Last Updated: 15 Sep 2015

Before you allow students to administer computers, please read about securing computers, use of personal equipment and the available lab equipment.

The designated lab for student-administered "computers" is the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). In additions, virtual machines (VMs) are often available for course use in a classroom such as JOY 009, and all labs allow the student to create their own VMs. For the VCL and in JOY 009, guest operating systems and/or applications are either pre-installed by SET lab staff, or the student is provided a virtual CD/DVD image and an empty virtual disk, and instructed to install the software on it.

The main thing that the VMs have to support a variety of students doing different things. Aside from modification of a computer (big changes would generally not be allowed), about the only thing that changes is the contents of the virtual disk, although in recent years, they are modifying the network configuration as well.

Consequently, the tasks to allow students to administer the computers are as follows:

1. Identify what will be done by the students
   • If you need them to install an operating system, specify the operating system and version desired, and request this in a lab change email.
   • If you need the operating system and applications pre-installed, then we need to be informed of this lab change.

     We typically install Windows 7 and Fedora Linux, but have installed Windows Server editions and other distributions of Linux.

2. Isolated networks, special network configurations, DHCP services, and more are also possible.

Change Log

15 Sep 2015	Changed emphasis from physical machines to virtual machines.
24 Oct 2002	Original document