Azure Lab Services vs Skillable
- 13 Sep 2024
- 8 Minutes to read
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Azure Lab Services vs Skillable
- Updated on 13 Sep 2024
- 8 Minutes to read
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With Microsoft Azure Lab Services, lab plans (and lab accounts before that) are the mechanism for lab delivery. As you begin or continue your migration journey to Skillable, you will notice some fundamental differences. In this article, you will have an overview of the changes that come with Skillable. Skillable brings a wider variety of scenarios possible, a variety of new options, and a more unified learner experience.
By using Skillable, a myriad of new capabilities are available to you:
Full Cloud Slice - Go beyond VMs and deploy any Azure resources for temporary usage and quick clean up. The options are near limitless and include services like Containers & Kubernetes, Networking & Storage, Data & AI, etc.
Full Training Management System (TMS) - Skillableās Training Management System provides a one stop location to deliver not only labs, but full courses including supplemental materials such as documents, videos, and SCORM modules.
Complete LTI 1.3, REST API, & SCORM Package Support - If you prefer building labs into your own learning eco-system over sending learners to new destination, Skillable has a number of options for implementing a seamless experience within the most common LMSā or a platform of your own creation.
Secure Network Access - Remain secure with the only inbound port access necessary being standard web ports rather than less secure RDP & SSH. No downloads and no manual remote connections!
Integrated Instructions - Provide in-line guidance to your learners! No more tab/window switching, having a downloaded PDF, or otherwise requiring your learners to navigate away from the lab to know what they should be doing.
Assessment & Skills Validation - Equip your learners to feel confident in their skills with Activity-based Assessment (ABA), or implement Performance-Based Testing to level up your course content and prove your learners have build the desired skills.
Terminology Comparison
Type | Azure Lab Services Term | Skillable Term | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
Term | Lab Plan | Lab Template | While there is no direct correlation to an Azure Lab Plan in Skillableās system, a Lab Template is the closest comparison. Lab Templates all you to define default settings (such as Quota/Duration and Timeouts) that are applied to new lab profiles where they can be optionally overridden. |
Term | Template VM | VM Profile | VM Profiles in Skillable Studio define the VM Image (Marketplace or Compute Gallery), username/password, and size of a VM. These can be used in multiple lab profiles or easily copied and modified. |
Term | Lab | Lab Profile | Lab profiles in Skillable Studio define the larger lab beyond a single VM. This is where specific VMs, additional Azure deployments, automation scripts, timers, and cost controls are configured. |
Term | Lab VM | Lab Instance | Every launch of a Skillable lab is called a lab instance. When a lab instance is deployed VMs and other resources are created specifically for that user and torn down when the user is complete. |
Setting | Quota | Duration | Skillableās duration functions similar to quota in that is the maximum amount of time a learner may be in the lab. This setting is used in determining cost & billing. |
Setting | Shutdown virtual machines when users disconnect | Save/Cancel Labs When Last Lab Client Heartbeat Exceeds | These function the same. When a user closes the browser window (or formerly RDP/SSH session), how long before we deallocate that virtual machine for cost savings. (Skillable default: 15mins) |
Setting | Shutdown idle virtual machines | Save/Cancel Labs When Last Activity Exceeds | These function the same. When a user does not interact with the lab for a certain period of time, the virtual machine is deallocated for cost savings. (Skillable default: 60mins) |
Setting | Shutdown virtual machines when users do not connect | Activity Required to Enable Auto-Save | These function the same. When a user launches a lab but does not engage with it at all for a certain period of time, the virtual machine is removed for cost savings. (Skillable default: 5mins) |
Difference between Azure Lab Services and Skillable
As Skillable is integrated with Microsoft Azure but not a native Azure service, there are a number of differences you can expect to see in the experience beyond just terminology. The following table compares how aspects translate into the new experience with Skillable vs the previous Lab Accounts and Lab Plan experiences.
Feature/Area | Lab Account | Lab Plan | Skillable |
|---|---|---|---|
Resource Management | Lab account is the only resource tracked in the Azure portal. All other resources are child resources of the lab account and tracked in Lab Services directly. | Lab plans and labs are sibling resources in Azure. Administrators can use existing tools in the Azure portal to manage labs. Virtual machines will continue to be a child resource of labs. | Labs are deployed into dedicated resource groups for each user. All resources required for that lab to operate are contained within that singular Resource Group. |
Cost Tracking | In Microsoft Cost Management, admins can only track and analyze cost at the service level and at the lab account level. | Cost entries in Microsoft Cost Management are for lab virtual machines. Automatic tags on each entry specify the lab plan ID and the lab name. You can analyze cost by lab plan, lab, or virtual machine from within the Azure portal. Custom tags on the lab will also show in the cost data. | Cost entries in Microsoft Cost Management are applied the same as any other resource. Automatic tags on each resource group specify the Lab Profile and instance IDs. You can analyze cost by any supported mechanism in the Azure portal. |
Selecting Regions | By default, labs are created in the same geography as the lab account. A geography typically aligns with a country/region and contains one or more Azure regions. Lab owners arenāt able to manage exactly which Azure region the labs resided in. | In the lab plan, administrators can manage the exact Azure regions allowed for lab creation. By default, labs will be created in the same Azure region as the lab plan. | For full Cloud Slice, Skillable permits deploying into any Azure region. For virtual machine specific labs, Skillable currently supports any of: Central US, East US, South Central US, West US, West Europe, or Southeast Asia |
Deletion Experience | When a lab account is deleted, all labs within it are also deleted. | When deleting a lab plan, labs aren't deleted. After a lab plan is deleted, labs will keep references to their virtual network even if advanced networking is enabled. However, if a lab plan was connected to an Azure Compute Gallery, the labs can no longer export an image to that Azure Compute Gallery. | When deleting a lab profile or VM profile, it is required that all running lab instances are already completed or cancelled - all historical Lab instance information and VM profiles are retained. When virtual machine profiles are deleted, any associated images in the Azure Compute Gallery are retained. |
Connecting to a Virtual Network | The lab account provided an option to peer to a virtual network. If you already had labs in the lab account before you peered to a virtual network, the virtual network connection didn't apply to existing labs. Admins couldn't tell which labs in the lab account were peered to the virtual network. | In a lab plan, admins set up the advanced networking only at the time of lab plan creation. Once a lab plan is created, you'll see a read-only connection to the virtual network. If you need to use another virtual network, create a new lab plan configured with the new virtual network. | When deploying a Skillable lab with an Azure Virtual Machine, a new network will be created specifically for that lab/user within the provided resource group. |
Labs Portal Experience | Labs are listed under lab accounts in https://labs.azure.com. | Labs are listed under resource group name in https://labs.azure.com. If there are multiple lab plans in the same resource group, educators can choose which lab plan to use when creating the lab. | Skillable provides two portals. Skillable Studio for lab builders & admins and Skillable TMS for instructors & students. |
Permissions Needed to Manage Labs | To create a lab:
To modify an existing lab:
| To create a lab:
To modify an existing lab:
| To configure Skillable & Azure Integration:
To modify an existing lab:
|
Next steps
If you havenāt begun migrating yet, follow these steps to migrate your Azure Labs to Skillable.
If youāve already begun migrating, get started by creating a new lab or delivering labs.
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