Schedule a Session

February 2023

As a dCloud Guest, Customer, Partner, or Cisco User with scheduling permissions, you can schedule a session to start immediately if resources are available or at a later time.

Best Practices

Please schedule your session for only the amount of days you require. Generally, you will need one or two days. Keep in mind that resources are shared with others who are also scheduling sessions.

Note: It is possible to extend an existing session, as long as the total duration is no more than five (5) days.  

• Book the session for the number of days you need. If you think you'll need a session for a couple of days, book it for two days.
• If needed, you can book a session for up to 5 days.
• Sessions scheduled for less than 5 days can be extended to a total of 5 days.
• Session renewals are subject to dCloud resource availablity.

Note:  It is not possible to extend a session which has ended.

Examples

Example A: For example, let’s say you originally booked your session for 3 days and the session has not yet started. You realize you need the session for a total of 5 days. You can extend the session by 2 days for a total of 5 days:

1. Go to My Hub.
2. Click Edit under the demo for which you'd like to extend the schedule for your session.
3. Click the grey icon to the right of End Date and select the new date (Friday).
4. Click the grey icon to the right of End Time and select the new time (5:00 pm).
5. Click Update.

Example B: You have a session booked for 3 days, and 2 days into the session you realize you need an additional 3 days but you only have 1 day left. You can extend the session by 2 days (for a total of 5 days).

Example C: Your session has expired and you realize you still need to run the demo. Because you cannot extend a session which has expired, you need to schedule a new session:

1. Select the demo and then click Schedule.
2. Click the grey icon to the right of Start Date and select the new date for the session to re-begin (today, tomorrow, or a another date in the future). 
3. Click the grey icon to the right of End Date and select the new date for the session to end (up to five days). Schedule only the days you require (up to 5 days total).
4. Click the grey icon to the right of End Time and select the time for your new (renewed) session to end.
5. Click Next.

Also see Scheduling Extended Sessions.

Session Scheduling and Extension

User Group definitions:

• Cisco Users: Cisco employees and contractors. Roughly equivalent to Cisco.com Level 4 access.
• Partner Users: Cisco Partners and Partner Developers with Cisco.com credentials. Roughly equivalent to Cisco.com Level 3 access.
• Customer Users: Registered Cisco.com users with Customer access. Roughly equivalent to Cisco.com Level 2 access.
• Guest Users: Registered Cisco.com users with Guest access. Roughly equivalent to Cisco.com Level 1 access.

Table 1. Session Scheduling and Extension Policies by User Group

Requests for Session Extensions

To request a session extension beyond the five-day maximum, you must provide business justification in the ticket you submit to Cisco dCloud Support. Support will respond within 48 hours to your request. For details about submitting a session extension request, refer to Extend a Session Longer than 5 Days.

Limitations and Restrictions for Long-Running Sessions

• To use a session longer than 30 days with all modifications made during the first 30 days, you must save the session before it stops, start a new session using the saved version, and submit an extension request for the new session if you want it active longer than 5 days.
• Planned dCloud downtime may require you to stop, save, and reschedule sessions. Upgrade and maintenance operations planned for a dCloud data center sometimes require that active sessions be stopped. You will be contacted in advance of planned downtime by Cisco dCloud Support if you own sessions that must be stopped.
• To preserve session modifications during dCloud downtime, you must save your active sessions before the downtime starts and then schedule new sessions using the saved versions after dCloud is back online.
• If you schedule new sessions using your saved sessions after dCloud is back online, you must submit a new dCloud Support request to extend any new sessions that must run longer than 5 days.

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