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TRANSCRIPT
Getting Started
VMware Learning Platform
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Getting Started
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Contents
About the Getting Started guide 4
1 What is VMware Learning Platform 5
2 Before You Begin 7
3 Subscribe to Status Updates for VMware Learning Platform 9
4 Contact Support 10
5 Creating Lab Templates 11Guidelines for Setting-Up vApps for VMware Learning Platform 11
Cloud Capacity Management for vApps for VMware Learning Platform 12
Authoring Lab Templates 13
Create a Lab Template 13
Customize a Lab Template 14
Uploading VMs, vApps, or ISOs 16
Upload VMs, vApps, or ISOs 16
Syncing and Updating Template Changes With the Cloud 17
6 Delivering a Lab 19Create a Lab 19
Create a Catalog 20
Create End-User Accounts 21
7 Developing a Lab Manual 23Create a Lab Manual Project 23
Add a Manual to a Lab Manual Project 24
Publish a Manual With VMware Learning Platform 25
Add a Manual to a Lab 25
Hide the On-Screen Instructions Panel 25
8 Start your Lab 27
9 Next Steps 28
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About the Getting Started guide
This guide provides a walkthrough of the essential tasks necessary to author and deliver a generic lab using VMware Learning Platform. .
Intended AudienceThe primary audience for this guide is tenant administrators and content authors.
VMware Technical Publications GlossaryVMware Technical Publications provides a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar to you. For definitions of terms as they are used in VMware technical documentation, go to http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs.
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What is VMware Learning Platform 1VMware Learning Platform™(VLP) is a VMware Cloud service that gives organizations the ability to deliver hands-on virtual IT training labs at cloud scale.
The following additional interfaces let you manage documentation for a lab, monitor an instructor-led class, provide user access to class registration and lab interaction, and manage and track labs at events.
n The Content Engine, for authoring, importing, or managing and associating lab manuals. VMware Learning Platform supports multi-language lab manual projects and import of Microsoft Word or PDF files.
n The Instructor Console, from which instructors can add or remove students from a class and monitor class activity.
n The User Console, for VMware Learning Platform end users taking on-demand or instructor-led labs.
n The Event Management interface, with which tenant administrators, proctors, and instructors can manage lab offerings at large-scale events such as conferences.
Complete product documentation is available at VMware Learning Platform Documentation.
The Getting Started GuideThe Getting Started guide takes you through the tasks required to set up and run a lab using the VMware Learning Platform Lab Builder.
It describes creating resources for your lab environment, the steps required to incorporate a lab manual with your course, and the steps required to deliver a lab.
TerminologyThe following terms are used in this guide.
vApp
A vCloud Director construct that consists of one or more virtual machines, metadata, a power-on and shutdown sequence, and a networking configuration.
vApp Template
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A vApp that exists in a Catalog and cannot be powered on. vApp templates are called lab templates in the Lab Builder.
vApp Template Working Copy
AvApp that can be actively worked on for the purpose of copying iterations into the catalog.
Deployment Pool
Defines the vApp deployment parameters for a lab. A deployment pool is used to manage where lab templates are deployed, how many can be deployed, whether a certain number are pre-populated (that is, deployed and powered-on before a user needs it), and so on. The Lab Builder automatically creates a deployment pool for your lab. Tenant administrators can also create deployment pools.
Pre-population
A deployment pool capability used to pre-provision (deploy and power-on vApp) ahead of time. Pre-populated vApps minimize the time required between an end-user request for a lab and when it has been delivered. This is especially useful for more complex labs that can require time to power on the vApp’s underlying virtual machines, run any user-defined preparation scripts, and so on.
Lab Manual
A manual written in a specific language.
Lab Manual Project
A Lab Manual Project is a collection of one or more lab manuals.
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Before You Begin 2Review the system and account requirements for creating a VMware Learning Platform lab.
Note This guide shows you how to create a vApp using resources in VMware Cloud. You can also use VMs or vApps developed on-premises, but you must upload them through the VMware Learning Platform admin UI. See Upload VMs, vApps, or ISOs.
Credentialsn Interface URLs: You must have the URL to both your VMware Learning Platform lab user interface
and the administrator interface.
n Administrator credentials: You must have tenant administrator credentials for VMware Learning Platform.
BrowsersBrowser settings must accept cookies, run JavaScript, and support web sockets. The following browsers and browser versions are supported:
n Internet Explorer version 10 or above
n Firefox version 13 or above
n Chrome version 18 or above
n Safari version 6.0 or above
ResourcesMore help and information are available at the VMware Learning Platform support and communities sites.
