Maximising student exposure to Unix networking using FreeBSD virtual hosts

A Remote Unix Lab Environment (RULE) is being developed at Swinburne University of Technology, allowing students access to networked unix hosts for their coursework and research projects. This paper describes our first generation solution using FreeBSD's 'jail' functionality to emulate many FreeBSD hosts on a small handful of physical machines in a rack. Our primary constraint is to minimise the incremental infrastructure cost. The student front-end to the unix hosts will leverage pre-existing Windows-based PC labs scattered around campus and inter-connected by a 100Mbit/sec IP network. The FreeBSD hosts themselves are mini-ITX motherboards on a rack in a small room or closet, minimising their impact on scarce University lab space. This paper will describe our requirements, trade-offs, available tools, and how specific FreeBSD features are being utilized to create multiple virtual hosts on each physical machine. Our current implementation is based on FreeBSD 4.7.