VMware Training for the Future

Transcription

1 July 2001 White Paper VMware Training for the Future How VMware Workstation Delivers Tangible Value to the Training Business

2 Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 VMware's Solution Meets the Challenges of Training Professionals 2.1 Training Business Owners 2.2 Training Lab Managers and Technicians 2.3 Trainers and Instructors 3.0 How VMware Workstation Does it 4.0 VMware Workstation in Action: Brief Case Studies of Success 4.1 Novell Quick Classroom + VMware Workstation = The Classroom of Tomorrow 4.2 Purdue University: Transcending the Limits of Hardware for World-Class Training 4.3 Core Tech Consulting Group: The Power and Flexibility of Self-Contained Configurations in a Training Environment 5.0 How to Get the Most out of VMware Workstation 5.1 System Requirements 5.2 Sources for more Technical Information 5.3 How to Purchase VMware Workstation i

3 1.0 Introduction You are a computer training professional. Maybe you own a corporate training business or run a training center. Or perhaps you re a certified trainer, or a computer lab administrator or technician. Or maybe you re a computer science instructor at a university or community college. While there are many different roles in the training business, the same activities drain your time, energy, and resources: Installing and reinstalling software Switching hard drives Rebooting Reconfiguring hardware. With computers per classroom, setting up you classroom is costing you plenty, both in terms of time and money. You try to save money by doing it yourself on the weekends, but then you have less time to prepare your curricula. Your computers suffer wear and tear from the constant installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling. Isn t there a better way? The answer is yes. VMware has the solution. Our solution lets training professionals spend less time installing operating systems, rebooting, and reconfiguring hardware and more time delivering tangible value to their training business. This solution is a software product called VMware Workstation. This tangible value can be measured in terms of real time and hard dollars. According to Aaron Osmond, Director of Novell Education Development, VMware Workstation saves $36,000 per year in classroom set-up costs and time roughly equivalent to 110 days per year for training professionals to generate additional revenue. This white paper details how VMware Workstation can help deliver tangible value to the training business. Major sections of this white paper include: Section 2.0, VMware s Solution Meets the Challenges of Training Professionals, describes the specific value that VMware s solution delivers value to three groups of training professionals: 1. Owners of corporate training centers or training businesses 2. Training lab managers and technicians 3. Training instructors. Section 3.0, How VMware Workstation Does It, examines specific technical features of the software and explains the benefits of these features for training professionals. Section 4.0, VMware Workstation in Action: Brief Case Studies of Success, provides examples of VMware Workstation s effectiveness in real training environments. Short case studies from Novell, Inc., Purdue University, and CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc., demonstrate how trainers today are using VMware Workstation to decrease costs, increase productivity, and deliver higher quality instruction to their students. Section 5.0, How To Get the Most Out of VMware Workstation, spells out the system requirements and specifications for VMware Workstation, cites sources of more technical information, and explains how to purchase VMware Workstation. 1

4 2.0 VMware s Solution Meets the Challenges of Training Professionals Whether you re training business owner, a lab tech, a certified corporate trainer for Microsoft or Novell, or a computer science instructor at a major university or community college, VMware s solution makes your job easier, more efficient, and more profitable. This section describes the specific value that VMware s solution delivers to three groups of training professionals: Training businesses owners Training lab managers and technicians Trainers and instructors. Training Businesses Owners Technical classrooms are expensive to set up, manage, and staff. The complexity of hardware and software configurations for the average IT classroom translates to real time and money for the training business owner. For the average 5-day class, it takes anywhere from 6.5 to 8 hours to set up the classroom. The average cost of setting up these classrooms is $50 an hour for a typical classroom technician s time and $700 per day for an instructor s time. With VMware s solution, more classrooms with more hardware are available for more training classes, which means improved revenue generation potential for the training business owner. Owners can increase their profitability by being able to schedule more classes, more often, without set-up delays, and by making more effective use of hardware and facilities. Aaron Osmond, Director of Novell Education Development, estimates that VMware s solution frees up more than 100 days per year for generating new training business. 2

