Virtual Computing Laboratories Using VMware Lab Manager

Virtual computing laboratories provide remote user access to standardized computing resources and enable many types of complex experiential and project-based learning applicable in the simulation of information warfare exercises, incident response training and digital forensics analysis. As more universities and government agencies consider implementing VLABs, they are faced with choosing an appropriate architecture and infrastructure components. This paper reports on a current VLAB implementation using VMware virtualization products. We describe the system architecture and report on benefits and challenges of the architecture and supporting infrastructure including issues of accessibility, administrative complexity, security, performance, configuration, and integration with other University IT resources and services. Our report is intended to guide faculty and administrators considering a similar implementation with lessons learned from our experience.