Lab life, day to day
The lab is up, now the upkeep begins: correct tags, costs under watch, machines switched off, end date in sight. It is your office. You keep it tidy, and you hand the keys back at the end.
As the owner of an Azure or Proxmox lab, you remain responsible for:
The first three are non-negotiable common rules, valid on both platforms.
You create your own Resource Group, so no human check happens before you do. Azure Policies check that the mandatory tags are present and the region is allowed, nothing more.
| Checked automatically | What nobody will check for you |
|---|---|
| Presence of mandatory tags (rejected if missing) | Accuracy of those tag values |
| Region among the four that are open | Availability of the service you need in that region |
| VM auto-shutdown at 7 p.m. and on weekends | Cost of managed services, which run 24/7 |
| (nothing) | Actually respecting the declared end date |
| (nothing) | Absence of sensitive data in the lab |
The Entra ID objects and SharePoint spaces you create are also your responsibility, with one difference: nothing makes them expire. No reminder, no automatic deletion. See Entra ID and SharePoint.
Each rule below carries a badge showing who is responsible for it. The four badges are explained on what is a lab.
In the lab subscription, you have the rights needed to create your own Resource Group: no creation by administrators, no approval to wait for. In return, its compliance (tags, region, duration, cost) is your responsibility from the very first resource.
Stop or delete unused resources, and document the lab as you go.
Stay within the allocated quotas, keep guest operating systems up to date, and never expose a VM directly to the Internet.
Delete snapshots after use, and never keep them longer than 7 days.
