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Creating a Virtual Machine Assignment

Add and configure a Virtual Machine (VM) assignment using an existing VM Image.

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Written by Ophelia Yue
Updated yesterday

For Teachers and Admins

A Virtual Machine assignment gives learners access to a cloud-hosted virtual machine — or a network of machines — directly from the Vocareum workspace. When a learner starts the lab, Vocareum launches an instance from the VM Image configured in the assignment and connects them to it through the browser.

This article covers creating and configuring a Virtual Machine assignment from start to finish. For general assignment options not covered here, refer to Assignment Settings and Part Settings.

Prerequisites:

  • Access to a course with VM Labs enabled. If your course does not have VM Labs enabled, contact your Organization Admin. Refer to What are Vocareum Virtual Machine Labs? for more details and Admin setup information.

  • At least one VM Lab configuration must exist in your organization. If no VM Labs appear in the assignment creation form, contact your Organization Admin.

Create a Virtual Machine Assignment

  1. In the left sidebar, click Courses.

  2. Locate your course and click Assignments below the course name.

    The Vocareum Courses list with the Courses icon indicated in the left sidebar and the Assignments link highlighted below the course name.

  3. In the top right of the Edit Assignments page, click New Assignment.

  4. In the assignment name field, enter a name for the assignment.

  5. In the lab type dropdown, select Virtual Machine.

  6. In the third dropdown, select the VM Lab to use for this assignment. The dropdown lists all VM Labs configured in your organization.

  7. Optionally, use the Group dropdown to assign this assignment to a group.

  8. Optionally, check Allow Submissions if you want learners to be able to submit work for grading. Note that scripts must be enabled for the VM Lab and configured in the VM Image in order for submissions to be meaningfully recorded and graded. Contact Vocareum Support for more information.

  9. Click Save and continue.

    The Edit Assignments page with the New Assignment button indicated in page navigation menu and numbered callouts on each form element for steps 4 through 9.

The assignment is created, and the assignment settings page opens. Each Assignment in Vocareum can have one or more Parts. Each Part is a separate lab environment.

On assignment creation, a single Part is automatically generated and named Part 1. The lab type selected in the new assignment form is applied to Part 1.

The Options section on the Edit Assignments page contains additional assignment-level settings, such as Team Project and Access Date. Refer to Assignment Settings for details on those options.

The assignment settings page showing an assignment with Part 1 listed in the Parts table. The lab type for Part 1 is VM Lab. Sections labeled Options and Advanced appear following the Parts table.

Configure the Part Settings

Part settings control the VM Image used, time budgets, session behavior, and the workspace interface learners see.

In the Parts table, click Part 1 to open the part settings.

The Edit Assignments pafe with an assignment selected. The Part 1 link is indicated in the Parts table.

The part settings panel opens with four tabs in the left sidebar: Lab Definition, Budget, Interface, and Tags.

Lab Definition

Navigating the Lab Definition section of the Part Settings:

  1. In the Part Name field, you can enter a name for this part, or leave it as the default.

  2. Ensure Lab Type is set to Virtual Machine.

  3. In the VM Image dropdown, you can change the VM Lab that learners will use. This will be pre-populated with the currently-selected VM Lab.

The part settings panel with the Lab Definition tab open, showing the Part Name, Lab Type, and VM Image fields.

Budget

Navigating the Budget section of the Part Settings:

  1. Click Budget in the left sidebar.

  2. Under Time Budget, toggle on Monthly Time, Total Time, or both if you want to limit how long each learner can run their VMs in this part. Enter the time limit in minutes. Note that VM Labs incur expenses based on how long each VM runs, so Time Budgets help control the lab's overall cost.

  3. Under Extensions, configure session extension settings if you want learners to be able to extend their active lab session:

    • Max Extension: the total additional minutes a learner can extend their session beyond the session length limit.

    • Time Per Extension: the minutes added to the session each time the learner clicks the Extend Session button.

    If you do not want to allow session extensions, leave both fields blank.

  4. Under Terminate Resources, configure session end behavior:

    • Session Length: toggle on and enter the number of minutes a lab session stays active before automatically ending. If left off, sessions do not time out automatically.

    • End Lab Behavior: select what happens when a session ends — terminate resources deletes the instance (when the learner next accesses the lab, they recieve new VMs without their past changes), while stop resources pauses the instance and preserves the data for the learner's next session. Note that terminate resources is the most cost-effective options, because storing data between sessions incurs some storage expense.

Warmup Time and Launch Timeout are advanced options. Leave them blank for most VM assignments.

The Budget tab showing the Time Budget toggles, Extensions fields, and Terminate Resources section with Session Length and End Lab Behavior.

Interface

Navigating the Interface section of the Part Settings:

  1. Click Interface in the left sidebar.

    The Interface tab controls which panels, controls, and information elements are visible to learners in the lab workspace. For most VM assignments, the following settings are recommended:

Group

Recommended settings

Panels

Console on; Nav Bar on

Controls

Start Button on; Stop Button on; Reset on; Extend Session on if you configured extensions in the Budget tab

Information

Timer on; Budget on if you set a time budget; Details Button on — displays the current state and IP address of each VM in the lab

Launch Behavior

New Tab — opens each VM in a new browser tab when launched; Open All Tabs — opens all VMs in the lab simultaneously when the session starts, each in a separate tab

VM Mode

Isolation (Linux DCV only) — when enabled, prevents learners from uploading files from their local machine to the VM. This setting is intended for high-security environments where transferring files to a cloud VM is not permitted. Leave off for standard lab use.

Refer to the Part Settings article for a full description of each option.

Tags (Optional)

Navigating the Tags section of the Part Settings:

  1. Click Tags in the left sidebar to add part-level metadata tags. Tags are optional and are not needed for assignments unless your institution's internal processes require them.

The Tags tab in Part Settings showing the Add Tag button.

Save Part

It is essential to click the Save Part button in Part Settings to save any changes you make before navigating away from the part settings pane.

The part settings panel with the Save Part button indicated.

Publish the Assignment

When you are ready for learners to access the assignment, return to the assignment settings page and click Publish Assignment in the top right.

Publishing makes the assignment visible to learners. You can continue editing part settings after publishing — changes take effect immediately.

For information on what learners experience when they access a Virtual Machine assignment, refer to Vocareum Virtual Machine Labs.

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