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Lab 0: Access and tools

Version 1.1.1 · draft · 2026-10-15 · class/demos/00-access-and-tools.md

About 5 minutes. You sign in to the lab in your browser, open a command line, and prove you can reach the cluster and your own VM's database. One recording covers the whole lab: watch it, then do the same with the steps below.

🎬 Lab 0: Access and tools: a recording of the whole lab, done in the browser (3 min 47 s). Watch it, then do the same with the steps below.

You need your class ID and password from the instructor (one login for everything), and your booking's three addresses. The instructor gives you N, A and B; the examples below use 1, ocp-lz1 and ocp-lz2.

Your names, by example. The examples in this lab are for student-01 on booking 0024-012. Swap in your own:

What Example Where it comes from
Class ID (also your project) student-01-0024-012 your sign-in name, the part before @
Your VM win-pg-s01 s + your student number
Your VM's address 10.101.23.101 vCenter, step 0.1
Database login student_01 your student number with an underscore, not a hyphen, and not your email address
Open in a browser tab Address
vCenter https://vcenter0<N>.demo.lab-paragonmicro.com/ui
Site A console https://console-openshift-console.apps.<A>.demo.lab-paragonmicro.com
Site B console https://console-openshift-console.apps.<B>.demo.lab-paragonmicro.com

0.1 Sign in to vCenter, and note your VM's address

  1. Open the vCenter tab, choose Launch vSphere Client, then the SSO / Entra sign-in with your class account.
  2. Go to VMs and Templates → datacenter01 → vms → students → <your class ID> and select your VM, win-pg-s<NN> (for example student-03 → win-pg-s03).
  3. On its Summary tab, find IP Addresses. ✍️ Write it down: this is your VM's address (for example 10.101.23.103). You use it in step 0.4, and your VM keeps it after every move.

✅ Your VM is powered on, with three disks (32 GB, 256 MB and 1 GB; 60, 5 and 10 GB on a VM built before 2026-10-15).

0.2 Sign in to both OpenShift consoles

  1. Open the site A console tab and choose Entra (SSO). Your vCenter sign-in carries over.
  2. Do the same in the site B console tab.
  3. In each, Home → Projects shows your own project, named your class ID (for example student-01-0024-012). You are admin there.

0.3 Open a command line

The command line is oc, signed in as you with a token you copy from the console:

  1. In the site A console, open your name (top right) → Copy login command → Display Token.
  2. Copy the line that starts with oc login --token=… --server=….

You can run it in either of two places.

Option 1: oc on your own computer (outside this class)

If your company allows it, install the oc client yourself: Getting started with the OpenShift CLI (the console's ? → Command Line Tools has the download). Installing it is outside this class's scope: the class needs only your browser. Paste the copied line into your terminal and press Enter.

Option 2: a command line inside OpenShift (the class way)

Nothing to install. Use one of:

  • The console's Web Terminal: the >_ icon at the top right of the console opens a terminal already signed in as you. Click Start (leave the project as it is). It has oc; for your VM's database you use the one-line oc exec commands in 0.4.
  • Your class terminal: in your project, Workloads → Pods → sql-client-… → Terminal. It has oc and the class commands (dblogin, mark, sql, verify) ready, and already knows your VM's address and your database login. Sign its oc in: type oclogin and a space, paste the copied line, and press Enter.

⚠ Not the Windows VM's command prompt. Everything in this lab runs in one of the two terminals above.

📋 Copy and paste: paste with right-click → Paste (or Ctrl+Shift+V, ⌘V on a Mac); copy by selecting the text, then right-click → Copy. [verify: per browser]

0.4 Test: the cluster, then your VM's database

The cluster:

oc whoami            # your class ID, e.g. student-01-0024-012@lab-paragonmicro.com
oc get nodes         # the cluster's nodes, all Ready

Your VM's database, PostgreSQL inside your Windows VM, at your VM's address from 0.1 (the -h below). From oc anywhere (the Web Terminal, or your own computer), each step is one line: oc exec runs it inside your class terminal (sql-client).

⚠ Steps 1–4 are an example. Change two values to yours before you run them:

In the example Is the example's Replace with yours
student-01-0024-012 class ID (student-01 on booking 0024-012) your class ID, e.g. student-03-0024-012 (appears in every line, and twice in steps 2 and 4)
10.101.23.101 address of win-pg-s01, the Windows VM running the SQL server your VM's address, from vCenter in 0.1
  1. Sign in to the database, once (enter your class password):
oc exec -it -n student-01-0024-012 deploy/sql-client -- dblogin
  1. Inject a row: the class has started:
oc exec -n student-01-0024-012 deploy/sql-client -- sql -h 10.101.23.101 -c "SELECT * FROM ovedr_mark('student-01-0024-012', 'start-class', 'Lab 0: signed in');"
  1. Read back every row you have posted, oldest first:
oc exec -n student-01-0024-012 deploy/sql-client -- sql -h 10.101.23.101 -c "SELECT id, ts, stage, payload FROM marks ORDER BY id;"
  1. Prove them: no row lost, changed or reordered (one summary line, chain_ok = t):
oc exec -n student-01-0024-012 deploy/sql-client -- sql -h 10.101.23.101 -c "SELECT * FROM ovedr_verify('student-01-0024-012');"

💡 If a step says First sign in to your VM's database … dblogin, your class terminal restarted: do step 1 again.

✅ oc get nodes lists the nodes Ready, the read-back lists your start-class row, and verify shows chain_ok = t.

Done

You are signed in to vCenter and both OpenShift clusters, you have a command line, and you reached your own VM's database. Go back to the Student Guide and continue with the next module, Demo 1.

Every demo uses the class commands for the same inject, read back and prove (mark, verify), plus load and alive: they are in the Toolkit, which each demo points to when you need it.

Thank you