ITC Netlab Access Instructions

The Netlab system at IHCC allows remote access to virtual machines and pods of real networking equipment and is used in a variety of courses at IHCC. The specific types of equipment and VMs you have access to will depend on your particular class. Contact your instructor if you have questions about the type(s) of pods used for your class. General information about the characteristics of different types of pods you may encounter is below.

Prerequisites

• You must have an active ITC (campus.ihitc.net) domain account for which you know the password (contact your instructor for more information) to access the Netlab system
• You must be connected to ITCnet, using a computer in an ITC lab which is connected to an ITCnet switch port or by have a working VPN connection to campus.ihitc.net

Accessing the Netlab System the First Time

• After you are connected to ITCnet (by VPN or wired connection) you simply need to open a web browser and access https://ihcc-netlab.campus.ihitc.net
• The first time you visit this site in a browser you may need to accept a self-signed security certificate
• You will need to log in with a username and password established by your instructor.
• The first time you log in you will need to change your password and set your timezone. Make sure your timezone is set correctly so you can schedule reservations to work with equipment at convenient times.

Making Pod Reservations

• Log in to the Netlab system at https://ihcc-netlab.campus.ihitc.net
• Click the blue "New Lab Reservation" button in the lower left corner of the screen and select "Schedule a Lab for Myself"
• If you are enrolled in more than one class that is using Netlab you will be presented with a list of classes you are enrolled in, click the class title which you would like to make a reservation for.
• Some classes may have multiple categories of labs, also called course topics, available. If your course has multiple course topics in Netlab you will be presented with a list of them, click the topic which you would like to make a reservation for. This is often used to make some labs available later in a course than other labs or to make a skills assessment available only at the end of a course.
• You will be presented with a list of labs, some classes may only have one lab to select from (which may be used for multiple activities in the class) and others will have several different labs to select from. The topology, or the way the equipment is connected together, may vary from one lab to another so be sure to select the correct lab or to follow the instructions you have received from your instructor. Click on the lab name which you would like to make a reservation for.
• Use the calendar to choose a date, time, and specific pod to reserve for your lab activity. The number of pods visible may be different depending on the equipment required for your specific course. The scheduler shows the available schedule on the date selected for up to four pods at a time. If your lab has more than four pods you can select from there will be an arrow button on the right side of the schedule which you can click to scroll through the list of pods. Click on a time slot on the schedule when you want to start your reservation.
• You will be presented with a summary screen for your reservation where you can set the end time of your reservation (up to a maximum) and you may be able to click a settings button to select whether preset configurations or previously saved configurations are loaded on network devices (if applicable).
• It is strongly suggested you click the "Settings" button to the right of the "Lab Device Configurations" section and choose "no configurations loaded (clean)" unless you know you want one of the other options. If you do not do this the last configuration you used in Netlab (even if it was for a different lab activity) will be loaded on the pod devices which may put in some configuration commands you do not want.
• Click submit once you are ready to make the reservation.
• If there are no issues you will see a confirmation screen that your reservation has been made.

Accessing a Pod During a Reservation

• Log in to the Netlab system at https://ihcc-netlab.campus.ihitc.net
• If you have a currently active reservation you will see a green "Enter Lab" button on your list of reservations. Click the green "Enter Lab" button.
• If it is at the beginning of your reservation please be aware that it will take a little bit of time for your equipment to be powered on and configured, this is especially true with networking device pods.
• Once you are in your pod you can use the tabs across the top of your screen to see a topology diagram, lab content (if available), device status, and to access the console of routers, switches, and virtual machines in your pod. These tabs also contain down arrow buttons which you can click on to get a menu of additional things you can do with particular devices such as copy/paste, power off/on, send break key, take screenshot, etc. depending on the specific device type.
• If you finish your lab work early you can click the "Reservation" menu at the top of the screen and choose to "End Reservation Now" so that someone else can use the equipment in your pod or your reservation slot.

Special Notes on Networking Course Pods

In most networking courses you will be sharing equipment access with other students. Your configurations will be removed from devices at the end of your reservations and Virtual Machines may be reset next time you log in. In some cases Netlab may be able to save copies of your device configurations and automatically re-load them next time you enter a reservation for the same lab activity. This requires you using standard passwords on your devices such as "cisco" and "class" and may not always work correctly in all cases.

• We have a limited number of routers and switches so access to networking equipment pods is on a first-come, first-served basis. You need to make reservations for equipment early enough to ensure you will have access when you want to work with the equipment.
• The password for the "Cisco Admin" account on the PCs is "Cisco123"

Special Notes on Linux System Administration Course Pods

In the Linux System Administration course you are assigned an individual pod. You are the only student who will be able to access the virtual machines in your pod and things you do to the virtual machines will be preserved from one session to another.

• If you need to have a virtual machine "reset" so that you can re-install the operating system on it you need to contact the ITC lab assistant or your instructor.
• You will need to use Netlab and the console access to the virtual machines it provides to install your Linux Server VM and to interact with your Desktop GUI VM. However, after you have installed your Linux Server it will stay running unless you power it off and you will be able to interact with it directly over SSH instead of through Netlab. This means you do not need to go into Netlab or make reservations for lab activities which do not require "physcial" console access to your server, you can just connect to ITCnet and then SSH to your server.