Create a lab in Azure Lab Services using Python and the Azure Python libraries (SDK)

Important

Azure Lab Services will be retired on June 28, 2027. For more information, see the retirement guide.

In this article, you learn how to create a lab using Python and the Azure Python libraries (SDK). The lab uses the settings from a previously created lab plan. For detailed overview of Azure Lab Services, see An introduction to Azure Lab Services.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

• An Azure account with permission to manage a lab, such as the Lab Creator, Owner, Contributor, or Lab Services Contributor Azure RBAC role. Learn more about the Azure Lab Services built-in roles and assignment scopes.

• An Azure lab plan. If you don't have a lab plan yet, follow the steps in Quickstart: Set up resources to create labs.

• Setup Local Python dev environment for Azure.
• The requirements.txt can be downloaded from the Azure Python samples

Create a lab

Before you can create a lab, you need the lab plan object. In the create a lab plan by using Python, you learn how to create a lab plan named BellowsCollege_labplan in a resource group named BellowsCollege_rg.

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
# Licensed under the MIT License. See License.txt in the project root for
# license information.
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

from datetime import timedelta
import time
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
from azure.mgmt.labservices import LabServicesClient
from azure.mgmt.resource import ResourceManagementClient

def main():

    SUBSCRIPTION_ID = "<Subscription ID>"
    TIME = str(time.time()).replace('.','')
    GROUP_NAME = "BellowsCollege_rg"
    LABPLAN = "BellowsCollege_labplan"
    LAB = "BellowsCollege_lab"
    LOCATION = 'southcentralus'    

    # Create clients
    # # For other authentication approaches, please see: https://pypi.org/project/azure-identity/
    resource_client = ResourceManagementClient(
        credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
        subscription_id=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    )
    
    labservices_client = LabServicesClient(
        credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
        subscription_id=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    )

    #Get single LabServices Lab Plan
    labservices_labplan = labservices_client.lab_plans.get(GROUP_NAME, LABPLAN)

    print("Get lab plans")
    print(labservices_labplan)

    #Get image information
    LABIMAGES = labservices_client.images.list_by_lab_plan(GROUP_NAME,LABPLAN)
    image = (list(filter(lambda x: (x.name == "microsoftwindowsdesktop.windows-11.win11-21h2-pro"), LABIMAGES)))
    
    #Get lab quota
    USAGEQUOTA = timedelta(hours=10)

    # Password
    CUSTOMPASSWORD = "<custom password>"
    # Create LabServices Lab
    LABBODY = {
        "name": LAB,
        "location" : LOCATION,
        "properties" : {
            "networkProfile": {},
            "connectionProfile" : {
                "webSshAccess" : "None",
                "webRdpAccess" : "None",
                "clientSshAccess" : "None",
                "clientRdpAccess" : "Public"
            },
            "AutoShutdownProfile" : {
                "shutdownOnDisconnect" : "Disabled",
                "shutdownWhenNotConnected" : "Disabled",
                "shutdownOnIdle" : "None"
            },
            "virtualMachineProfile" : {
                "createOption" : "TemplateVM",
                "imageReference" : {
                    "offer": image[0].offer,
                    "publisher": image[0].publisher,
                    "sku": image[0].sku,
                    "version": image[0].version
                },
                "sku" : {
                    "name" : "Classic_Fsv2_2_4GB_128_S_SSD",
                    "capacity" : 2
                },
                "additionalCapabilities" : {
                    "installGpuDrivers" : "Disabled"
                },
                "usageQuota" : USAGEQUOTA,
                "UseSharedPassword" : "Enabled",
                "adminUser" : {
                    "username" : "testuser",
                    "password" : CUSTOMPASSWORD
                }
            },
            "securityProfile" : {
                "openAccess" : "Disabled"
            },
            "rosterProfile" : {},
            "labPlanId" : labservices_labplan.id,
            "title" : "lab-python",
            "description" : "lab 99 description updated"
        }
    }

    poller = labservices_client.labs.begin_create_or_update(
        GROUP_NAME,
        LAB,
        LABBODY
    )

    lab_result = poller.result()
    print(f"Created Lab  {lab_result.name}")

    # Get LabServices Labs
    labservices_lab = labservices_client.labs.get(GROUP_NAME,LAB)
    print("Get lab:\n{}".format(labservices_lab))
    


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Clean up resources

If you're not going to continue to use this application, delete the group and lab with the following steps:

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
# Licensed under the MIT License. See License.txt in the project root for
# license information.
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

from datetime import timedelta
import time
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
from azure.mgmt.labservices import LabServicesClient
from azure.mgmt.resource import ResourceManagementClient

# - other dependence -
# - end -
#

def main():

    SUBSCRIPTION_ID = "<Subscription ID>"
    TIME = str(time.time()).replace('.','')
    GROUP_NAME = "BellowsCollege_rg"
    LABPLAN = "BellowsCollege_labplan"
    LAB = "BellowsCollege_lab"
    LOCATION = 'southcentralus'    

    # Create clients
    # # For other authentication approaches, please see: https://pypi.org/project/azure-identity/
    resource_client = ResourceManagementClient(
        credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
        subscription_id=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    )
    
    labservices_client = LabServicesClient(
        credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
        subscription_id=SUBSCRIPTION_ID
    )

    # Delete Lab
    labservices_client.labs.begin_delete(
        GROUP_NAME,
        LAB
    ).result()
    print("Deleted lab.\n")

    # Delete Group
    resource_client.resource_groups.begin_delete(
        GROUP_NAME
    ).result()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Next steps

As an admin, you can learn more about Azure PowerShell module and Az.LabServices cmdlets.