Charles Carter, a Lab Developer recently recognized for publishing 500 labs with Skillable, has three tips to share with fellow Lab Developers from lessons he learned (sometimes) the hard way to make you a better lab developer.
#1 – Use master versions to quickly push updates to all labs
If you have a Virtual Machine (VM) that has an operating system (OS) you want to use in multiple places, put everything you need on that OS on that one VM and use that in as many labs as you can. Then when you have to do updates, you only have to do it in one location.
The same is true for making parent profiles. By making child profiles off the parent, you only have to edit the parent instead of going to multiple places to make the changes.
Resource: Learn more about Lab Inheritance in our Documentation Center
#2 – Be intentional with your saves
Try not to save Differencing Disks too often in your VMs.
Less Differencing Disks means you will have shorter load times and less launch and boot errors when launching the lab.
Resource: Learn more about Differencing Disks and their best practices in our Documentation Center
#3 – Use the Template Gallery to build labs faster
If you’re a Skillable customer, take advantage of the Skillable Template Gallery. This makes looking for a blank OS or a certain server that already has apps installed much faster and avoids you downloading unknown images off the internet with potential security risks.
Skillable has a good catalog of images you can use to help you get your lab spun up quickly with minimal issues.
Resource: Learn more about the Template Gallery
