Rangers Lab Management Guide (AHE) enters BETA phase

  • Article

On the 28th April we released the Rangers Build Customization Guide package to the BETA phase and a week later on May 5th we released the Lab Management Guide to the BETA phase, which again signals that the team is feature complete and increasing the range of reviewers to include the Visual Studio ALM MVPs.

As shown in the breakdown below, the BETA package contains guidance, hands-on labs, quick reference posters, sample templates and a batch of videos. The localization section is only interesting to MVPs or Rangers who plan to localize the guidance part for their region, as has been done for other projects. See Rangers Guidance Localizations … Sprechen Sie Deutsch? … ¿Habla Español? for examples on localization.

The BETA package contained the following artefacts:

  • Guidance
    • Lab Management Capacity Planning Calculator.xlsx
    • Rangers Lab Management Guidance.docx
    • Sample LabMan Capacity Planning Calculator - Large Team Example.xlsx
    • Sample LabMan TFS Lab Management Capacity Planning Calculator - Small Team Example.xlsx
  • Hands-on Labs (HOL)
    • ASP.NET Manual and Automated Testing - HOL.docx
    • HOL Package.zip
    • Large Environment VM Patching HOL.docx
    • Manual And Automated Testing HOL.docx
    • Simple Scenario VM Patching HOL.docx
    • Test Environments HOL.docx
  • Localization
    • Illustrations.pptx
  • Quick Reference Posters
    • Lab Management Quick Reference Guide - Infrastructure.pptx
    • Lab Management Quick Reference Guide - Planning and Setup.pptx
    • Lab Management Quick Reference Guide - Teams and Personas.pptx
    • Lab Management Quick Reference Guide - VM Factory Checklist.pptx
  • Sample Templates
    • Template Planning Role Mapping.docx
    • Template Planning Scenarios.docx
    • Template Planning Setup Information.docx
  • Videos
    • 01. Setting up a VM factory for TFS Lab Management.mp4
    • 02. Creating a deployment share for TFS Lab Management.mp4
    • 03. Import OS and agents.mp4
    • 04. Lab Management Agent Installation.wmv
    • 05. Creating a template from a golden image.mp4

If we take a quick peek into the Rangers Lab Management Guidance.docx document and show the table of contents up to level 2, we see the following topics covered:

  • Overview
  • Personas and Scenarios
  • Planning, setup and configuring Lab Management for ALM
    • Lab Management Infrastructure Planning
    • Role Mapping Table
    • Setup and Tuning
    • Other Frequently Asked Questions in Setup and Planning
  • Planning, setup and configuring Test Lab environments
    • Process for identifying test environments
    • Cloning Environments
    • Types of Tests
    • Connecting tests to a build
    • Running a test in Visual Studio
    • Useful Links/Reference
  • Maintaining Lab Management environments
    • Overview
    • Backup and Restore
    • Virtual Machine Patching
  • Using the VM Factory to automate golden template creation
    • Overview
    • Prerequisites
    • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Setup
    • Adding products to the VM Factory
    • Testing the VM Factory
    • Using the reference image as a golden template
    • Next steps
    • References
  • Appendix
    • Script for enabling Lab Management features on upgraded team projects on Team Foundation Server
    • Application Types
    • Lab Management Environment Concepts
    • Capacity Planning Workbook
  • References
    • Workbooks
    • Posters
    • Hands-On-Labs (HOL)
    • General Links
    • Good Resources

We expect to complete the BETA phase and the User Education (UE) readability review in 2-3 weeks. Watch this space for news on the imminent release.

A huge “Cowabunga” to the team, who has been becoming increasingly impatient as the final review weeks seem to drag out the project and everyone has been to told to “sit on their hands” and not touch the content anymore :)

  Nicola, the African Hawk Eagle, at https://www.birdsofprey.co.za, for those wondering what AHE stands for.