Lab environments

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Hi guys,

I am currently working on a project with some fellow system admins to provide ICT students and professionals with training and testing labs online. Our intention is to provide virtualised servers where students/professionals can install their operating system of choice and any required applications. Our environments will be available via the browser, based on VMWare technology and will scale as required.

For example you could create a Windows 2008 Server domain controller on one server, Exchange on another and Window 7 test client on a third to create an environment for studying exchange/Outlook management. Alternatively you may wish to deploy Redhat and Evolution.

This is a service we have needed for a long time with our own study and figure we can provide it to ourselves and others. We think having access to servers that can be deployed in a manner similar to production situations will help you gain your certification and practical experience using operating systems and applications.

We are in early days and would like your input on what you need as ICT students for training. Would you need 2, 3 or 4 servers? Would you need frequent access to the servers? Are there any particular scenarios or requirements you would need in a lab? Snapshot? Templates?

Any feedback would be great. If you have the time to fill in this short survey (10 Q’s) that would be appreciated.

Thanks,


David

 

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Hi guys,

Just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to answer my survey and give feedback. Was great to get a good response.

Thanks,

David

 

Not too piss on your bonfire but, most people just install VMware Workstation and do labs that way, I'm certainly not going to rent an entire server to test out a domain controller when I can do it on my own PC. I just fail to see any value in what you are offering.

 

what he said ^

I am not sure I see the point of paying for something that I can do legitemately for free.

 

I have no room for a server in my flat and no spare cash at present with which to upgrade my desktop to turn it into a useful labs machine. So an online service which allows me to run labs sounds really useful, unfortunately it only sounds useful to me if its free otherwise I may as well save my cash until I can get the desktop up to spec.

Particularly considering the ****e quality of my broadband connection....

 

That was exactly what i was getting at. if it costs a tenner a month, per server and you can only put an OS on, and given the license issues, a tenner a month sounds really cheap, how many do you need for a lab? 4? 5? I had 23 VMs going at one point. I can't help but feel it's one of those solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. You can run 4 or 5 naff VMs on a pretty mediocre PC. Paying to rent server space to do it, naaah.

 

exactly, I'll run my crippled Virtual setup for now and 'uncripple' it with a hardware upgrade once I've got the spare cash available (or when I get pissed off at how long its taking to save and bung it on the credit card so I can get a bloody move on).


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