5 Training Lab Managers and Technicians Courseware management and classroom set-up and configuration are cumbersome, time-consuming tasks. For training lab managers and technicians, typical hassles include: Performing multiple software installs daily Switching hard drives Transporting and setting up entire libraries of operating systems Troubleshooting and solving hardware problems or failures caused by constantly installing and reinstalling software. VMware s solution, based on a ghosting or partitioning hard drives, eliminates these hassles completely. Our solution gives training lab managers and technicians the convenience of resetting labs with the push of a button. Even the most complex technical classrooms can be set and ready for instruction in less than an hour. VMware s solution enhances training lab managers and technicians productivity by an order of magnitude classroom set-up and configuring tasks that used to take days now take hours. Trainers and Instructors For trainers and instructors, the challenge is to develop and provide a vibrant classroom environment in which all students can learn and excel. Ironically, technology that is supposed to enhance the learning process can also hinder it. The financial reality is that students have to share computers, limiting their face time with their coursework. Students learn at different rates, so trainers and instructors must configure and reconfigure machines to accommodate both the fastest and slowest learners, as well as those students who join courses late. More time is spent on system administration than on instruction, diminishing the trainer/instructor s classroom effectiveness and chances for promotion, bonuses, or career advancement. VMware s solution is a trainer/instructor s true power application. With our solution, trainers and instructors can improve their quality of instruction by creating a learning environment that is: Risk-free. Trainers and instructors can challenge their students to crash their systems risk free. Students have the freedom to experiment in multiple operating systems, tinker, and make mistakes and learn from them in a safe environment. VMware s solution provides a better means of imaging; damaged student virtual machines can be restored to their initial state by simply resetting the virtual machine and discarding changes made to the virtual disk during class. Comprehensive. Trainers and instructors can easily switch back and forth between different operating systems, so students can learn more about more operating systems and applications. Consistent and Current. Students don t have to share computers for complex classes because each student has a virtual machine that replicates the complex classroom configuration. Trainers and instructors can also easily update classroom computers to the latest software releases and curriculum revisions. Individualized. VMware s solution helps trainers and instructors deliver personalized instruction. Because each computer can be configured quickly and easily, even the slowest student in the classroom does not hold up training. 3

6 3.0 How VMware Workstation Does It At the most basic level, VMware Workstation lets training professionals divide hardware and software up and move it around, easily and safely. Using virtual machine technology, VMware Workstation simplifies classroom set-up and management, frees up resources for more classes, while improving the student learning experience. It increases training professionals productivity and profitability. How does VMware Workstation do this? VMware Workstation allows standard Intel operating systems and their applications to run in secure and transportable virtual machines on physical computers with high performance. Completely independent installations of operating systems run on a single machine. Multiple instances of Windows or Novell Netware can run side by side in virtual machines created with VMware Workstation. Each virtual machine is equivalent to a PC with a unique network address and a full complement of hardware devices. VMware Workstation s virtual disks are a better form of imaging; there is no need to partition disks. As a result, VMware Workstation simplifies classroom set-up and management. Since VMware Workstation allows multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on one PC, the need for time-consuming dual booting or reinstalling software is eliminated. New operating systems can be added without repartitioning disks, which also saves times. With VMware Workstation, a set of classroom computers can be switched to different courseware instantly. Labs can be reset with the push of a button, and even the most technical classrooms can be set up in less than an hour. VMware Workstation stretches limited hardware and software budgets further. Since operating systems and applications run inside virtual machines, a whole set of computers can be created on one computer. Valuable resources are freed up; existing classroom hardware can be leveraged for cross-platform training. Administrative costs for classroom computer maintenance and restoration are minimized. Key features of VMware Workstation include: Run multiple operating systems simultaneously on one PC no more dual booting or reinstalling software Employ a variety of guest operating systems VMware Workstation supports MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,and Windows XP, FreeBSD, and a long list of Linux systems Installs easily just like a standard Windows application Add new operating systems without repartitioning disks Display in a window or in full-screen mode Full networking and file-sharing support Network together multiple virtual machines in Networks in a Box virtual networks No waiting for systems to boot instantly restore suspended VMware sessions Undoable disk allows rollback of any changes Nonpersistent disks provide automatic rollback. 4

7 4.0 VMware Workstation in Action: Brief Case Studies of Success This section provides examples of VMware Workstation s effectiveness in real training environments. Short case studies demonstrate how VMware Workstation is being used to decrease costs, increase profitability, and deliver higher quality instruction to students. In Section 4.1, a case study from Novell, Inc. demonstrates how corporate training centers are using VMware Workstation to improve productivity and business profitability. In Section 4.2, a case study from Purdue University shows how instructors are using VMware Workstation to enhance the student learning environment. In Section 4.3, a case study from CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. demonstrates how lab managers are using VMware Workstation to solve configuration problems and simplify classroom set-up and management. 5

