Virtual Labs - Instructor Handbook

This handbook is intended to guide you through the process of logging into and using your Virtual Labs in a way that offers the best experience possible. Much of what you see here will be step by step, but will also include some suggestions that you can use to help navigate best through the environment.

 Logging In

1. In the email you received there will be a link for you to use to access your Virtual Lab environment. Click to open or copy this link into a modern web browser.
   This is built for you and other instructors and your students may have different links than you and some may be the same. This link is likely to change between your modules so it will be important to reference the most up to date email sent to you specifically for the course you are instructing at that time.

2. You will be prompted to login.

   1. Enter your username, which as a staff member is typically your Firstname.Lastname but is most accurately the first part of your email address (all lower case) before the @ sign.

   2. Enter your password. This is the same password you use to login to your email, Microsoft Teams, XCAS, your company provided computer, etc.

   3. Select your Realm from the drop down. This is a description of your role and brand in the organization.

      1. Instructors using an @trios.com login will select triOS College Staff

      2. Instructors using an @easterncollege.ca login will select Eastern College Staff

         Open

         

3. Click Login.

 The Interface

Once you login, you will see an interface that looks very similar to the screen shot below. The descriptions and steps below will help you customize your environment so that you can better view your labs and those of your students. First below is an overview of the interface itself and it’s different sections.

Open

1. View Drop Down - Adjusts the View of the Navigation Pane.

2. Master Search Box - Power Search with Hints (Not very useful as a student where you have limited assignments).

3. User Account Menu - Drop down menu with options for your user account

4. Navigation Pane - Allows you to navigate between your different labs.

5. View Pane - View of the Available and accessible resources.

6. View Search Box - Search Box for the context of the View Pane.

7. Log Pane - Log information of all contextually available resources.

8. Hide Log Pane - Minimize the Log pane for a larger view.

 Recommended Interface adjustments

You can make changes to the view and to the interface that stay persistent between your logins on the same computer.

Change to Pool View

1. Change the view drop down (1) to Pool View as it offers the best view for your instructing experience as it groups your students into their “classrooms” via their assigned pools.

2. Minimize the logs by pressing the arrow above the log pane (8).

3. Shrink the size of the View Pane by placing your mouse between sections 2 and 5 and dragging the divider to the left side of the screen.

Minimize the Log Pane

Minimize the Log Pane (7) by clicking on the little down arrow at the top of the log pane area (8). This will give you more real estate to work with the other panes. The log view is not needed.

Expand/Shrink the Navigation Pane

You can expand the Navigation pane (4) horizontally by hovering your mouse over the small space in between sections 4 and 5. Resizing this to the right will allow you to have more real estate in the tree pane, allowing better view of the assigned virtual machines, at the loss of space in the V Pane (5).

 The Navigation Pane

Accessing the Information Pane:

With the interface setup as described in the above section, you as the instructor will be able to see your assigned VM, as well as all of those assigned to your students.
Each VM is shown in the Tree Pane and includes their Name at the end of it.
Click to Highlight the Virtual Machine and the Information Pane will change to information specific about that Highlighted Virtual Machine.

The Header:

The Header is available on all pages of the information pane and stays consistent as other pages are navigated through.

1. Name of the Selected Virtual Machine

2. State and Control Buttons (Start, Power Up, Shut down etc)

3. Access the Console (Login to the VM)

4. Help (User Guide for the Proxmox product…Very Technical).

Summary:

The Summary Information Pane offers information specific to the Virtual Machine and it’s status. Information such as how much RAM and Processing Power is in user at that given moment and historically.

1. VM Information Pane – Once loaded for the first time, or while the VM is running, there is more information populated here than before it is in Use. Information about the VM exists here.

2. Notes about the Virtual Machine.

3. Performance Graphs – These graphs show the performance and utilization of the various aspects of the virtual machine.

4. Changes the intervals at which the graphs from Section 3 are shown.

Hardware:

The hardware page gives additional information about the virtual machine and it’s emulated hardware. The only important things to note about this page is that, this is where you connect your instructor resources CD and also that most of the options in this page are not able to be changed.

1. Change the CD/DVD Drive – Use this to input your Instructor Resources CD.
   a. Click | Click Edit.
   b. Select Storage and Select the Appropriate Instructor Resources ISO from the second drop down.

Options:

Another page of information about the virtual Machine, just there is no Editable Function that should ever need changing.

Task History:

The Task History page allows for Auditing of the use of the Virtual Machine. As the machine goes through different states (Powered off to Started, or Powered on to Shut Down), that information will be logged in this console to be Audited as needed.]
This view also shows when the Console is connected to and who connected.

1. Filtering Options

2. Filtered (or unfiltered) Logs.

Console:

The console is the interface that you and your students will interact with to actually use the virtual machine.
Students have their own instructions for accessing their Virtual Machine that varies from yours.

1. NoVNC Controls (Outlined in next section)

2. Status Bar – Status messages about the Virtual Machine, such as Connected.

3. Control Pane – The actual area to use the virtual Machine.

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