The support site is at https://console.cloud.vmware.com/csp/gateway/portal/#/support. Click Submit a request for any issue or assistance required.
The VMware Learning Platform communities page is at https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vlp/content.
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The VMware Learning Platform interfaceThe first screen you see when open VMware Learning Platform is the default dashboard. From here, you can track and view all aspects of building and running labs.
The pane on the left is the tenant administrator navigation menu. Click the double arrow in the lower right corner to open or close the menu.
VMware Learning Platform includes both a basic Admin UI and an advanced Admin UI view of the navigation menu.
n The Basic Admin UI is essentially a subset of the advanced Admin UI. It includes only those options required to deliver a lab, providing an efficient, simple presentation.
n The Advanced Admin UI provides additional options to deliver a lab with advanced features.
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Subscribe to Status Updates for VMware Learning Platform 3Subscribe to VMware Cloud Services status updates for VMware Learning Platform to receive email notifications about incidents such as scheduled maintenance or outages.
When you subscribe to VMware Learning Platform notifications, you are also notified of CSP-related incidents.
Procedure
1 Open https://status.vmware-services.io/ in a browser.
2 Click Subscribe to update and enter your email address.
3 Click Subscribe.
4 From the subscription page, select VMware Learning Platform and save the preferences.
5 Check your email inbox and confirm your subscription.
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Contact Support 4VMware Learning Platform customers can get support by opening the VMware Cloud Services console.
To manage your support requests or open a new support request, access the Support Center from the VMware Cloud Services Console.You must have a support role to access the Support Center. To get the required permissions to open and manage support tickets for your organization, contact your organization owner.
When you work with support requests, you do so within the context of your currently active organization. If you belong to several organizations, make sure that the organization for which you want to manage the request is your active organization. See, how to switch to another organization.
Procedure
1 Log in to the VMware Cloud services console at https://console.cloud.vmware.com/csp/gateway/portal/#/support.
2 Click the Support Center tab.
3 Click Create Support Request.
4 Complete the Create Support Request form, including the appropriate category and severity, and click Submit.
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Creating Lab Templates 5Templates provide the basis for your lab's software environment. VMware Learning Platform uses templates that you build based on a vApp virtual appliance.
A template comprises one or more virtual machines, metadata, a power-on and shutdown sequence, and a networking configuration. VMware Cloud services includes everything you need to create a vApp.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n Guidelines for Setting-Up vApps for VMware Learning Platform
n Cloud Capacity Management for vApps for VMware Learning Platform
n Authoring Lab Templates
n Uploading VMs, vApps, or ISOs
Guidelines for Setting-Up vApps for VMware Learning PlatformUse these guidelines when you create and administer a vApp for your lab environment.
Right-size the workloadTake the time to size virtual machines efficiently to maximize cost efficiency while still providing an efficient experience for the lab users. Test - Allowed Outbound Ports / Protocols for vApp to Internet Communication
n Use as few vCPUs as possible for the application to function properly.
n Avoid configuring virtual machines with more than 4 vCPUs (Note: virtual machines with more than 8 vCPUs are currently unsupported).
n Do not under-provision memory as it leads to paging or swapping within the virtual machine and impacts performance, but do not over-provision, which results in excessive waste.
Managing templatesn After a vApp has been added to the catalog, delete or power off the working copy to conserve
resources. Unlike vSphere, when a vApp is added to a catalog in vCD, a copy is made.
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n A successful lab deployment requires that the source vApp template virtual machines have been gracefully shut down (vApp stop command) before it can be added to the catalog as a template.
Importing templatesn Use the process illustrated in Upload VMs, vApps, or ISOs to perform the import with VMware
Learning Platform. VMware Learning Platform provides a reliable mechanism to import virtual machine/vApp exports (OVF/OVA) and ISOs.
n Unless the vApp was created and exported from the same vCloud Director environment, it will likely require some clean-up after the import is finished. Review and reconfigure the network configuration after the import has finished.
n Importing individual virtual machines results in the creation of single virtual machine vApps. You must then copy or move them.
Allowed Outbound Ports / Protocols for vApp to Internet CommunicationHTTP TCP 80
HTTPS TCP 443
DNS UDP 53
NTP UDP 123
FTP FTP 21
SSH TCP 22
Cloud Capacity Management for vApps for VMware Learning PlatformUse these guidelines when you plan configuration limits for your vApp.
