Virtual Labs are hosted in the Champlain College Cloud. It provides students with the ability to access multiple Virtual Machines with the VMware Remote Console.
VMware Remote Console (VMRC)
The first step to access the VM’s is to install the VMware Remote Console for your system. VMware offers the VMRC for Windows, Mac and Linux. Use the links below to download the console appropriate for your operating system.
Windows
Mac
Linux
vCenter Login Instructions
Once you have the VMRC for your OS installed, use a web browser to navigate to https://vcenter.champlain.edu/ui where you will be presented with a login page. Enter your Champlain username and password and click “LOGIN”.
Click “VMs and Templates” from the left hand pane. This will take you to a page that presents you with only the folders you have access to.
Drill down from LearnCloud>Courses>YOUR_COURSE>YOUR_USERNAME to see your virtual machines for that class. If you are taking more than one course that uses VM’s you will see multiple course codes under the Courses folder. The VM’s assigned to you depend on the course you are taking. If your course requires your VM’s to have Internet access, you will have a Firewall VM that must be powered on first to facilitate that access.
You can right click on a VM and navigate to Power>Power On to start the VM.
Once the VM is powered on you can connect to it. From the Summary tab, click “Launch Remote Console” and then click “Open VMware Remote Console” when prompted.
You should now have a remote console session with your VM.
When you are finished working with your VM’s please power them off or suspend them to conserve the cloud resources.
Troubleshooting
No Folders under Learncloud
If you don’t see any course folders under LearnCloud it’s likely that no VM’s have been provisioned for you. Please send an email to champsupport@champlain.edu and include the full course code of the course that you need VM’s for.
Unable to launch a remote connection
If you are unable to launch a remote connection, make sure you are on a network that is not blocking outbound connections on TCP port 902. You can check this at https://speedtest.champlain.edu. If you see port 902 blocked rather than accessible, you will need to work with the person or people that manage your network to see if they will allow that connection outbound.
Missing or repeated key strokes or the VM freezing
Due to the nature of the remote connection across the Internet it’s possible that packet loss can cause missing or repeated key strokes when using the console session. This is mostly seen when using the HTML5 console session in the browser (particularly with Firefox) rather than the VMRC. Using the VMRC to connect to the VM’s is our recommended way of access and should be used to avoid latency and packet loss causing issues.