseau
  • MRTG/RRDtol, NAgios, Netflow/NfSen, Smokeping, Cacti
  • Systèmes de gestion de tickets/incident (RT)
  • Programmation script et adaptation des outils à votre système
  • Rancid, versionnage et gestions des configurations
  • Gestions et supervision des journaux
À qui s'adresse cet atelier?
Les ingénieurs réseaux et système travaillant sur les réseaux de fournisseur d'accès à Internet, les réseaux académiques, et autres réseau de moyenne et grande taille, et ayant pour responsabilité la supervsion et la gestion du réseau.

Prérequis:
  • Bonne connaissance de UNIX/Linux, adressage des réseaux IPv4, et concepts généraux des réseaux IP.
  • UN ORDINATEUR PORTABLE EST NéCESSAIRE POUR POUVOIR PARTICIPER À CET ATELIER! Si vous n'avez pas d'ordinateur portable, prière de le spécifier dans votre formulaire d'inscription!

Track AR-E: Advanced Routing

Overall Objective: After attending this track, students will be able to configure and operate large scale networks that make up the Internet.

Who should attend: Technical staff who are now building or operating a wide area service provider network or Internet Exchange point, with international and/or multi provider connectivity. Participants are required to bring laptops.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of a previous AfNOG Scalable Infrastructure Workshop or similar training. Alternatively, participants must demonstrate acceptable knowledge of or their experience with a router configuration language. Experience of interior routing protocols such as OSPF or ISIS is also necessary, and participants must have used BGP. Some user level Unix experience would be advantageous.

Topics are expected to include:

  • Introduction to the ISIS Routing protocol
  • Introduction to IPv6
  • BGP refresher, including attributes, policies, communities and best practices
  • BGP scaling techniques, including Route Reflectors and peer-groups
  • Techniques and strategies for multihoming using BGP
  • Introduction to peering and Internet Exchange Points
  • Best practices for Internet operations

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.