We will be performing scheduled maintenance on our database, which may result in unavailability of our platform on December 27, 2024 for up to 10 minutes in the 07:00 am  –  09:00 am UTC timeframe.

Affected services: Containers, host connectivity, private images, GCP projects, AWS accounts, Azure subscriptions, VMs, play.instruqt.com

Based on our current planning, the platform may be unavailable for a short duration (up to 10 minutes) inside of the maintenance window. We will update this maintenance post with more information closer to the date. All attempts have been made to make this change at a time with the lowest volume, and the highest availability of our engineering staff.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to improve our systems. Please don’t hesitate to contact our support team with any questions or feedback.

Thank you for your understanding.

🔔 Subscribe to email notifications whenever Instruqt creates, updates or resolves an incident in the upper right corner at https://status.instruqt.com/. 

We announced cloud account security enhancements to the Instruqt platform a few months ago and recommend conducting a quick security checkup for your cloud account settings before the end of the year.

Cloud accounts - Service and region restrictions 

• Administrators can now specify which Cloud Provider services and regions are available for use within a sandbox environment.
• This feature enhances security by limiting access to only the selected options, with other services and regions automatically disabled through stringent policies.
• Learn how to configure the settings in our documentation.

Separate cloud credentials for lab and end-users

• We have introduced an option to add admin credentials for cloud accounts alongside existing end-user facing credentials.
• These admin credentials facilitate the initial provisioning of resources in cloud accounts and are securely injected into the lifecycle scripts, ensuring they remain inaccessible to end-users.
• Learn more in our documentation.

In addition to these visible enhancements, we implemented numerous non-visible checks and controls to bolster the security of our platform. At Instruqt, the safety and security of our platform are paramount. We remain dedicated to continually investing in security measures to protect our users and their data. Explore these new features today and experience a more secure and controlled environment with Instruqt.

We’ve just launched new Instructor Tools, tailored specifically to meet the needs of instructors like you who host virtual training events. Here’s how this new feature can benefit you:

• Real-time Participant Monitoring: Easily track progress and spot participants who need help before they fall behind.
• Raise-Hand Functionality: Allow your participants to notify you when they need assistance, ensuring a smoother learning experience.
• Streamlined Communication: Send messages and share formatted code directly through the platform, reducing the need for external tools.
• (Coming early November) Screen Sharing and Collaboration: Share your screen and work together with participants effortlessly.

For more information about the new Instructor Tools, read our docs or watch the video tutorial. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out via Slack or contact your account rep.

We've released some exciting new product updates and security enhancements!

Version Control (Beta)

Streamline your team’s collaboration and maintain complete control over content changes with Version Control (Beta), offering detailed change tracking and seamless integration with your existing workflows, without the fear of overwriting each other’s work.

With Version Control (Beta), you can experience benefits like:

• Real-Time Collaboration - Allows multiple team members to work together simultaneously without overwriting each other’s changes.
• Comprehensive Change Tracking - Keeps a detailed audit log of all modifications, showing who made changes, when, and why.
• Easy Conflict Resolution - Enables seamless comparison, resolution, and merging of conflicting changes directly within the UI or via Git.
• Version History Access - Facilitates easy rollback to previous versions, helping with bug fixes and content evolution tracking.
• Smooth Integration - Connects effortlessly with existing GitHub workflows, enhancing efficiency without disrupting established processes.

Learn more about Version Control (Beta) in our documentation. 

Third-Party Forms

Securely integrate user data from third-party forms into Instruqt, enabling seamless lead tracking, enhanced ROI measurement, and stronger customer retention through deeper platform integration with key systems like HubSpot and Salesforce.

With Third-Party Forms, you’ll gain:

• Seamless Data Capture - Effortlessly funnels user data from third-party forms into Instruqt, ensuring comprehensive tracking of user interactions.
• Enhanced User Identification - Reduces anonymous interactions by securely capturing PII, enabling better user identification and segmentation within Instruqt.
• Improved Data Security - Provides a secure method for handling and storing PII from third-party sources, safeguarding sensitive information.
• Deeper Insights - Enables more detailed analysis of user behavior and engagement within Instruqt, leading to more informed decision-making.
• Enhanced User Experience - Facilitates personalized experiences by integrating richer data directly into Instruqt, improving user satisfaction and retention.
• Increased Platform Value - Strengthens Instruqt’s role in your marketing and sales efforts, making it an even more integral part of your strategy.

