Using the Template Gallery

The Template Gallery allows lab authors to easily search for and select pre-created labs to use as the base for a new lab. Lab authors can select templates from the public template gallery maintained by Skillable or create a private gallery available only to their own Users. Users can search by name or favorite individual templates and filter by only templates they have favorites for ease of finding frequently used templates. When accessing labs from the template gallery, authors are provided a few options:

• The Details option shows the instructions from the Template, for the new Lab Solution templates this provides extensive information of the content removing the need to use the Preview option and allows Lab Developers to select the correct template faster.

• The Preview option allows you to launch the lab so you can review the environment and confirm it is what you are looking for before creating a new lab based on it.

• The Create option allows you to generate a new lab directly from the gallery simply by defining some information – such as name, series and Organization – about where you would like to save the new lab.

• The Pencil Icon allows you to edit the profile if you have management rights.

• The Heart Icon allows you to Favorite a template for future use.

Public Template Gallery

The Public Template Gallery contains highly optimized Skillable templates known as Lab Solutions.  Lab Solutions fit into one of three basic categories:

As mentioned the Public Template Gallery is maintained by Skillable.  Each Lab Solutions tile provides a published date (as seen above), which allows the Lab Developer to understand when this Solution was last updated by Skillable.  Skillable reviews the public Lab Solutions for quality and relevance on a quarterly basis, this review covers:

• New releases of operating system or significant operating system update

• Lab Solution Errors and reported issues

• Software Refresh

• Significant security vulnerabilities

• Customer Requests

When Lab Solutions are updated if the Lab Solution has very limited usage, the new solution will replace the old solution.  If the Lab Solution is a high volume template when the new template is published the old template will be marked as depreciated, and it will not receive further updates.  After six months it will be removed.  No templates will be deleted and removed templates will not impact any existing customer labs built from them.  If a Lab Solution template is removed and it is required Skillable can reinstate the template into an Organizations Gallery from a support request.  

Need a Lab Solution Template

If you would like to see a specific generic Lab Solution added to the Template Gallery contact Skillable support to request a new lab solution ensuring the request contains the details of the content required.

Template Gallery filtering for Organizations

By default when you enter the Template Gallery the default view is that a Lab Developer can call all the Public and Organization templates that are available to them.  It is possible to configure the default view to either be the Public templates or the Organizations templates.  This setting can be set by the person in the company that has the Manage Organization role or by contacting Skillable support.

How to set the filter

1. From the Admin page use the Find Organization from the Organization tile

2. Search for your Organization

3. Edit the Organization

4. On the Basic page set the dropdown as required shown in the image:

Create from Template

To create a Lab Profile from the Template, select Create on the chosen template the Template Gallery wizard will walk you through the process.  Depending on the source template the wizard will present a workflow with at least four steps.  The wizard can have five steps if the source template includes both Virtual Machine and Cloud configurations.  Step 3 (and optionally 4) will vary depending on the Templates software environment (Virtual Machine, Cloud or Container).  The four steps are:

License Agreement

The license agreement page presents the license agreement either attached to the publishing organization or the Lab Profile itself.  Currently this feature is used only for templates Skillable curate but is available for other customers to attach license and usage documents to the Lab Profiles that are published to the organizations template galley.  Pressing Next records the acceptance of the agreement when the Lab Profile is created.  This includes storing a copy of the specific license agreement in the Skillable database that was assigned to the Template when the new Lab Profile is created.  The page also allows a customer to print the agreement and add notes to the agreement.

Define

The define page allows the initial setting of values for the Lab Profile.  These values call all be changed later.  The form presents the following values:

Configurations

This section will review each of the different configuration page types.  The page types are VM, Container and Cloud.

VM Configurations

The VM configurations page presents the list of VM’s that are include in the source template.  The Lab Developer then can perform the following two tasks:

• Removed VM’s that are not required

• Change the size of a VM to either increase or reduce the CPU/RAM/Network configuration

In the example below you can see you could remove any combination of the VM’s.  The Skillable Cybersecurity templates include both Kali and Parrot penetrating testing operating system.  However, in most use cases only one would be required so a customer can use the Skillable Cybersecurity templates and remove the system they do not wish to include.

