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How to Restart or Reprovision a Virtual Machine

What's the difference between Restarting and Wiping/Reprovisioning an Exercise Environment?

Cyber Range users occasionally run into technical problems that make it difficult to interact with their Cyber Range Virtual Machines (VMs). Sometimes these problems simply exist within your web browser, and sometimes the issue is on the VM or environment on our side. There are several ways to quickly troubleshoot the issue and regain control of your VM, and each has its own unique impact on your VM(s), and the time it takes to resolve. The methods for troubleshooting VMs in the Cyber Range Exercise Area are listed below, from the quickest and least drastic to the lengthiest and most drastic.

Note: If you're having problems getting into a VM, you can try the first two steps below, but also be aware of the KB article that includes a troubleshooting guide on Browser Troubleshooting that deals with some of the client side settings that can prevent you from logging into a VM.

Before Restarting or Wiping & Reprovisioning, please try the options listed here first. These are the quickest and easiest troubleshooting methods:

  • Web Tab Reload (10 sec): Reloading a VM tab is the easiest and quickest troubleshooting method and is the first step you should take if experiencing issues with your VM login session. For example, if you encounter a black screen when booting up a VM, simply try reloading your browser tab ( Ctrl+Shift+R or F5 ), as this usually resolves the issue without losing your open work.

  • Close Web Tab & Rejoin (10 sec): If reloading a VM web tab does not work, your VM session token may have expired. In some cases you may need to close the VM tab, and re-Join using the Join (play) button in the Cyber Range user interface. With this close & rejoin option you also usually retain all your work and open files.

  • VM/OS Reboot (1-2 min): Rebooting a VM from within the operating system itself may be one of the quickest and simplest troubleshooting methods you can perform if you are encountering issues with a single VM. You can do this either from the user desktop run menu or via the terminal. Typically, rebooting your VM will take about 30-60 seconds. From the Linux terminal, simply type the sudo reboot command, or on Windows hit Win+R (or Ctrl+Esc+R ) and type shutdown -f -r -t 0 to reboot a VM. This type of reboot closes most open files before rebooting and is considered “graceful”, as it is less likely to corrupt databases or filesystems than is a restart (below).

If the actions listed above do not resolve the issue while troubleshooting your environment, then the two options listed below, which are performed from the Cyber Range user interface, might be more effective in helping regain control of a user's VM or environment (multiple VMs):

  • User Environment Soft Restart (2-4 min): Restarting (or pressing stop & start in the UI) is like virtually pressing the "powering off & on" button for a student’s exercise environment (could be multiple VMs) and is done using the Cyber Range web interface . This is similar to gracefully powering down, and back up, a regular computer device, such as your laptop or mobile phone when the device is locked up or too sluggish to use. When the machine boots up again after being power cycled any previously saved documents and work are still accessible to you and previous work is preserved. This solution is recommended when applications freeze, or keyboard/mouse becomes “glitchy”, or your VM becomes too slow to interact with. For more information, please see the section below titled How to Perform an Exercise Environment Soft Restart.

  • User Environment Wipe and Reprovision (5-40 min): A full Wipe and Reprovision of an exercise environment (all VMs within an environment) is completely different from restarting a virtual machine (above). When a virtual machine is Wiped and Reloaded in the Virginia Cyber Range, it means that the VM operating system is deleted and reloaded from scratch. This means all data stored on the VM is lost. Wipe and Reprovisioning is effective when VMs have become damaged beyond repair, or when the student has locked themselves out of the VM with firewall, password changes, or the VM no longer boots properly. This option should only be used as a last resort because it can take 30 to 40 minutes and all of the student’s work on the VM is lost. For more information, please see the section below titled How to Reset, Wipe, & Reprovision an Exercise Environment.

    Note: As a last resort, Wiping and Reprovisioning a student or user’s VM environment does not make use of the Cyber Range’s pre-warmed VM pool model. This means that reprovisioning a user’s environment will finish rebuilding (initializing) an environment before starting the hard drive warming process, rather than pulling an exercise environment directly from the pool of pre-warmed virtual machines. Secondly, each virtual environment requires a different amount of time to perform a full reprovision.The expected wait times for performing a full reprovision on a user’s exercise environment can vary from 5-40 minutes. For example, the popular Cyber Basics environment may take up to 40 minutes to perform a full user environment reprovision, whereas the CentOS environment may only take 5 minutes for a full reprovision.

