
VMware, Inc. 15
Chapter 1 Introducing Lab Manager
LabManagerWebconsole–Thebrowser‐basedconsolethatenables
managementforalltestingactivities,regardlessofphysicallocation.Youcan
accessthiscomponentusingstandardHTTPprotocols.
UsetheLabManagerWebconsoletoorganizegroupsofvirtualmachinesinto
configurationsbasedonmachinetemplates,tostoreconfigurationsand
their
stateinlibraries,andtoquicklycopyandusemultiplecopiesoflibrary
configurationssimultaneouslywithoutrequiringknowledgeofthe
networkingenvironment.Copiesoflibraryconfigurationsareavailable
withinseconds.
Whenyoucheckoutalibraryconfiguration,theconfigurationretainsthe
networkprofile(IPaddress,name,MACaddress,securityidentifiers,
and
more),whichpreservestherunningsoftwareanddataonthemachine.Virtual
machinescreatedfromtemplatesaregivennewnetworkprofilesastheyjoin
aconfiguration.ThisprofilechangesthroughtheLMToolsutilityinstalledon
thetemplateoperatingsystem.
LabManagerSOAPAPI–ASOAPAPIWebservicethatenablesyouto
accessLabManagerprogrammatically.Thisallowseasyintegrationwith
buildmanagementsystemsandwithautomatedtestingtoolsfromMercury,
IBM,Segue,andothercompanies.
“LabManagerservers”collectivelyreferstotheLabManagerServer,ManagedServer
systems,
andstorageservers.
Lab Manager Benefits and Features
LabManagerenablesuserstolowerdevelopment,test,andintegrationcosts,aswellas
tapintoasharedpoolofserverandnetworkingresources,eliminatemanualsetup,
decreasesoftwaredevelopmenttimes,andimprovesoftwarequality.
Reviewthesespecificbenefits:
Productivity–Savestimeforwhenprovisioningmachines.
Processimprovement–Assistswithcommunicationbetweentestingand
developmentteams.
Serverconsolidation–Includespoolandshareservers,storage,andothertesting
anddevelopmentresources.
Computeraccess–Providesaccesstomorecomputersthanavailablephysical
machines.
Self‐help–Allowsengineerstoindividuallycreate,setup,andteardown
configurationswithoutrelyingonIT.