Before you can use Azure Labs, you will need to register for the lab that has been set up by your instructor.

1. To start, you will need to check your GCU Student email for an invitation to the lab. Check for an email from azure-noreply@microsoft.com.
   
2. Once you open the email, click Register for the lab.
   
   
   NOTE If you do not have an invitation to the lab, we recommend reaching out to your instructor for further assistance.
3. You will be prompted to sign in. Log in with your GCU Student email and password.
4. After logging in, all of your registered virtual machines will be displayed, and you can now access your virtual machines.
   

There are two ways to access the virtual machine. If you are taking courses on ground and you are completing your lab, your instructor would have set-up specific time slots for when the lab virtual machines are available for your class. During this scheduled time slot, the virtual machines are configured to start automatically, allowing you to get started right away instead of waiting for the system to boot up. If you want to access your virtual machine outside of the scheduled time slot, use the steps below.

1. Access Azure Labs by navigating to labs.azure.com and signing in with your GCU credentials, then and locate the virtual machine that you would like to start.
   
2. Click the switch to start the virtual machine.
   
3. The status will change to “Starting” and then eventually change to “Running”. Once the virtual machine is running, click the monitor icon in the bottom-right corner.
   
4. This will download the Remote Desktop Protocol file. Once the file is done downloading, it is important to open the file with the proper program. Windows users will need to open the Remote Desktop Connection app. If you are on an Apple device, open the Mac App Store and download the Microsoft Remote Desktop application. 
   
   
   NOTE The Microsoft Remote Desktop app on Mac requires version 12.0 and later.
5. Now that we have the Remote Desktop Protocol downloaded and have a program for the file installed, we can move on to connecting to the virtual machine.
   NOTE Once you download the Remote Desktop Protocol file, you do not need to re-download the file each time you need to start your virtual machine.

Before you try to connect to the virtual machine, make sure that you have completed the steps for starting the virtual machine.

1. Once you have the Remote Desktop Protocol downloaded onto your computer, open the file with either the Remote Desktop Connection app on Windows or the Microsoft Remote Desktop app on Macs.
2. A window may appear warning that the publisher cannot be identified. Click Connect to continue.
   
   NOTE If you are on an Apple computer, step 2 and 3 will be swapped and you will be asked to sign in before you see the certificate warning.
3. When prompted to sign in, enter the following credentials exactly as it is provided below:
   Username: gcuuser
   Password: Red.vine1
   
4. Once you log in, you will now have access to the virtual machine environment.

The Azure Labs environment is accessible 2 business days before the class starts. You will not have access to the resource before this time. You will also have access for up to 14 days after the class ends. Once it has been 2 weeks since the course has ended, the lab will be terminated, and access will be revoked.

If you are experiencing issues connecting to your virtual machine, try to redeploy or reimage your virtual machine. Use the Microsoft Learn article Troubleshoot a lab VM with redeploy or reimage for more information on these processes.

When determining if you should reimage or redeploy, you will want to determine if you want to save the data or not. Redeploying your virtual machine will allow you to access the data after redeployment, while reimaging will remove all your data.

If you are seeing an error message “Your cloud virtual machine has become non-responsive and will be stopped automatically to avoid overbilling,” it is most likely because the service cannot maintain connection with a lab VM. If you see this message, we recommend reading through the recommended troubleshooting by the Microsoft support team by clicking here.

While GCU Technical Support offers limited assistance with this resource, we have found a resource that can help with troubleshooting and resolving issues with your Azure Lab virtual machine. We recommend checking out the official Microsoft article: Troubleshoot accessing lab VMs in Azure Lab Services. Please keep in mind that these troubleshooting steps are outside of our scope service.