Cloud capacity consumption is calculated using allocated resources, not utilized resources. For example, if you allocate a 100 GB disk to a virtual machine, but the disk contains 50 GB of data, 100 GB of storage is consumed from the storage allocation.
n Avoid oversizing workloads intended to be used for labs. Idle vCPUs, unused memory, and free disk space are consumed from the capacity allocation, incurring additional costs.
n Maintain good housekeeping of vApps and templates within the virtual data center.
For trial users, trial capacity is limited to 25 vCPUs | 50 GB RAM | 2500 GB storage unless otherwise noted in your onboarding session. This allows you to deploy the configurations described in the following table.
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Table 5-1. Sample configurations
VMs vCPUs Memory Storage
25 1 2 GB 100 GB
12 2 4 GB 200 GB
6 4 8 GB 400 GB
A vApp that is powered on consumes compute (CPU and memory) and storage resources from the cloud allocation, whereas when powered off, a vApp only consumes storage.
Authoring Lab TemplatesA vApp template is a virtual machine image that is loaded with an operating system, applications, and data. vApp templates used in VMware Learning Platform are called lab templates. These templates ensure that lab environments are configured consistently for all lab participants.
The following exercises show you how to deploy a vApp containing a single Linux VM from a base template in the public catalog, how to power-on the vApp and log into the Linux VM, and how to power-off the vApp and create a template by copying it into your catalog.
Create a Lab TemplateYou can create a template by deploying a base template in the public catalog.
Prerequisites
You must have tenant administrator permissions.
Procedure
1 Direct your browser to the VMware Learning Platform Admin user interface.
https://vmwarelearningplatform.com/admin
2 From the Default Dashboard, open the navigation menu on the left and select Lab Management > Lab Builder.
3 Click New Lab Template.
4 Update the Name and Description text boxes as needed and click Add VM.
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5 On the Add VM page, select Lab Builder Content (Public) from the drop-down menu to display information for the VMware Learning Platform Public catalog and select centos-cli, CentOS 4/5 or later (64-bit).
6 Click Add.
7 Review the lab template details and the VM you just added. If everything is correct, click Create from Scratch.
8 You will be taken back to the Lab Builder page where you can see your newly created template
What to do next
Customize a Lab Template
Customize a Lab TemplateYou can customize a lab template to include information specific to your lab.
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Procedure
1 From the admin UI, select Lab Management > Lab Builder on the navigation panel to open the Lab Templates page.
2 From the Lab Templates page, locate the vApp you just created and click Edit on the Actions drop-down menu.
3 From the Edit Lab Template page, you can access the console of the VMs within your lab.
a Select the CentOS-CLI VM to access the console directly.
b Power on the VM.
c Log in with the default user name and password:
n User name – Root
n Password – VMware1!
4 Modify the VM as needed with new user accounts, installed software, or application-specific configurations for the lab you are creating.
5 Optionally, you can include multiple virtual machines within your lab.
a Click Add VM for the Edit lab template screen.
b Select the centos-gui VM.
c Click Add.
The New VM is now included within your lab.
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6 VM Details allows you to make a note of the name for the virtual machine and the hardware configuration for CPU and memory.
a With the VM powered off, set the memory to 2048 on the Centos-CLI VM.
b Click Update to save your changes.
7 When you are done editing, click Update and Publish.
What to do next
Complete the steps to deliver a lab. See Chapter 6 Delivering a Lab.
Uploading VMs, vApps, or ISOsIn scenarios where virtual machines (VMs) or vApps are developed on-premises, you must upload the VM images into the cloud for templatization.
In addition, if a VM is built in the cloud, you might need a unique ISO operating system.
Upload VMs, vApps, or ISOsIf you develop virtual machines (VMs) or vApps on-premises, you might need to upload those VM images into the cloud for templatization. In addition, if a VM must be built in the cloud, there might be a need for a unique ISO operating system.
You import VMs and media by uploading them from the Admin UI.
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Procedure
1 Open the VMware Learning Platform Admin UI and verify that Advanced Options is selected.
2 Select Lab Management > Lab Builder to navigate to the Lab Templates page.
3 Click the horizontal ellipsis icon next to the New Lab Template button to open a drop-down menu.
4 Select Upload VMs/ISOs.
5 On the Upload VMs/ISOs form, select a vCloud Director catalog destination and click Attach Files to select a file to upload.
You can upload OVF, OVA, VMDK, or ISO file types.
The Upload VMs/ISOs command transfers your content to your VMware vCloud Director catalog. The ISO files are available in VMware Learning Platform under Cloud Management > Cloud Media. (You can delete uploaded ISOs from here.)
