In the Skytap Cloud User Support series, we are taking a close look at sections of Skytap Help documentation. In this entry, we’ll look at the Getting Starting area, which contains guides for new users.
You can reach this section by navigating to https://cloud.skytap.com/docs/index.php/GettingStarted, or selecting Getting Started from the Help Wiki sidebar:
This page consists of three documents: Quick Start Guide, Getting Started with Skytap Cloud, and Importing and Exporting Virtual Machines, as well as a Tutorials sub-section. Each plays a different role in enabling new users in Skytap Cloud.
Quick Start Guide
As the title implies, the goal of the Quick Start guide is to get a new user building an environment as quickly as possible. After briefly covering the concepts of configurations and templates, it launches into a step-by-step guide for building a configuration, running the virtual machines, and saving the configuration as a template. This guide also covers the core concept of sharing a configuration using Published URLs.
If you have users that you need to on-board as quickly as possible, the Quick Start guide is the place to start.
Getting Started with Skytap Cloud
Getting Started with Skytap Cloud provides a general overview of the core functionality of Skytap Cloud. Compared to the Quick Start Guide, it provides more in-depth information on the basic concepts underlying the platform. Instead of a step-by-step build process, this guide provides short sections on each aspect of operating and managing a virtual environment, such as accessing VMs, changing VM hardware settings, and adding network adapters. It also covers how to share Skytap resources using the Projects feature.
This guide is the best starting point for more advanced users, or users who will be working extensively with Skytap Cloud and need a broader starting base.
Importing and Exporting Virtual Machines
This guide offers everything you need to know about importing and exporting virtual machines to or from Skytap Cloud. Many new users will start with one of the Skytap-provided Public Templates, but others will need to import an existing on-premise machine. This document provides step-by-step instructions for this process.
Tutorials
This sub-section provides targeted tutorials for a range of Skytap tasks. Right now there are three tutorials covering how to create a configuration; how to access a VM; and how to connect to a VM from an iOS device. However, new articles are being added on a regular basis, so expect to see this section greatly expanded in the future.
We hope you will find the Getting Started section an invaluable core tool for onboarding your users. We’re always striving to improve our new user experience, so if you have any requests or suggestions, let us know at feedback@skytap.com.