Learn more about Third-Party Forms in our documentation.

We are thrilled to announce that the new lab UI is now in open beta, allowing all of you to create custom layouts!

From August 1 to September 29, you can opt in to enable the new UI for any of your tracks using a toggle in the track dashboard. If you do not opt in, nothing will change with your tracks. However, after September 30, all tracks will automatically switch to the new lab UI, and the old UI will be deprecated. We encourage you to give the new UI a try and start to update any content or materials that needs to be updated before September 30th. Read more below about what this means for your existing tracks and how to prepare.

➡️ Start here with a short tutorial video.

What is the New Lab UI & How Does It Benefit Me?

Improved User Experience: The redesigned lab UI simplifies navigation, making it easier for users of all experience levels to explore and understand your content—they can quickly get started and navigate content more easily.

Use Case-Driven Layouts: Customize your tab arrangement to suit your goals. For example, you can display multiple interfaces simultaneously to see live outcomes of user actions or embed a lab with a row view to seamlessly integrate with your documentation.

Challenge by Challenge Layouts: Tailor the user experience to the specific needs of each task by creating custom layouts for each challenge. This flexibility ensures that the most relevant tools and information are always at the user’s fingertips, enhancing learning and engagement.

Updated Style & New Theme: The updated look and feel bring a modern aesthetic to the lab, making it more visually appealing and less cluttered. Additionally, a new theme option allows you to choose the appearance that best suits your team.

What Happens on September 30

On September 30, all tracks will automatically transition to the new UI. However, nothing will change with the layout of your existing tracks. They will still play as expected and users won’t experience any disruption. However, there will be small changes to overall design, so we suggest beginning the process of updating documentation and resources well in advance of September 30.

How to Enable the New UI

Via the UI:

1. Select the track for which you want to enable the new UI.
2. You will see a new widget on the right-hand side called “Layout & Theming.”
3. Turn on the “New Lab UI (Beta)” toggle to activate the new UI.
4. The new UI will now be used anywhere this lab is deployed.

Via the CLI:

To enable the new UI feature for a track, configure the lab_config root-level object and set the lab_v2 flag to true.

For more information about the new lab UI, read our docs or watch the video tutorial. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out via Slack, email [email protected], or contact your account executive.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new lab UI. Don’t forget, the old lab UI will be removed by September 30, 2024.

All the best,

The Instruqt Team

VM images reduce the wait time for users starting tracks. By using images, you can pre-install your software and files, removing the need for track setup scripts. Take full advantage of this with our new image builder.

You can now create, configure, and customize images directly in Instruqt.

No More External Cloud Accounts

With our integrated image builder, you no longer need a Google Cloud account to manage custom images. Enjoy a streamlined creation process within Instruqt's ecosystem.

Manage VM Images with Ease

Our centralized management system allows you to effortlessly handle your VM images, enhancing consistency and reducing setup work for each lab.

Ready to Dive In? Jump straight into VM image creation by visiting settings. Look for the 'Host images' option, where you can use our builder to get started right away. If you need a helping hand, our support team is just a click away and our docs contain more information on this feature.

Your feedback drives our improvements, so please share your experience with us via our Slack or through the support platform.

Warm regards,

The Instruqt Team

Check out this video overview of our most recent product updates. Reach out with any questions or feedback!

Coming the 9th of Jan, we're excited to announce some crucial updates aimed at bolstering security and protecting against abuse. These changes affect both track creation and invite settings.

Track Creation Updates:

To prevent misuse, all new tracks created via the UI or API now come with

• Default time limit of 20 minutes
• Idle Time Feature enabled with a 5 min default

Updates to Invites:

• Access Restriction Default: Invites will now have access restrictions set to specific by default, rather than unlimited.
• Risk Warnings: We've added warning notifications for any settings that may pose a higher risk of abuse

These enhancements are part of our ongoing commitment and work to ensure a secure and abuse-free experience on our platform.

Stay tuned for more updates, and thank you for your continued support!