The difference between a backend VM and a tutor VM

It is important to understand the difference between a backend VM and a tutor VM.

• A backend VM is a virtual machine that the System Administrator - i.e. the person who is responsible for administering the virtualisation backend - creates. (If you have no idea what that means, you can safely conclude it isn't you! ;-)
• A tutor VM is a virtual machine that a Tutor creates. Such a VM must use an existing VM as its starting point - in technical parlance, it must be cloned from such an existing VM.

Now, the problem is that if every tutor VM has to be created from a previously existing VM, what happens at the very beginning when none exist?

Hence, backend VMs - and your System Administrator - are very important to get you started. The System Administrator should, at the point of initially configuring WLab, create a decent pool of backend VMs that will give Tutors a good set of jump-off points to create their labs.

Precisely what form this pool takes, and what will need to be installed within the VMs will depend on your environment, your Tutors' needs, and a whole raft of other factors that a mere mortal such as myself couldn't possibly predict at this point!