Overview

NETLAB Academy Edition^® is a remote lab appliance for Cisco Networking Academies. Students and instructors can share worldwide access to your real lab equipment in a training environment that is easy to use and manage.

Academy Benefits:

Distance blended learning
Share access with other Academies
Discounted price, cost recovery
Provide scheduled lab access
Increase student lab time
Work in teams
Host Academy curriculum
Menu-driven system administration
Instructor Benefits:

Automates lab management and cleanup tasks
Recover erased flash and passwords
Share sessions with your students
Manage configuration files
Record and assess student lab work

Remote Lab

NETLAB_AE allows students to get more lab time and get the maximum use of your lab equipment.

NETLAB_AE provides scheduled 7x24 access to lab equipment. The session sharing feature supports instructor led classroom lectures, team collaboration, and individual student practice. Students can be grouped into teams and work together from different locations.

NETLAB_AE also allows a student to cycle the power on a device, so even password recovery exercises can be conducted remotely.

The Academy Edition license allows shared access with other Networking Academies and cost recovery.

Scheduler

The NETLAB_AE scheduler provides controlled access to your lab equipment. All lab access is by reservation, using the scheduler.

Lab access is terminated at the end of a lab reservation. Automation prepares the lab for the next session.

Because NETLAB_AE is a proxy server, only one open IP address and two TCP ports are required for all lab access functions. Lab resources and supporting control devices sit safely behind the server on a private VLAN.

Automation

Using NETLAB_AE, you can easily put routers into a known state, recover lost passwords, or even recover an erased flash.

In fact, NETLAB_AE will do this for you automatically at the end of each lab reservation. NETLAB_AE's features allow you to manage your lab from anywhere on the Internet.

Configuration Management

Instructors will save hours of valuable class time by using NETLAB_AE's configuration file management tools for loading and saving configurations by device or entire lab.

With one click of a mouse you can return to a configuration you created last night, one you used during class last week, or even your favorite troubleshooting example from last semester.

Classroom Lectures

NETLAB_AE can be used in the classroom as a lecture tool. Built-in connection sharing allows instructors to share the console port of a router, switch, or firewall.

Users can also share the keyboard, video, and mouse of a lab PC.

NETLAB_AE's configuration management and automation allow instructors to spend more time teaching and less time managing the lab.

Curriculum Server

Your Academy can use NETLAB_AE to host a wide variety of Cisco Network Academy Program curriculum.

Curriculum downloaded from Academy Connection can be easily uploaded, installed and secured on the NETLAB_AE server, eliminating the need to operate a separate curriculum web server.

Assessment

Instructors can use the archive feature to rapidly assess how a student or team arrived at a solution.

NETLAB_AE records the commands issued on all routers, switches, and firewalls. All activity is analyzed and sorted into a "who", "what", "when" and "where" table format. Each entry is hyperlinked so that output of each command can be easily viewed.

Configuration files and device output are also saved with each lab session. The instructor may view this data online, or receive it automatically by e-mail.

Customization

NETLAB_AE includes many standard lab topologies and lab exercises used by the Cisco Networking Academy Program.

Pod Designer can be used to create custom pod designs. You may install two (2) custom pods for use within the Academy Program.

Lab Designer can be used to create custom lab exercises that utilize both standard and custom pods.

Administration

The NETLAB_AE server is an appliance. All administration is web based or menu driven. No operating system experience or system administrator knowledge is necessary.

The administrator interface provides all the functions necessary to manage the server, equipment pods, system logs and services. Software updates are automatically obtained over the Internet.