Hands-on labs: getting started

Tags: ACG

Welcome to the easiest and most realistic way to learn: Hands-On Labs. We provide all the tools in-browser. Allowing you to practice and test worry free, without compromising your own system and you get to learn along the way. What could be better?

Finding Hands-On labs

You can access hands-on labs from the dashboard, from the course outline page, and from within a course module.

From the dashboard

  1. Choose the Labs icon at the top of your dashboard.
  2. Find a lab that interests you and click to open it.
  3. Click Start Lab to launch the Hands-On lab.

From the course outline page

  1. Scroll through the module to find courses with a ‘HANDS-ON LAB’ tag.
  2. Click the lab of your choice.
  3. Click Start Lab to launch the Hands-On lab.

From within the course module

  1. Click the Collapse/Expand icon to expand the navigation pane.
  2. Click All Lessons.
  3. Hover over the course names to see their descriptions. You’ll notice that some are labeled ‘quizzes’ and others ‘Hands-On labs’.

As you progress through a module, you may encounter a lab you don’t have time to complete. You can click Skip this lesson at the bottom of the page to come back to it later.

Connecting to the console

All Hands-On labs provide you credentials to log into the cloud playground of your choice — either Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

  1. Go to the course outline page and scroll down to the ‘Cloud Playground’ section on the right hand side.
  2. Click Go to Cloud Playground.
  3. Click Start [ ] Playground for the Cloud console of your choice.
  4. On the Cloud Playground page, you’ll see your login credentials, which you’ll need to return for shortly. Click Open Sandbox.
  5. Right click the custom login URL in the modal and choose Open Link in Incognito Window from the tool menu. You’ll then be prompted to provide your username and password.
  6. Log in with the credentials provided on the 'Cloud Playground' page.

Connecting with the local terminal (advanced)

You can connect to different servers by clicking Instant Terminal in the Tools section of your Hands-On lab. A terminal opens containing SSH instructions.

You're ready to put your skills to the test in Hands-On Labs.

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If you need help, please contact Pluralsight Support.