8 4.1 Novell Quick Classroom + VMware Workstation = The Classroom of Tomorrow Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software, incorporated VMware Workstation into its product, Novell Quick Classroom, to dramatically reduce classroom set-up time and simplify courseware management for Novell classes freeing technical staff, equipment, and classrooms for billable training activities. IT classes, with their complex hardware and software configurations, are time-consuming and expensive to set up. According to Director of Novell Education Development Aaron Osmond and the Novell Education Advisory Council, the most complex Novell course requires a student to use four operating systems. Osmond estimates that it takes from 6.5 to 8 hours to set up a 5-day IT classroom. Since the typical classroom technician charges $50 per hour, and the typical instructor charges $700 per day, the cost of classroom set-up can range, on average, from $325 to $700. Novell used VMware Workstation was able to reduce the complexity and costs of classroom set-up. Novell used VMware s virtual machine technology as a basis for its Education Learning Platform. Wrapped by a custom Novell software install/ set-up tool, the end result was Novell Quick Classroom, a virtual machine learning platform. Key components of Quick Classroom include: Quick Classroom Course Manager, a full installation utility that manages the virtual machine environment and removes complexity from the set-up Quick Classroom Exercise Launcher, which manages the launch of individual exercises and aid in the quick recovery of student errors or problems. To set up Course 991 Directory Technologies, a more complex Novell solutions course, it typically takes three hours to set up core operating system machines and five hours to set up remaining machines. Setting up the same course using Quick Classroom, which uses VMware s virtual machine technology, takes 30 minutes for the one-time set-up of core machines. As each machine is independent, there is no cabling required for the remaining machines. Quick Classroom offers immediate and hard dollar savings for their businesses, as well as improved learning experience for students. For example, a typical trainer that teaches ten Novell classes per month could easily realize an immediate savings of $36,000 per year in class technician time alone with Quick Classroom setup time of under 60 minutes. In addition, with a minimum set-up time savings of 5.5 hours per class the classroom would be freed up for training an additional 660 hours per year, or an additional 110 teaching days. Assuming that the average Novell trainer already has the required hardware a Celeron or Pentium 500 MHz or higher PC with memory of 256 MB or higher the cost to upgrade memory to take full advantage of Quick Classroom is $150 or less per machine. By virtualizing PC hardware resources in secure, safe environments, VMware Workstation enables Quick Classroom to provide numerous benefits to Novell trainers by: Decreasing expenses. VMware Workstation reduces classroom set-up time and costs. Improving the student experience. Students can freely experiment without damage to the operating system and its applications Improving profitability. More training classes can be scheduled more often without set-up delays. Training centers can better manage their hardware resources because VMware Workstation allows a complete network to be built on a single computer. VMware s innovative technology is bringing the business benefits of virtualization to many different markets, said Debbie Maucieri, Vice President of Novell Education Worldwide. By incorporating VMware Workstation, Quick Classroom allows training partners to reduce their costs bringing more dollars to their bottom line. 6

9 4.2 Purdue University: Transcending the Limits of Hardware for World-Class Training The training of future computer professionals has always required significant resources in hardware. Over the past year, one of the top institutions in the country for engineering aggressively has sought to factor out some of these costs, while providing a framework that allows greater flexibility for both its training faculty and students. Purdue University professors used VMware Workstation to improve the student learning experience in Oracle databases, the installation of server-based products, and other courses. With VMware Workstation, Purdue has significantly reduced its reliance on dedicated machines in favor of virtual machine environments that offer students the benefits of isolated physical machines, with the flexibility and mobility that only a software solution can provide. One of VMware Workstation s chief benefits for educational facilities is the isolation and fault protection offered by virtual machines. A student can operate and crash an application in one environment without affecting another environment in the same box. This feature provides a safe and reliable sandbox for the most aggressive novices and trainees, at significantly lower costs. For the Oracle course at Purdue, students can use their own dedicated Oracle server for the duration of the semester a luxury unattainable in the typical university lab setting. This is a new, exciting technology, and of course that s a big draw for our students, said Purdue Director of Information Technology Carlin Smith. But best of all, VMware [Workstation] has worked incredibly well, providing the level of reliability that we need to ensure the smooth administration of this course. With great success in the Oracle course, Carlin has implemented VMware Workstation in other courses. Recently, he test-implemented VMware Workstation on a network a move that would potentially bring the technology into the hands of a greater number of students. The installation proved successful, and Carlin quickly moved to deploy the solution for training students on how to install server-based products. Once again, VMware Workstation was seen as an innovative solution for factoring the limits of hardware in the training environment. With VMware Workstation, students were able to learn advanced skills without the physical media. Purdue University professors used VMware Workstation to create a more comprehensive, flexible, state-of-the-art learning environment. 7

