create a lab monitor process (I'm thinking something like a simplified CheckMK) that can be turned on for a specific lab, if desired, to monitor for specific activities (ie: Windows or Linux Service status change, creation of a file, expected file contents, DB status...). These activities would then trigger the running of Automated Activities allowing the dynamic reconfiguration or testing of a lab environment without user intervention (no need for a button to be clicked by the user).
| Who would most benefit from this idea? | Lab Learners or Exam-takers |
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What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Improved dynamic customization of a lab environment and/or testing and feedback of student progress without the need for direct user intervention. This would allow for greater focus on the lab material and, likely, speed up the response times of Automated Activities that rely on the process. |
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Thanks for taking a minute to send along this suggestion! Our Product Group has given this an initial review and assigned this a status of "Future Consideration." This status mean this Idea is not yet on our roadmap, but will be part of our normal prioritization processes.
If you have additional context or would like to generate more demand, feel free to edit your original post, add a comment, and/or invite your peers to upvote your Idea.
Sample Use Cases:
"Line of Fire" security breach lab - the correct remediation of an attack (correct modification of a firewall) is detected by the "monitor process" and automatically launches a script that initiates a new attack (DDoS on website)
Similarly, the Red team (controlled by the "monitor process" could be automated to launch multiple attacks based on the remediation efforts and timing of the Blue team
Correct configuration of a DB connection is detected by the "monitor process" and automatically launches a script that loads data into the DB schema in the background while the user works on a different exercise. When the user needs to use the data it is available without them having to have done anything
Standard "template" checks and actions can be developed for DB, O/S, Network, Storage or various other aspects of the environment to make the configuration of the "monitor process" easier for the end user.
Basically, anything that a monitoring tool like CheckMK can check for can also be used to build an automated script action driver. I know that this is a large development effort but I believe that the benefits of seamless automation will provide a much more smooth experience for users and, ultimately, a more flexible platform.
CheckMK documentation:
https://docs.checkmk.com/latest/en/intro_welcome.html
Thank you for this idea. This is a very large effort. Do you have some more use cases to flesh this idea out some more?