Windows & Mac Users
Version 1.8 (June 2025)
Introduction
Welcome to the UMGC Multidimensional Applied Relevant System (MARS) Student Connection Guide. This guide will help you connect your Windows or Mac device to our virtual learning environment. You can find the “Virtual Lab Access” module in the Online Classroom, under the table of contents, labeled “Virtual Lab Environment”.
As a UMGC student, you will use MARS to complete most assigned labs in your courses. MARS was designed to provide 24/7 worldwide access to a virtual environment that facilitates a highly technical, hands-on cyber offensive and defensive education. MARS advances student readiness for your career transformation by giving access to a simulated world in which students learn by doing to protect, ethically attack, and defend sectors of critical infrastructure, intelligence, and the backbone of a modern economy.
Before You Begin: All Users
It is critically important that all MARS users understand and follow the workflow for connecting and running a virtual machine (VM) inside MARS. The steps must be followed in this order:
1. Connecting to your MARS Lab Environment
Click “Content” from the navigation bar of your LEO classroom and locate the “Virtual Lab Environment” module or link to the left of the screen.
Click the link for “Virtual Lab Access” under the module or on the main page.
2. Allocating and Starting Your Lab Environment
In the “Virtual Lab Access” module in the online classroom, select the drop down for “Nodes”.
If this is your first time accessing your lab environment for the course, then choose “Allocate Lab”, which will reserve your lab virtual machines for the duration of the course and automatically start the machines. Once you have returned to re-enter the lab environment, you will only need to” Start Nodes” to re-enter the lab environment. After clicking the” Allocate Lab” or” Start Nodes” options, you will see your lab environment being started:
3. Connecting to your virtual machine via a browser:
Once your lab environment has successfully started, then you will only need to click the “Launch” button for the VM you would like to access.
After clicking "Launch" your VM will open in a separate tab in your web browser. There is no need to enter credentials to access the system(s). You may connect to either one machine or all machines in the same tab. You will be prompted to accept a “Security Legal Notice”.
Security Notice
A Security Legal Notice and Acceptance will pop up. Read and accept the terms by clicking OK.
If you are prompted for a password or need to run an application or command as an elevated user (i.e. Windows Administrator or Linux Root user), your credentials for your lab VMs are below.
Windows
Username: Administrator
Password: Cyb3rl@b
Kali
Username: Root
Password: Cyb3rl@b
Desktop Connection
After clicking Launch it will open your selected VM in a separate tab. Below you see an example of a Windows VM connection.
4. Resetting Your Virtual Lab Environment
If your virtual machines become corrupted and you need to reset them back to their original configuration when you first allocated for the course, you should communicate with your instructor the issues and then follow these instructions:
Destroying Lab Resources
IMPORTANT: Destroying your lab computer is the same as erasing your computer's hard drive and installing a new operating system on your drive. ALL DATA will be ERASED and a new computer will be rebuilt when you allocate the lab computer again.
1. Open Virtual Lab Access in your online classroom..
2. In the top right hand corner, you should see Destroy Lab. Select Destroy Lab:
3. Read the popup message carefully and type "DESTROY" as it displays on the popup message and select Destroy Lab.
4. An animation will appear that the lab is being destroyed. When the process completes, the lab is ready for allocation, and you can follow the instructions above to allocate the lab.
5. Technical Support
If you have followed these directions and are experiencing a technical problem, please submit a ticket to the UMGC virtual labs support team via a support request form. You can find the link to the ticket submission form that you’ll need to fill out and submit under the Additional Resources tab.
*** If you do not see that Applications box, in your classroom, you can open a case directly from your browser as follows:
1. Go to the following URL.
https://www.umgc.edu/help/submit-case
2. Once on the page, make sure to select UMGC Virtual Labs Support as the Case Type.
3. Completely fill out the form and provide any screenshots as attachments to the form and submit the form by clicking on “Submit Case” at the bottom of the form.
6. Passwords
If you ever need your passwords, you can retrieve them here:
Windows Virtual Machine
Username: Administrator
Password: Cyb3rl@b
Kali Virtual Machine
Username: Root
Password: Cyb3rl@b