Introduction to Customizing and Copying Exercise Environments¶

Note

Currently, the ability to copy exercise environments is restricted to certain plan types. Make sure your plan includes this feature by checking our Plans article.

The copy feature allows instructors to customize and save VMs to fit class needs. It saves a particular state of a VM for future use. After selecting an exercise environment, you may copy and set it up to however you want it displayed to your class. Once a VM has been customized and copied, it will appear in the exercise catalog where instructors can then provision the newly customized VM for students.

Customizing an Environment¶

To customize an exercise environment, instructors should enter the exercise environment and set it up as needed (such as creating folder structures, uploading files, or installing custom software). Before creating a copy of the environment, instructors should carefully read over the Knowledge Base article titled Avoiding Common Issues with Copying Exercise Environment Images.

Once instructors are done setting up the exercise, they should exit the environment, stop it, and press the “Copy” button.

The Copy feature can be accessed by activating the Copy button at the bottom right of the exercise page

Once a customized exercise is copied, it will appear under the exercise environment options that an instructor can choose for a specific class exercise. To provision a customized exercise, go back to the course menu, create a new exercise, and choose the copied environment under "My Saved Environments".

The Add Exercise Environment feature can be accessed by activating the Add Exercise Environment button on the top right of the course page

When creating a new exercise environment, saved custom exercise environments appear at the beginning of the list

Once you find your copied environment and choose it, it will create a new exercise within your course.

When to use the Copy Feature¶

To create a virtual machine that contains multiple CTF challenges or artifacts
To save changes that have been made to system or network settings
To create custom exercises for students

Copying Capture The Flag (CTF) Challenges¶

Copying a CTF environment is slightly different from copying a standard VM environment. Here’s what you need to know:

Copying CTF Challenges: When you copy a CTF environment, the process makes a copy of all the challenges within that CTF. This means that when you create an exercise environment from the copied CTF, all challenges will be restored to their initial state. Note that this process does not save any other settings or configurations outside the challenges.

There is an auto-update feature available when creating an exercise from a CTF copy. This option checks all challenges for updates to their library entries and uses the latest versions if available. This ensures that your copied CTF environment is up-to-date with the latest content. You can find this option on the CTF copy page. The option to auto update is on the bottom of the page above the "confirm" button on the CTF Copy page.

For detailed instructions on handling CTF environments, please refer to the CloudCTF section of the Knowledge Base.

How do I delete a Copied Environment from the Exercise Catalog?¶

Our customer support team can assist you in deleting any unwanted environments, and can be contacted by submitting a request to our team. When submitting a request, please make sure to include the exact name of the copied environment that you would like deleted. We recommend assigning copied environments unique and specific names. If you have two copied environments with the same name, please also provide the creation date of the exercise environment that you would like deleted.

After you have submitted your request, the copied environment should be removed from the Exercise Catalog within 2 weeks.

If a copied environment has been provisioned to students, you can remove the exercise just like you would for any other virtual machine.

Have a Question? Contact Support¶

We're here to help you. If you 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.