10 4.3 CoreTech Consulting Group: The Power and Flexibility of Self-Contained Configurations in a Training Environment CoreTech Consulting Group is an information technology consulting firm. CoreTech helps companies rapidly realize the potential of e-business through a mix of Internet technology and traditional business systems, maximizing business value while disruption and risk. As such, CoreTech conducts training workshops on a variety of IT applications. Darwin Sanoy, CoreTech Principal Consultant and Desktop Practice Leader, used VMware Workstation for a custom Windows 2000 deployment workshop for a financial industry client. Sanoy wanted to demonstrate Remote Installation Services (RIS) in the workshop, but he was concerned that doing so would jeopardize the workshop s 2-day schedule. RIS requires Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, RIS Services, and a second volume that utilizes Single Instance Store (SIS). Sanoy put together a VMware Workstation configuration running RIS. When delivering the workshop, his team built the classroom desktops using RIS virtual machines. We were able to show the power of RIS and have the classroom set-up completed unattended, Sanoy said. Since the RIS virtual machine was self-contained with its own Active Directory and DNS, we did not need to worry about integrating with production or lab equipment on the client site. Now we have a RIS virtual machine that we can use to set up training labs in minutes, as well as demonstrate RIS in action without taking 4 hours to build a server. Depending on external hardware and technical configuration assistance is risky business for lab managers and technicians. Clearly communicating all the details, following up to ensure that everything is done right, arriving very early to double and triple check everything can add a significant amount of time, energy, and stress to the job. VMware Workstation allows self-contained configurations for training, enhancing reliability and minimizing set-up time. Being self-contained means you can ensure that your demonstration events are high quality because you bring everything you need with you, said Sanoy. If you have your configuration burned to a CD, you have an automatic disaster recovery plan if your standard hardware decides to give out on you. Install VMware Workstation on an available computer, copy your virtual machine from CD to the new physical machine, and you re back in business. 8

11 5.0 How To Get the Most Out of VMware Workstation This section spells out the system requirements and specifications for VMware Workstation, cites sources of more technical information, and explains how to purchase VMware Workstation. System Requirements What do you need to get the most out of VMware Workstation? Take the following list of requirements as a starting point. Remember that the virtual machines running under VMware Workstation are like physical computers in many ways. Like physical computers, they generally work faster if they have a faster processor and more memory. Basic system requirements include: Standard PC with at least a 400MHz processor At least 128MB of RAM (256MB recommended) Microsoft Windows 2000 NT or Linux operating system 10GB free disk space. How to Purchase VMware Workstation VMware makes it easy for you to start delivering tangible value to your training business. There are three easy ways to purchase VMware Workstation: 1. Visit our Web store at to purchase a VMware Workstation license. 2. Call a VMware sales representative at VMWARE. 3. If you re a Novell Authorized Education Center (NAEC) or a Novell Academic Education Partner (NEAP), you re eligible for quantity discounts of 50 percent or more your Education Partner Number and Site Number to vmwarelicensing@novell.com. Novell will validate your information and forward your purchase request to VMware. VMware will contact you to fulfill the order. Sources for More Technical Information More technical information on the installation and use of VMware Workstation can be found on VMware s Web site at Particular areas of technical interest include: Download an evaluation copy of VMware Workstation at Product information, including specifications, is at Technical support for VMware Workstation is at Customer success stories are at In addition, the Novell Web site describes VMware Workstation as incorporated into Novell Quick Classroom. Visit the Novell site at HYPERLINK /06/pr01060.html /06/pr01060.html. 9

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