Tutorials & 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]
The AfNOG tutorial days are part of a two-week event organised jointly by AfNOG and AfriNIC.
On-Line application forms / Les formulaires de candidature
The on-line application system is available here.
Les formulaires de candidature en ligne est disponible ici.
Technical Workshops
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 8 (eight) 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 SI-F: Infrastructure Reseaux IP (Atelier SI-E en Français)
INFRASTRUCTURE RESEAUX focalisé sur la mise en place et l'exploitation de réseaux utilisant route urs 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
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
Applicants should indicate clearly what version(s) of Unix/Linux they currently administer.
Track SS-F: Services Internet Evolutive
Objectif général: Après avoir assisté à cet atelier, les participants seront en mesure de construire des plateformes de services à grande échelle, robustes supportant de très grandes bases d’utilisateurs.
Pré-requis: Vaste expérience avec l'installation et l'administration en environnement Unix / Linux, l'installation de logiciels, l'extraction d'informations à partir des pages de manuel, la création des fichiers de configuration, etc. Pour Ceux qui ne sont pas totalement à l'aise avec Unix/Linux l’atelier E0 semble plus approprié.
La formation est pratique délivrée dans un laboratoire informatique bien équipée permettant de faire des exercices pratiques en application aux techniques apprises.
Les sujets devraient inclure:
- Planification de l'évolutivité
- Les approches au Clustering et à la résilience
- Conception et mise à l'échelle d'un cache Web (Squid)
- Le système de nom de domaine (DNS)
- Fonctionnement de la messagerie Internet
- Configuration d'un MTA (Exim)
- Conception d'un cluster de messagerie à grande échelle
- Backends de base de données
- Applications et Techniques de cryptographie (SSH, SSL, certificats)
- Optimisation et gestion de performance des serveurs ; gestion de la configuration
- Sécuriser et contrôler les serveurs et services à grande échelle
Le système d'exploitation utilisé sera FreeBSD, mais un résumé des différentes plateformes plates-formes Unix / Linux sera abordé.
Les candidats doivent indiquer clairement quelle version (s) de Unix / Linux ils administrent actuellement.
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
- 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
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.
- Attended previous routing courses (training organization, e.t.c.).
- Experience of interior routing protocols such as OSPF or ISIS is also necessary.
- Participants must have prior BGP experience.
- 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