The OVF and OVA files are available in VMware Cloud Director under vApp Templates > Libraries. They are presented to you in VMware Learning Platform as Published Lab Templates, meaning that they are ready to be used.
Syncing and Updating Template Changes With the CloudAfter you modify your vApp template, you sync the cloud org with the changed vApp and then update the corresponding deployment pool.
Procedure
1 Go to the VMware Learning Platform admin UI login screen and enter your credentials.
2 Navigate to the Cloud Org List by selecting Cloud Management > Clouds from the navigation menu on the left. This option is available when advanced options are displayed.
3 Synchronize any modified templates with your cloud organization to make them generally available.
n To synchronize an individual cloud org, select it and click the vertical ellipsis icon, then click Sync vApp Templates.
n To synchronize templates for all cloud orgs, click the vertical ellipsis icon next to any cloud org name and then click Full Resync vApp Templates.
4 Navigate to the Deployment Pool List by selecting Cloud Management > Deployment Pools.
5 On the Deployment Pool List, select the deployment pool to which you want to add the changed vApp template and click Edit vApp Templates.
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6 On the Edit vApp Templates page, click Add/Remove vApp Templates.
7 On the vApp Templates list, select the vApp template you want to use, then click Done.
8 On the Edit vApp Templates tab, click Update.
What to do next
If the structure of the vApp you changed is significant enough, your update might fail. In such a case, you must remove all vApp templates from the deployment pool, then add the change.
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Delivering a Lab 6After you create a vApp, you create a VMware Learning Platform lab and set its deployment parameters.
Procedure
1 Create a Lab
A lab is a collection of metadata, a single vApp template, and an instructional manual.
2 Create a Catalog
Create a catalog for your lab. A catalog is an organized inventory of labs and their descriptions that users can browse or search.
3 Create End-User Accounts
End users are the students who take your lab. Each student requires a user account.
Create a LabA lab is a collection of metadata, a single vApp template, and an instructional manual.
Procedure
1 From the navigation menu panel, select Lab Management > Labs to open a list of current labs.
2 Click Create Lab.
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3 In the Create Lab window, enter the following information.
Option Description
SKU Stock-keeping unit. A unique identifier for your lab, such as HOL-2085-01-EMT.
Name A name for the lab you are creating.
Deployment Pool A collection of deployment parameters for your lab's vApp created by the VLP Lab Builder when you create your lab's vApp. Select a deployment pool from the drop-down menu.
Time Allotted The time you allot for the student to complete the lab.
Manual The user manual for the lab. Select Manual Empty if you want to upload the manual at a later time.
4 Click Next.
5 On the Update Settings screen, accept the defaults and click Next.
6 On the Update Content screen, accept the defaults and click Next.
7 If you are using advanced options, you see the Update VM Metadata screen. In the Update VM Metadata tab, accept the defaults and click Finish.
Results
The lab you created is listed in the table on the Labs page.
What to do next
Create a Catalog.
Create a CatalogCreate a catalog for your lab. A catalog is an organized inventory of labs and their descriptions that users can browse or search.
When you create a catalog, you can use Tenant Groups to control who can see the catalog. This allows the tenant administrator to restrict the visibility of labs that should not be available to all users.
Every tenant includes the All Labs catalog. Labs that are added to this catalog are visible to all users.
Procedure
1 Click Lab Management > Catalogs on the admin UI navigation panel.
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2 Click Create Catalog. Enter a name for the catalog. Select Enabled and Public Visible.
3 Click the Labs search box and select the lab you created. Under Tenant Groups, select All Users.
4 Click Create Catalog.
5 You can change the order in which labs are listed from the Lab Display Order tab.
6 Click Finish.
What to do next
Create End-User Accounts.
Create End-User AccountsEnd users are the students who take your lab. Each student requires a user account.
Procedure
1 From the admin UI, click Security > User Controls on the navigation panel.
2 Click Create Account on the Accounts page.
3 Create a user account for a standard user.
a Enter a legitimate e-mail address as the user name.
b Complete the other required text boxes.
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c Select Generate Password, Show Password, and Welcome e-mail.
d Click Create Account, which creates the account and displays the User Access page for the account.
4 Accept the selected default for User Role and click Finish.
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Developing a Lab Manual 7Lab manuals provide instructional content for a lab. You can develop manuals with the Content Engine editor, or import manuals from Word or applications such as ScreenSteps. PDF documents can be uploaded and used with the VMware Learning Platform PDF viewer.
You associate lab manuals with the lab's manual project. A lab manual project consists of one or more lab manual instances. If you have multiple language versions of an manual, you can make them all available to lab users by adding them as instances to the same lab manual project.
