VLAB User Guide – KENET Virtual Training Lab User Guide

KENET VIRTUAL COMPUTING LAB

User Registration and Virtual Machines Management Guide

Accessing the Lab

Go to URL: https://vlab.ac.ke

 If you are a new user click on sign up.  If you have an existing account proceed to login.  Enter the registration details. NB: It is recommended that you use your organisation email e.g. user@kenet.or.ke  The login does not currently enforce a password policy so ensure you create a strong password.

 After successful registration you will receive a verification email in your inbox.  Click on the verification URL to verify the registration request.  An admin will receive your request and proceed to activate your account.  After successful activation you will receive an alert on the same.  Proceed to Login:  Go to url: https://vlab.ac.ke  Enter your login details and click on submit to Login:

 You should now access the dashboard.

After successful login, the links to access the services are visible at the top cloud bar.

Joining a project  By default, access to other services is disabled by the implementation of zero quotas hence all users should join a project to gain access to all services and computing resources.  On the dashboard click on Projects:

 Click on Join a project to Join a project:

 Click on the appropriate project to join.  In this case isoc-course.kenet.or.ke project for the ISOC online course.

 Click on join to join the project:

 Kindly note that approval to join a project is not automatic; the project owner or administrator will receive the request and proceed with approval.  Once approved proceed to create a virtual machine.  Quotas are enforced on the project level hence a user can only use specific number of computing resources as defined on the project, once they are exhausted the user cannot create any more virtual machines and will be forced to delete the existing virtual machine to reclaim resources.

Virtual Machines Provisioning Engine (Cyclades)

 Click on the Cyclades tab on the top cloud bar to access the Cyclades interface:

 Click on New Machine to create a new VM:  Under Images select Public:

 You should see a list of all available images with their description and a time tag e.g. 2 hours, 2 weeks, 1 month and 1.5 months.  The description fits the time a particular VM is supposed to run from creation time, the lab is automated to auto delete the VM after the appended time has elapsed.  As the ISOC course runs for a maximum of one month, however select the FreeBSD ISO with a time span of a month and a half (1.5).  Select the image of your choice (in this case FreeBSD 11.0) and click confirm then next to continue:

 On the create machine window click on the drop down and ensure you select isoc-course.kenet.or.ke project:

 Once you select the isoc-course.kenet.or.ke project, the computing resources are selected (maximum for this particular project). Leave the resources as selected and click next.

 Click next to proceed with setting up networking.

 Click on create new to request for a new IP.

 If an IP address is already reserved and selected, click next to continue

 Click next to name your VM.  Under machine name you can delete the default generated name for the VM and input any custom name of your choice.

 Click next to review the summary of the VM the click on create machine to initialize the VM creation.

 You will immediately get a display window displaying the machine password. “Write down your password now: ********” and will prompt you for a confirmation that you have written down your password. NB: Do not forget to copy the password You can change this password to a password of your choice upon initial login.

 The Virtual machine will now move to building state and once all background customization tasks are done the VM will change to running state and ready for use.  VM running

 To connect to your VM, click on the desktop icon and a window with connection details will be displayed.  Once a VM is created a FQDN (fully qualified domain name) is automatically created referencing to the IP address you selected during the VM creation steps.  Use the details to SSH to your machine either by using putty or any SSH client.  The platform also provides console access to the VM.  By hovering your mouse on the VM you will notice a menu of actions on the right hand side.

 Click on console then confirm to gain physical access to the VM.

 You can the proceed to login and issue any commands to your VM.

Manually destroying a VM  Highlight on the VM and click on the destroy menu item on the right side.  Click on confirm to permanently destroy the VM.