Reserve the environment

The steps that follow outline how to reserve access to the pre-provisioned, IBM Technology Zone (ITZ) demonstration environment.

Remember, reserve the demonstration environment in IBM Technology Zone

Reserve an IBM Technology Zone environment ahead of time so that the instance has time to provision.

1. Open the TechZone hosted PowerVS L3 demonstration environment in browser and click Environments (A).

   

2. In the Demonstration Environment tile, click Reserve (A) icon to request for a reservation.

   

3. A new browser tab or window will open with a web form for reserving the L3 environment. Navigate to that tab or window and Select Reserve Now (A).

   

4. Complete the required fields for the reservation.

   a. Provide the instance a unique name (A). For example, 'PowerVS-L3-lab-env'.

   b. Set the value of Purpose to Education (B).

   c. Write a brief note into the Purpose Description (C) field.

   d. Under the Preferred Geography field, select itzadhoc03 - AMERICAS - us-south region - dal13 datacenter (D) (or a closer location if available).

   e. Specify the Start Date and Time and End Date and Time (E) for the reservation. The default reservation is for two days. You can extend the reservation for up to an extra four days.

   

5. When satisfied, scroll down and accept the terms and conditions (A) and then click Submit (B) to initiate the environment provisioning request.

   

6. Wait for IBM Technology Zone to finish provisioning the PowerVS environment. The automation takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes. When ready, an email is sent and the TechZone my reservations page shows a PowerVS tile with the status of Ready. If marked as ready, click Open this environment (A) on the tile to drill down into details of the reservation.

   

   Important

   Clicking the PowerVS tile before it is marked as Ready (for example, if it shows as "scheduled" or "provisioning") displays incomplete data. Wait until the environment is Ready before you continue to the next step.

7. In the reservation details page, locate the User ID field (scroll to the bottom) and record this value. It is needed later. It looks like your email address that was used to request the environment but with a period instead of an at sign (@).

   

8. Click Download SSH Private Key (A) (scroll to the bottom of the reservation details page).

   This SSH key is used later to access the PowerVS virtual server instances.

   Record the file name and location of the downloaded SSH key!

   This SSH private key file is used later when accessing virtual machines on PowerVS.

   

9. Review the emails received. One is from IBM Cloud with the title Account: You are invited to join an account in IBM Cloud. In the body of the email is a Join Now link. Click the link and Accept the invitation on the IBM Cloud portal.
   Note, joining the IBM cloud account associated with the TechZone reservation is a must, otherwise you won't have access to the IBM cloud resources needed to complete the hands-on lab-guide provided in this course.

   Troubleshooting in case email is not received

   If you do not receive an e-mail, try deleting the existing reservation in TechZone and try creating a new one. If that doesn't work, open a support ticket and include the reservation ID and summarize the problem in your message.

Now that you have an active TechZone reservation, you can proceed. Remember, the default duration of the reservation is 2 days. You can extend the reservation for up to an extra four days. IBMers will need an active reservation to record their stand and deliver, and business partners will want it to complete the short quiz as part of the Level 3 learning plan.