Scenario Briefings
CloudFest 2026 · Sysadmin Showdown · 5 Scenarios
Rules of Engagement
- SSH into your assigned server and diagnose the fault
- The scenario is solved when the win condition passes — the dashboard updates automatically
- Do not open
README_JUDGE.txt— that's for the judge only
Broken App
A web application that was working fine yesterday is now completely unreachable. The service appears to be running but connections are being refused. Something changed in the service configuration recently — the app never makes it off the ground.
curl :8080/health → 200 OK
Broken DB
The application is running and can reach the database server, but every query is failing. A migration script was run recently as part of a deployment. The database service itself is healthy — the problem lies somewhere inside the database.
curl :8080/dbcheck → {"db":"ok"}
Broken Networking
The server is reachable via SSH and basic IP connectivity is fine, but the application cannot reach any external services. Name resolution is failing and certain outbound connections are being blocked. Two separate issues need to be identified and fixed.
curl :8080/netcheck → dns+https ok
Deploy Website
A new version of the company website is ready to go live. The release files are already on the server. There's a deployment script in the home directory — but it's incomplete and won't finish the job on its own. Figure out what's missing and get v2 live.
curl :80/ → "Version 2.0 - DEPLOYED"
Broken Storage
A disk was swapped on this server during maintenance last night. The replacement drive was physically installed but the storage layer was never fully restored. The application is still running — for now — but the underlying storage is in a degraded state and one more failure would take everything down.
mdadm --detail → State: clean