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1001 Leveraging Labs

10 Minutes introductory

Reviewing the Labs system to leverage all its features

Business ROI Labs bring advanced Infrastructure as Code concepts into reach through narrative lessons.

Prerequisites

Additional Labs:

Additional Checklist Items:

  • A DRP endpoint

Concepts

  • labs
  • UX
1. Navigate to the [Labs](ux://labs) view from your UX by clicking the green Labs button in the top right
**If you have already navigated to the Labs view, you can skip this step and the following one.**

1. Open the lab `1001` **Leveraging Labs** by clicking it on this view
1. Pop out a guided lab modal by hovering over this step and clicking the blue pin to the right of it
This will open a small modal that acts as a slideshow for the steps of the lab. It will persist when you navigate to different views in the UX or when you refresh your browser until you close the modal.
1. Navigate to the next step by clicking the right arrow in the upper right corner of the modal
Use this process to cycle through steps when using the guided lab modal.
1. Navigate to another view in the UX, like the [Machines](ux://machines) view
Notice that the modal stays in place and keeps its step. Links can be clicked from the lab viewer or the guided lab modal, and the modal will keep in place or adjust accordingly.
1. Toggle the guided lab modal into List View by clicking the list icon in the top right
This mode displays all steps in the lab rather than one at a time. Steps can be popped out from this mode and the modal will switch to the popped out step just as it would from the viewer.
1. Navigate back to this lab's viewer by clicking the flask icon from the top right of the modal
1. Select one of the following choices from either the modal or the viewer
1. Proceed to the next step
You selected Choice A, a tab. Tab choices for labs synchronize across the UX, so if you select a tab for an operating system or other choice once in a lab, your choice is remembered and reflected in any open modals or viewers.
1. Proceed to the next step
You selected Choice B, a tab. Tab choices for labs synchronize across the UX, so if you select a tab for an operating system or other choice once in a lab, your choice is remembered and reflected in any open modals or viewers.
1. Explore the lab tree from the [Labs](ux://labs) view
Labs are organized top-down, so labs further up in the tree are
depended on by labs further down in the tree. Connections
between lab nodes depict the relationships between labs.

For example, the lab [Detect Terraform Drift](ux://labs/rackn/1030)
is dependent on the lab [Build a Multi-Cloud Cluster using
Pre-Defined Terraform](ux://labs/rackn/1020), as per the
connection between the two nodes.

1. Select the [Leveraging Labs](ux://labs/rackn/1001) lab from the Labs view by clicking on its node in the tree
1. Explore the lab viewer.
The lab viewer is the view that provides the most
detail about a lab. It includes the lab's tags, concepts,
objective, description, prerequisites, video, and more

1. Mark the lab as complete using the blue button in the top right of the viewer
A lab can be marked as complete using this button. It will only
mark as complete for your current browser, so other users of
your DRP endpoint will not be affected by your lab completion.

This will also cause the lab to gray out in the lab tree.

1. Unmark the lab as complete by clicking the button again
1. From the [Labs](ux://labs) view, navigate to a lab with a video, such as [Manage Groups of Machines using Clusters](ux://labs/rackn/1010)
1. Play the video by clicking it
1. At any point, click the **Pop out video** button in the top right of the video to pop it out into a modal
Your progress in the video will persist between the viewer and
the modal.

The video modal will follow you similarly to the guided lab
modal. It can be closed at any time.

1. Open the modal at this step if it is not still opened, and proceed to the next step
The final step of a lab will allow you to mark it as complete, and view other labs that depend on the current lab. Otherwise, you can navigate back to the [lab tree](ux://labs) to find more labs to work through.
This tab contains information for disabling the labs system. If you are here to learn how to use labs, please refer to the **Using Labs** tab.

1. Navigate to the [global](ux://profiles/global) profile in the [Profiles](ux://profiles) view
1. Navigate to the global profile's [Params](ux://profiles/global/params) tab
1. If the [lab_urls](ux://params/lab_urls) param appears, skip the following step. Otherwise, proceed to the next step
1. Add it by clicking **Add Params** and typing in `lab_urls`
The param will be created with its default, an array containing only the URL to the RackN-provided labs.
1. Disable labs by setting the param to an empty array
Set the param value to the following.
```
[]
```
Be sure to save your changes afterward.
1. Refer to the [GitLab repository](https://gitlab.com/rackn/labs) README for information on adding, editing, and removing labs
The README contains information on how to add your own labs, edit existing labs, remove labs, and create your own lab content packs.