Procedure
1 Create a Lab Manual Project
Create a container project, called a lab manual project, for your lab's instructional content. Later, you'll upload one or more lab manuals to the project, including any translations you provide.
2 Add a Manual to a Lab Manual Project
Lab manuals are added to a lab manual project. You can import a manual from the ScreenSteps authoring tool, or upload instructional content from your local machine.
3 Publish a Manual With VMware Learning Platform
You must publish the course manual to make it available to a tenant administrator who can then associate the manual with a lab.
4 Add a Manual to a Lab
After you have published a lab manual, you can associate it with a lab.
Create a Lab Manual ProjectCreate a container project, called a lab manual project, for your lab's instructional content. Later, you'll upload one or more lab manuals to the project, including any translations you provide.
Procedure
1 From the navigation panel on the administrator user interface, select Content > Content Engine to open the Lab Manual Projects list.
2 Click Add New.
3 Click Start a Manual Project.
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4 On the Start a Manual Project form, specify a name for the manual project and then click Create.
What to do next
Add a Manual to a Lab Manual Project
Add a Manual to a Lab Manual ProjectLab manuals are added to a lab manual project. You can import a manual from the ScreenSteps authoring tool, or upload instructional content from your local machine.
In addition to ScreenSteps, VMware Learning Platform supports Word DOCX and PDF files. ScreenSteps and Word files are changed to the VMware Learning Platform lab manual format. PDF files are displayed in a PDF viewer.
For more information on importing different types of source files for lab manuals, see the VMware Learning Platform Content Engine Guide.
The following steps show you how to upload a manual to a lab manual project.
Procedure
1 Return to the VMware Learning Platform Admin UI at https://www.learningplatform.vmware.com/admin.
2 Select Content > Content Engine on the navigation panel go to the Lab Manual Projects window on the VMware Learning Platform Content Engine interface.
3 Click Add New.
4 Click Upload a Manual and follow the steps on the Upload Manual page.
What to do next
Publish a Manual With VMware Learning Platform.
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Publish a Manual With VMware Learning PlatformYou must publish the course manual to make it available to a tenant administrator who can then associate the manual with a lab.
Procedure
1 Navigate to the Lab Manual Projects list by clicking the Manual Projects menu item.
2 On the Lab Manual Projects list, click a lab manual project link to open it.
3 Click the vertical ellipses and select Publish.
Results
The instructional manual can now be associated with a lab. When an end user starts a lab, the console presents the appropriate language version of the manual based on the user's profile.
What to do next
Add a Manual to a Lab.
Add a Manual to a LabAfter you have published a lab manual, you can associate it with a lab.
Prerequisites
You must have tenant administrator privileges.
Procedure
1 Return to the VMware Learning Platform admin user interface at https://www.learningplatform.vmware.com/admin.
2 Select Labs > Catalog from the navigation panel.
3 Select the lab you previously created from the list of labs.
4 On the Create Lab form, open the Update tab.
5 From the Manual drop-down menu, select the manual project.
6 Click Update to associate the manual you created to the lab.
Hide the On-Screen Instructions PanelIf there is no manual present or required for the lab, you can use a tenant setting to hide the instruction panel on the student interface.
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Hiding the instruction panel helps students to avoid confusion when the lab has no manual, and provides more space for the Student UI console. This setting applies for all labs in the tenant.
Note Because this tenant setting hides the entire instruction panel, which includes the Resources menu, lab resources such as diagrams or supplemental documents are not accessible from the student user interface.
Prerequisites
You must have tenant administrator privileges.
Procedure
1 Log in to the tenant administrator UI.
2 From the navigation panel, go to Tenant Management > Settings.
3 In the Interface section, enable the Hide Instructions panel when no manual setting.
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Start your Lab 8After you have finished the steps to deliver a lab, your lab is open for enrollment.
Use the following steps to enroll in a lab.
Procedure
1 Go to the console for the lab you created: https://www.vmwarelearningplatform.com/<tenantname>.
2 Log into the console.
The enrollment window for your lab is displayed.
3 Click Enroll to enroll into your lab.
Results
You have finished the getting started exercise for VMware Learning Platform.
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Next Steps 9This getting started exercise showed you how to create a lab and add it to a catalog. VMware Learning Platform also helps you with course delivery and event management.
For information about course delivery for instructor-led or on-demand training, see the VMware Learning Platform Tenant Instructor Guide.
For information about event management for tenant administrators, proctors, and help desk staff, see the VMware Learning Platform Event Management Guide.
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