dc01
Domain directory and DNS: accounts, groups, policies.
CITADEL SysAdmin Challenge · by Citadel IT Solutions
36 hours to bring a real IT system back to working order
The SysAdmin Challenge is a hands-on systems administration contest. Each participant gets their own set of machines, deliberately broken, and a queue of tickets to work through as an administrator on the job would. At the end, no quiz is graded: the real state of the machines is.
The Challenge is run by Citadel IT Solutions, which sets and announces the dates of each edition.
Nothing to install. Every machine opens in the web browser, from any computer with Internet access: Windows desktop, Linux terminal, business applications.
Registered participants: your space is at challenge.citadel-it.com
The SysAdmin Challenge in one minute (video in French).
36 hof contest, a day and a half
4machines per participant, Windows and Linux
10tickets, drawn differently for each
100%automated grading, on the final state
The scenario
You are the consultant called in at BAOBAB SA
BAOBAB SA is a fictional services company, with its directory, workstations, file server, intranet, ticketing tool and wiki. Its IT has been neglected: locked accounts, unreachable shares, stopped services, backups that no longer run.
Users have opened tickets. You take them one by one: understand the symptom, find the cause, fix it without breaking anything else. BAOBAB SA stays the same from one edition to the next; the faults change.
pc01
User workstation joined to the domain.
srv01
File server and intranet.
app01
Company applications: ticketing and wiki.
How an edition runs
- The invitationEach participant receives their personal access by e-mail, before the opening.
- The openingAt the announced time, the machines are ready and the tickets appear in the participant space.
- 36 hours of workDiagnosis and repair, at your own pace. A hint can be requested on each ticket, at the cost of a few points.
- The closeAccess is shut, the final state of the machines is recorded and graded. Everyone then finds their results and a ticket-by-ticket review.
The same challenge for all, different faults for each
- 10 tickets per participant, drawn differently: two participants share at most 3 tickets. Copying a neighbour gets you nowhere.
- The same mix for everyone: 3 easy tickets, 4 medium, 3 hard.
- A balance between both worlds: 5 faults on Windows, 5 on Linux.
A score that measures what actually works
- Grading records the final state of each machine: does the service answer, does the account log in, does the backup exist?
- Every check is dry-run before each contest: no score skewed by a badly tuned check.
- Results ready half an hour after the close, with the detail for each ticket.
Who it is for
Who can take part
IT teams
Administrators from a company or an IT department can register for an edition: a way to measure a team's real level on a concrete case and spot training needs.
Schools and universities
For computing students, a first taste of production: a real domain, real services, faults you will not find in a course.
Administrators and technicians
Test yourself on everyday situations, Windows and Linux, and leave with a precise review of what you solved and what to work on.
The faults
Faults that call for real diagnosis
Every fault in the bank is realistic: a ticket written as a user would, two hints, an automated check, and no trace left on the machine. New fault families arrive with every edition.
Windows and applications
Hard cases
Hard faults on the Windows side, in the directory as well as on the workstation, and tickets on the company applications: ticketing, wiki, containers, application data backup.
Diagnosis
Chained faults
A cause on one machine, a symptom on another: tickets that force you to follow the problem through the system rather than fix things at random.
Network
Network and firewall
A firewall separates servers from workstations, with its own family of faults: missing or overly broad rules, filtered directory traffic, logging.
Security and confidentiality
A closed environment, wiped after each edition
One set of machines per participant
Each participant works on their own machines, in their own subnet, isolated from the others and with no Internet access. The only way in is the browser, with a personal account.
Personal results
Each participant receives their own results. Answer keys stay with the organisers and are never published.
Automatic clean-up
Platform hosted on AWS. An edition's machines are deleted automatically after the close; only the scores are kept.
Hear about the next edition
Dates are announced by Citadel IT Solutions. Write to us to receive the announcement of the next edition and how to register.