Technical Artefact for Learning Management System(LMS)

Learning Management System School Network Design for Project in Masters

1. Password Policy

Following is a Password Policy developed for our School System:

  • The users should not choose simple passwords such as ‘Password’, ‘123456’ or ‘ABCDEF’.
  • The users should not use their personal information such as Birthdate, Contact Number, their first or last names in the Password.
  • The users should choose the combination of letters, digits, and special characters as their password.
  • The password length should be between 8 to 16 characters.
  • The users are encouraged to use Random Password Generators to create strong passwords.
  • The users should also change their passwords frequently to avoid the unauthorized access of their accounts.
  • The existing users should not use their previous or current passwords while changing their passwords.
  • The existing users should also follow all the statements mentioned in the Password Policy while changing their passwords.
  • The users should not share their passwords with any other users or write them on their computers.

2. Risk Assessment

2.1 Asset Identification

Following are the list of assets owned by the school categorized into different categories:

Asset TypeInformation AssetsData ClassificationImpact to ProfitabilityOverall Risk Ranking
              InfrastructureSchool department cabin devices (Computers, Printers, Tablets, Cables, Scanners, Smartphones etc.)ConfidentialLow4
School Servers and Data CentresHighly ConfidentialVery High1
Other Network devices and Equipment (Switches, Routers, Cables)ConfidentialMedium3
Other Infrastructure (Buildings, Departments, Cabins, Rooms)Very Less ConfidentialLow5
            InformationalTeachers and Student Personal InformationHighly ConfidentialHigh2
Teachers and Students Financial InformationVery Highly ConfidentialVery High1
Assessment and Grade InformationHighly ConfidentialHigh3
Backup FilesHighly ConfidentialHigh2
Exam Paper InformationHighly ConfidentialHigh2
School Network Monitoring InformationConfidentialMedium4
School PoliciesConfidentialMedium4
  UsersExecutive Management and TeachersConfidentialHigh3
StudentsConfidentialVery High3
 Staff MembersConfidentialMedium4
 Parents and VisitorsLow ConfidentialLow5

Legend: Overall Risk Rankings – 1 (Very High-Risk Ranking) and 5 (Low-Risk Ranking)

3. Proof of Concept (PoC) Implementation

School Web Site:

As it is not possible to demonstrate physical structure of the school building, we are going to use AWS public cloud to setup servers and host School Website and Media hosting site.

Here we used Forma LMS for Website setup, we can have our own site in future and hosted on the AWS or physical servers. Also, we used EMBY for media server.

  • Connect AWS Console and open EC2 service to create instances
Choose Ubuntu OS as AMI
  • Choose Ubuntu OS as AMI
Select t2.micro instance since its just demo school website
  • Select t2.micro instance since its just demo school website
  • Select subnet and vpc details also define instance count to three as we are going to use two nodes for Website behind load balancer and one for Media hosting
Keep default storage as we don’t need more at this stage
  • Keep default storage as we don’t need more at this stage
Setup security group and allow http/https/ssh ports
  • Setup security group and allow http/https/ssh ports
Three instances are ready
  • Three instances are ready
  • Move to RDS service and setup centralize database for the School website, two of the instances will be connecting to the same database
Select standard MySQL database
  • Select standard MySQL database
  • Choose free tier eligible database and configure database name, username, and password
  • Database is ready, now we can see all connection details in the screenshot

Forma Learning Management System (LMS):

  • Connect both webservers and for Forma LMS setup
  • Update packages
Installing apache for webserver hosting
  • Install apache for webserver hosting
Start and enable the service
  • Start and enable the service
Installing php dependancy packages for School website
  • Install php dependancy packages for School website
  • Connect to the RDS database and create new database for School website, also grant admin permission to the new user
  • Now, lets download Forma LMS source
  • Extract the zip file
  • Update necessary permission so webserver can access the application data
  • Update Apache configuration to point to the application path
  • Site is ready, let’s open it in a browser and finish one time installation
  • System check information
  • Accept License terms and conditions
  • Configure database details
  • Configure admin user and password
  • Setting up database and language
  • Installation completed, now download the config.pp file and copy it to both webservers
  • Login page
  • Default home page
  • Add new courses and other details
  • Admin section
  • Here are the URL for individual webserver we setup for the school site, both points to the same RDS database so updating details on one site can immediately reflect in second site, we will later put both sites behind load balancer so it can be accessed with single link.

Server1: http://ec2-13-55-170-225.ap-southeast-2.compute.amazonaws.com/

Server2: http://ec2-13-54-51-221.ap-southeast-2.compute.amazonaws.com/

EMBY MEDIA Server:

  • Let’s install Emby Media server on the 3rd AWS Ubuntu OS instance for video hosting
  • Login to the server and download the installation package
  • Install Emby server rpm and ensure that service is running
  • Open Media site in browser with 8096 port and it will point to initial installation page
  • Select language
  • Create admin user
  • Setup media library for School Courses
  • Allow remote access to the Emby site
  • Accept terms and conditions
  • Login page
  • Upload videos on the Media server on the directory specified during media library setup
  • Empy provides a nice platform to run videos, you can go to any video and look at all the details before, Students can subscribe to videos them selves
  • Example of playing one of the videos
  • This media server can be used to upload and play recorded videos.