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Qim infoCEXP Lab Guide
Create my lab

Create my lab

At the shipping counter

Three steps and you deploy: check that a lab is the right answer, create it, put something in it. On Azure you serve yourself. On Proxmox we pack the parcel for you.

Vecteezy

Three steps

Section titled “Three steps”

  1. Choose the platform. Azure or Proxmox? A few quick questions are enough to decide: Azure or Proxmox?

  2. Create it. On Azure, you create the Resource Group and declare the lab by e-mail: create my Azure lab. On Proxmox, the administrators create the Pool and the VLAN based on your request: request my Proxmox lab.

  3. Deploy in it. Two step-by-step scenarios in deploy in my lab.

Azure or Proxmox?

Section titled “Azure or Proxmox?”

Azure when in doubt: you’re self-sufficient and the catalogue is broader. Proxmox if the need is genuinely on-premise (internal network, sovereignty, latency, self-hosting).

Azure lab

You create the lab yourself, a simple e-mail declares it.

Who creates it
You: you have the rights to create your Resource Group.
What you send
A declaration e-mail, 3 pieces of information.
Lead time
Immediate: no approval to wait for.
Create an Azure lab →

Proxmox lab (on-premise)

The administrators create the lab, you request it.

Who creates it
The administrators: Pool, VLAN and permissions.
What you send
A detailed request.
Lead time
Processing time on the administrators’ side.
Request a Proxmox lab →

The decision assistant settles it in six questions at most, often just one. The comparison is there if you’d rather decide on your own.

The four rules

Section titled “The four rules”

On both platforms: three months maximum, no production use, no customer, personal or sensitive data, no backup guarantee. A need that breaks any of them is outside the Lab scope.

If I don’t need a lab

Section titled “If I don’t need a lab”

Instant, no e-mail and no cost:

  • an identity (test user, group, app registration) in Entra ID
  • a shared space (site, list, library) in SharePoint

Also instant, with your Qim info account and nothing to create: a shared Kubernetes cluster to try Kubernetes and deploy applications on it, see the Kubernetes lab.

Also instant, on a shared resource: an AI model to try in the Azure AI Foundry playground, see the AI lab. The only difference from the previous ones: usage is billed per token.

A lab is needed for all other resources: VM, database, network. The flip side of self-service: nothing expires on its own, so cleaning up is up to you.

Any other question: lab@qiminfo.ch.