Customer use case tip

Customers could use this feature to create ‘Super’ lab profiles containing all their curated VM images.  Then when a Lab Developer builds a new course by selecting the company template they can remove the unneeded VM’s to create the perfect configuration they require, built using the Organizations latest images in just a few seconds.

Container Configurations

The Container configuration is similar to the VM Configuration page.  The Containers page allows for the Lab Developer to remove any containers that are not required in the Lab Profile they are building to be removed.  An example might be a Container template that has Containers included with different database engines.  The Lab Developer could just select the Container with the database engine they require.

Cloud Configuration

Cloud Configuration allows the Lab Developer to configure two settings.  The first is the Cloud Subscription that will be used for this Lab Profile.  The second setting is to be able to select Cloud Resource Templates. These curated templates define what resources are created when the Lab Profile is launched.  If the lab requires the user to be presented with an empty cloud environment then Add Cloud Resources would not be required to be completed.  If the lab requires the user to have access to one or more prebuilt cloud resources for example a Storage Account you can select from a predefined list of Skillable or an Organizational curated templates, the listed displayed is filtered based on the Cloud platform the template is based on (Azure, AWS, GCP).  In the example the Template - Storage Account has been added in as a Cloud Resource Template, this Template requires a parameter to be completed.  For each parameter hovering over the question mark will show a tool tip with guidance on completing the parameter.  It is also possible for templates to have optional parameters as well.  Any values entered into the parameter fields can be adjusted in the Lab Profile once the wizard has been completed.  On completion of the Template Gallery the Cloud Resource Template will be duplicated so it can be edited later if required.

Review

The Review page presents a summary of the configuration specified as the wizard progressed with Edit links to allow you to quickly navigate back to the page if a change is required.  If no changes are required pressing Create will create a new Lab Profile.

Filters

The lab templates in the gallery may be filtered based on their availability and technology focus.

• Public will show templates available to everyone in using Skillable Studio.

• My Organizations will show templates available only to the organizations you manage.

• Favorites will show any templates you have previously favorited(starred).

Lab Tags

Organization Managers and Lab Authors can add additional filters for technology focus by tagging lab profiles with a tag.  Tags are created in the Skillable Studio admin portal by selecting Lab Tags under the Lab Profile pane.

The Tags are in a Name: Value format, separated by a colon.  The Value can either be a single value or can provide a multi value selection option as in the picture.  Tags can also be enabled to be available within the Public and/or Organization Template Gallery.

Publishing Labs

Labs may be published to the organization gallery as a template by selecting the Publish to Organization Template Gallery option on the advanced tab when editing a lab profile. Additionally, lab profiles may be tagged from the Tags tab of the same page.

Restricted Editing Permissions Around Lab Profiles Published To The Template Gallery.

Editing of Lab Profiles and dependencies will be restricted to users that are able to Publish to the gallery, when a lab profile is already published to the corresponding gallery ( Public or Organization). A banner has also been placed at the top of any lab profile published to a gallery.

Dependencies include:

• Virtual Machine Profile

• Container Profiles

• Cloud Templates

• Access Control Policy

• Instructions

• Differencing Disks

• Start States

Publishing Cloud Resource Templates

Within the Template Gallery wizard when using a Cloud template as the source the wizard presents a page to configure the Cloud environment through the use of Cloud Resource Templates (CRT).  If you wants to publish a CRT to your Organizational gallery this can be achieved very easily.  It is recommend once a template is published it is not modified.  Before publishing a CRT to the Organizational Gallery it is recommend you consider the following:

Having fully tested the template and updated the fields above to be as informative as required the CRT is ready for publishing to the Organizational gallery.  This is achieved by editing the CRT and on the Basic Information page select the Publish to Organization Template Gallery.  

Once selected the CRT will now be available through the Template Gallery for your organization and the CRT will now have a banner that highlights the template has been published.

Objects published to the Organization Gallery

When a customer publishes object to the Organizations Gallery they are only available to that customer and to Lab Developers that also have access to the Organization the Lab Profile or the CRT reside in.

Custom Environments

If you find none of the templates meets your requirements, or you have something special in mind, you may create the lab profile from the ground-up using the Create Custom Environment link in the top right corner.