How to Perform a VM/OS Reboot

One of the quickest and simplest troubleshooting methods you can perform is a VM/OS Reboot from within the operating system using the terminal or the run prompt. Below, you will find examples of rebooting on both Linux and Windows VMs.

How to Perform a Linux VM Reboot

  1. First, please open a terminal in the virtual machine you wish to perform a reboot on. You will then need to type sudo reboot and hit Enter on the keyboard.

    Please type 'sudo reboot' and hit enter to reboot a machine from the terminal.

  2. Next, you will receive a notification saying that you have been disconnected from the virtual machine. This is expected when rebooting from the terminal. Please wait a few moments and then click Reconnect.

    You have been disconnected. If this persists try restarting the exercise from the exercise area, or informing your instructor.

  3. Once you have clicked Reconnect, you will encounter a black screen with a message notifying you that your browser is attempting to connect to the remote system. Please wait for the connection to be established. This could take around 30-60 seconds and will automatically place you back in the virtual machine when finished.

    Connected to the Cyber Range. Waiting for response from the remote system...

  4. Once your virtual machine has established a connection, you will be placed back into your freshly rebooted virtual machine as shown in the example below.

    Once your machine has rebooted and your connection has been established, you will see the VM desktop or login screen.

How to Perform a Windows VM Reboot

  1. First, please open a run prompt in the Windows virtual machine you wish to perform a reboot on. To do so, please type the keyboard combination Win+R (or Ctrl+Esc+R ). This will open the Run prompt in the bottom-left corner of the Desktop.

    The Windows Run prompt will appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the desktop environment.

  2. Once you have opened the Run prompt, please type shutdown -f -r -t 0 and hit Enter. This will reboot the machine.

    Warning!

    If doing this from a Windows laptop/PC, please be certain the run popup is not your own Windows Run window, as this will cause your local/physical computer to reboot.

    Please enter the command into the input field and hit enter to reboot the system.

  3. Next, you will receive a notification saying that your browser is attempting to reconnect to the virtual machine. Please wait while your machine reboots until your connection is re-instated.

    Connected to the Cyber Range. Waiting for response from the remote system...

  4. Once your virtual machine has established a connection, you will be placed back into your freshly rebooted virtual machine as shown in the example below.

    Once your machine has rebooted and your connection has been established, you will see the VM desktop or login screen.

How to Perform an Exercise Environment Soft Restart

The easiest way to restart an exercise environment in the Cyber Range exercise area is by using the VM control buttons to completely power off/on the environment.

  1. First, click the Stop button located to the right of the play button, as shown in the image below.

    Highlights the stop button that powers off a virtual machine

  2. Next, wait a few moments while your VM is completely powered off.

    Shows the stop message during the shutdown process

  3. Once your virtual machine has been completely powered off, you can then click on the Start button, as shown in the image below.

    Highlights the start button that will power on the virtual machine

  4. Once you have clicked on the Start button, your VM will power back on and you will have successfully restarted your virtual machine.

How to Reset, Wipe, & Reprovision an Exercise Environment

Warning!

Please keep in mind that resetting a virtual machine cannot be undone. Once you reset a virtual machine, all data on the virtual machine will be lost. Please proceed with caution.

To reset a virtual machine as an instructor, you must first ensure that it has been completely powered off. If the VM is still powered on, the Reset button will not be visible.

  1. Once the VM has been completely powered off, the Reset button will become visible. Please click on the Reset button, as shown in the image below.

    Highlights the reset button that needs to be clicked on in order to reset a virtual machine

  2. You will receive a popup message asking you to confirm the VM reset. If you are certain that you would like to proceed with resetting the VM, please click Confirm.

    Highlights the confirm button that needs to be clicked on in order to reset the virtual machine

  3. Once you have successfully confirmed the virtual machine reset, you will need to wait a few minutes while the VM is rebuilt.

  4. After a few minutes, you can then power on the virtual machine and access your new exercise environment.

Have a Question? Contact Support

Students: Please reach out to your Instructor or Admin who can submit a ticket to our Support team on your behalf.

If you are an Instructor or Admin and still have questions after reviewing the information above, please feel free to submit a ticket with our support team and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.