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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 7
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VMwarevCenterLab Managerisanapplicationthatprovidesarapidprovisioningportalandimagelibrary
managementsystemtoautomatethesetupandteardownofmultimachinesoftwareconfigurationsand
manageservicetransitionactivities.LabManagerleveragesVMwarevSphereandVMwarevCenterto
providevirtualinfrastructureresourcestomultipleteams,projects,andgeographies
fromacentrallocation.
UsingLab Manager,youcancreateasharedvirtualmachinelibrarythatstorescommonlyusedconfigurations
andprovideuserswithselfserviceaccesstotheseconfigurationsforapplicationdevelopment,testing,
support,training,softwaredemonstrations,andmore.Lab Managersystemadministratorscontrolaccess
rights,storagequotas,anddeploymentpolicies.
See
theLab ManagerUser’sGuideforafulloverviewoftheproduct.
Thischapterincludesthesetopics:
“LabManagerComponents”onpage 7
“OverviewofLab ManagerInstallationProcess”onpage 8
Lab Manager Components
Lab ManagerrequiresVMwarevSphere.VMwareESX™andESXihostsprovidethememoryandCPU
resourcestorunLab Managervirtualmachines.Lab ManagermanagestheESX/ESXihoststhroughaVMware
vCenterServersystemandtheLab Manageragentinstalledonthosehosts.ESX/ESXihostscontinuetofunction
evenifthevCenterServersystembecomes
unreachable(forexample,thenetworkconnectionissevered).
vSpheredatastoresprovidesharedstorageforLab Managervirtualmachinesandmediafiles(forinstalling
guestoperatingsystemsandapplications).
UserscanaccesstheLab ManagerserverthroughWebandSOAPinterfaces:
UseMicrosoftInternetExplorerorMozillaFirefoxtoaccesstheLab ManagerWebconsoletointeractwith
theLab Managerserverusingtheuserinterface.
UsetheLab ManagerSOAPAPItoaccesstheLab M anagerserverprogrammatically.TheSOAPAPI
allowseasyintegrationwithbuildmanagementsystemsandautomatedtestingtools.Formore
information,seetheLab ManagerSOAPAPIGuide.
Introducing Lab Manager and the
Installation Process
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