Name: The Foundation of Iron — Week 16 — OS Synthesis Project — Mid-Programme Defence
Author: Amine RAITI

RATIO

THE FOUNDATION OF IRON · COURSE MATERIAL · WEEK 16

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OS SYNTHESIS PROJECT
MID-PROGRAMME DEFENCE
Week 16 of 26 · Block 5 — Bare Metal OS
5h theory · 30h practice

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◆ WEEKLY LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Deploy a complete environment integrating Linux, Windows Server, virtualisation, backup and security
2. Demonstrate autonomous administration competence on both systems
3. Write clear and complete technical documentation
4. Present and defend technical choices orally
5. Identify the strengths and areas for improvement of one's architecture

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NOTE FOR THE INSTRUCTOR

This week is the first major defence of the programme. It does not cover a single isolated brick but the complete integration of Weeks 8 to 15. The instructor gives each trainee maximum autonomous time and intervenes mainly during the defence to assess genuine understanding, not memorisation.

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Amine RAITI · Infrastructure Architect & SRE
Public document · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · AI Powered by Amine
Opération Dindon

RATIO

PROJECT SPECIFICATION · 5H

INTEGRATING PROJECT SPECIFICATION

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Architecture to deployRequired

— 1 operational Proxmox VE hypervisor (or equivalent)
— 1 Linux VM (distribution of the trainee's choice) with correctly installed and hardened service(s)
— 1 Windows Server VM with at least one active role and documented user/permission management
— 1 automated backup policy covering both VMs with defined RPO and RTO

Security to demonstrateRequired

— SSH hardened on the Linux VM (key authentication mandatory)
— Firewall configured on both VMs with documented rules
— Security updates up to date on both systems

Documentation to submitRequired

— Architecture diagram (VMs, network, storage)
— Table of deployed services with their justification
— Backup plan with RPO/RTO
— Security audit report (before/after hardening)

Oral defence (20 min + 10 min questions)Required

— Presenting the deployed architecture
— Live demonstration of at least 3 features
— Explaining the technical choices made
— Identifying one possible improvement not implemented due to time constraints

RATIO

PROJECT · BUILD AND DOCUMENTATION · 20H

Equipment: all hardware and systems configured since Week 8 — trainees may restart from clean systems if needed but have full documentation from previous weeks.

(5h) Checking and finalising the architecture: ensuring all required components are operational, identifying and fixing any gaps against the specification.

(5h) Security review and documentation: auditing the SSH configuration, firewall rules, updates — fixing any identified gap.

(5h) Backup verification and testing: ensuring automated backups are working, running a full restoration test, documenting the measured RPO and RTO.

(5h) Writing full documentation: architecture diagram, services table, backup plan, security audit report.

ASSESSMENT GRID — PROJECT

Criterion 1 — Functional compliance (35%): all specification items are deployed and operational.

Criterion 2 — Security (25%): hardening effectively applied, firewall correctly configured, no unnecessary service open.

Criterion 3 — Service continuity (20%): automated backups operational, restoration tested and documented, realistic RPO/RTO.

Criterion 4 — Documentation and presentation (20%): clear and complete document, controlled live demonstration, ability to explain technical choices.

RATIO

MID-PROGRAMME DEFENCE · 10H

Format: 20 minutes of presentation + 10 minutes of questions per trainee or pair. The instructor assesses against the project assessment grid.

(20 min) Presenting the deployed architecture: annotated diagram, justification of choices, difficulties encountered and solutions applied.

(10 min) Live demonstration: at least 3 features of the trainee's choice, including mandatory demonstrations of SSH key-based login and restoring from a backup.

(10 min) Instructor questions: covering technical choices, understanding of security and backup mechanisms, and the limits of the deployed architecture.

NOTE FOR THE INSTRUCTOR — CONDUCTING THE DEFENCE

Sample questions to assess genuine understanding: "If this server was attacked tonight and your SSH was compromised, what would your first action be?"; "Your daily backup has been silently failing for 3 days — how do you detect it?"; "Your Linux VM is suddenly consuming 100% CPU — how do you diagnose it?"

Discriminating criterion between memorisation and understanding: a trainee who understands can answer an unfamiliar situation by reasoning from principles. A trainee who has memorised can only answer situations already encountered in exactly the same form.

◆ MID-PROGRAMME REVIEW — WHAT HAS BEEN ACQUIRED (W8 TO W15)

Installing and administering Linux in production (W8-W10)

Installing and administering Windows Server in standalone mode (W11-W12)

Deploying and managing VMs on a bare-metal hypervisor (W13)

High availability, RPO/RTO, automated backups (W14)

SSH hardening, firewall, security audit on both OS (W15)

Integrating everything into a coherent, documented architecture (W16)

What follows (W17-W26) builds on this foundation: networking, services, AD/GPO, web, DB, network security

The first 7 weeks (W1-W7) provided the physical and conceptual fundamentals that make all decisions since W8 understandable