Standardized testing/exam

[protoluke]

I work in an educational institution that performs frequent stadardized exams.  We currently utilize a group of laptops which have everything installed and ready to go (software etc).  Because we have full control of the local machine we can lockout certain features which should not be used during while the exam.

Can we utilize VMware View to create a vm and still maintain the security of the local machine?  Ie lock them out of using their local system until they complete/close the exam vm?  Anyone looking to do this?

[mittim12]

I wouldn't think that would be a problem.  You could probably utilize your exisiting way of locking out the machines and simply poke a hole to allow the View client to run. 

[protoluke]

Good thought - I should have mentioned that we would like to do away with the pile of laptops.  We would end up requesting that they install the VMware View client on their own system.  We could make the exam vm only available for a certain period of time, and they need to use it from a certain network.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community - Absolutely = What ever you can do to a physical machine in terms of security and AD permission you can do to a VM running under VMware View -

[mittim12]

As David said anything you did to your physical laptop can be done to the VM but you would have no control over their physical machine.    They would still be able to surf internet or do whatever they choose from their physical machine.   In order to lock that down you would need access to the physical machine. 

[protoluke]

Thanks for the response - I guess i was thinking that the VMware View Client (not the vm) might be able to be leveraged to lock down the guest during the use of the vm.

[JasonV1]

If you really want View you could convert those laptops to be View clients only. That way you no longer need to manage them, just the View desktops themselves (which are much easier to manage than a collection of laptops in ramdom states of patching/repair/etc).

http://www.vdiblaster.com/ : Software to convert a PC into a "thin" client (never used it myself, I just know of it).

Jason