What are Reservations?

Using labs within the NDG Portal will create reservations, which reserves a particular set of virtual machines and lab environment for a user. The environment will always start at it's default state. Once the reservation is completed (either by time expiring or manually ending the reservation), the environment will be reset back to the default state and returned to the pool for the next user.

Reservations typically lasts one hour, but may be shorter or longer depending on the lab environment and several other factors. Users are not limited on the number of reservations they may create and labs can always be repeated with new reservations, if desired. The Time Remaining countdown always refers to the current reservation and is not a limit on the overall amount of time that a user can access the materials. With extensions, users can typically reserve up to 4 hours of continuous time for a lab, but some labs offer longer times.

At the end of your reservation all progress or changes to the lab environment will be lost and the environment will reset back to the default states. There is no way to save any progress you have made within a reservation for use in future reservations.

Extend a Reservation

In the event that the time remaining is about to expire and additional time is needed to perform a lab, it is possible to extend a lab session. When time remaining equals 15 minutes or less, a warning message will appear in the top right-hand side of the lab environment along with a Request More Time button. Click on the Request More Time button to add time. A total of three (3) extensions are usually allowed per lab.  Once the countdown reaches zero, the reservation will automatically end.

Manually End Reservation

The End Reservation button, which is found in the upper right corner of the labs, can be used to manually end your reservation. 

Clicking this button and confirming that you are done with the current manually ends an active reservation.

This will return you to the lab selection page in your class and allow you to either select a different lab or retry the same lab with a new set of virtual machines in their default states. This is useful if you have made a mistake in a lab and wish to try again using a new set of virtual machines.