itopia Labs delivers high-performance Windows desktops to students and instructors using any modern web browser. Getting your Labs environment ready only takes a few minutes, and you can be up and running in no time at all.
Step 1: Request an itopia Labs Account
itopia Labs is currently available to eligible educational institutes and can be purchased through an itopia Account Executive (AE) or one of our partner resellers. If you don't yet have an AE, please email sales@itopia.com to get started.
Your AE will request some basic information to verify your eligibility and get your account created. Once the account has been created, you'll receive an email invitation to activate the Labs environment, create the primary District Administrator, and follow a quick step-by-step wizard to get the environment configured.
Step 2: Invitation Email
When you receive the invitation email, click on the link to activate the environment and link your District Administrator account to a Google identity.
Step 3: Complete the Labs Setup Wizard
Once you-- or your designated District Administrator-- activate the environment, you can complete a quick Setup Wizard to configure the environment.
Verify Basic Information
The wizard will ask you to confirm basic contact information and the initial number of usage credits that have been purchased for the district. Review this information carefully; if any changes are required, please notify your resale partner or itopia Account Executive.
Configure Google Workspace and Single Sign-on
The District Administrator is responsible for configuring Google Workspace and Single Sign-on (SSO) for their Labs environment. This configuration is required to allow students to log in to Labs using their Google accounts and transfer their credentials into their Labs sessions.
The Setup Wizard provides a one-click, automated process to perform this configuration or, if you prefer, detailed instructions on how to manually perform the configuration yourself.
More information is available in the following article: Itopia Labs: Single Sign-On Integration Setup
Create a School
Each District needs a minimum of one school. Each school is a logical organizational unit that contains one or more classes; you can assign administrator privileges and/or credit usage quotas at the school level.
Follow this article to learn how to create a new school in itopia Labs.
Step 4: Configure Identity Integration
When the Setup Wizard completes, you will be redirected to the District Dashboard. This Dashboard provides an overview of your environment and allows you to manage district-wide settings as well as individual schools.
Before you can use Google Groups and/or Classrooms to assign access to your Labs classes, you must enable itopia's identity integration in your Google Workspace organization.
On the District Dashboard, locate the Configuration card and click Set Up Now under the Identity Sync Integration section. Labs will provide you with detailed instructions to perform this configuration in your Google Workspace organization.
More information is available in the following article: Itopia Labs: Grant Domain-Wide Delegation Setup
Step 5: Create a Class
Once a School has been created, you can create your first Class. Classes are the published desktops that students can launch from the Student Portal (labs.itopia.com). Each class can be configured with the following settings:
The desktop image for the Class, which specifies the applications that students can access
The computing tier (CPU, RAM, and GPU) for each virtual desktop session, corresponding to the number of compute credits each session will consume
The students that can access the Class, using either Google Workspace groups or Google Classroom classes
The dates and times during which the Class can be launched and, optionally, whether after-hours access is permitted with a separate quota
For more information, refer to the following article: itopia Labs: Creating Classes in a School
Step 5: Test End-User Experience
To test the end-user experience, log into the Student Portal (labs.itopia.com). District Administrators and Instructors are automatically granted access to the Portal; Instructors can launch any classes to which they are assigned.
Post-Setup Steps
Once the Labs Wizard is complete, you will have access to the Labs Admin Console. From here, you can then create schools, classes, choose images and add students. Finally, students (or instructors) access their Labs to launch applications and share data.
Related Articles