Lab hours exhausted problem

[manutavou]

Hi,

In my actual standard RHLS subscription, I still have 4 months left. It’s true that I took advantage of the time I had to study intensively. It paid off, since I was able to obtain the certifications I wanted and, as a result, earned the RHCA title. However, there is a problem. Since I still have one exam left out of the five offered, I started a training course (DO432), which I consider important for my OpenShift portfolio. I am also aiming for an OpenShift-focused RHCA.

This morning, I was unpleasantly surprised to receive a message saying that my lab hours are exhausted. Does this mean that only renewing my subscription would give me more lab hours? Is there another way to acquire additional lab hours? I mention this because, in the past, this was never the case. As far as I remember, the lab hour counter only stopped at the end of the subscription period.

What should I do? Training without lab access is not very useful.

[manutavou]

Hi Travis,

Thank you again for taking the time to explain how the RHLS platform works. I understand the technical constraints related to running virtual machines, and I also understand that enforcing the 400-hour limit is now part of a global platform-wide policy.

That said, I must be honest: I remain rather pessimistic about the possibility of receiving an exception for my case. Last year, I exceeded the 400-hour threshold without any issue, and I was able to access the labs for the entire duration of my subscription. This created a very different user experience, and naturally shaped my expectations for lab usage this year.

The core of the issue, in my opinion, is the following:

The current system does not differentiate between actual lab usage and passive platform time.

If the lab start and lab finish commands effectively started and stopped both the lab platform and the lab-hour timer, the situation would be much clearer and much more aligned with what lab hours are supposed to represent.

Even if the VM startup time is long — especially for OpenShift — it would still be coherent and acceptable, because the timer would reflect real lab usage, not passive reading time.

Under the current system, however:

• Lab hours are consumed even when the learner is not using the lab.

• Passive reading time is treated as “lab time”.

• The effective number of hands-on hours is much lower than the 400 hours allocated.

• The learner ends up exhausting lab hours long before the end of the subscription.

This is what has led me to the current situation:
I still have 173 days of subscription left, yet I can no longer access any lab environment  despite the fact that labs are a fundamental part of the learning experience.

I fully respect the constraints on resource costs, but from a pedagogical and user-experience perspective, this creates a clear inconsistency between:

• the duration of the subscription, and

• the ability to actually use the subscription for its intended purpose.

Even if an exception is not possible, I would kindly ask that this feedback be escalated to the RHLS product team.
This issue is structural, and I believe many learners may encounter the same problem  especially those following OpenShift tracks, which are known to require heavy environments and long study cycles.

Thank you again for considering my situation.I appreciate your support, and remain hopeful that a constructive solution or at least an improvement for the future can be found.

Manutavou

   RHLS:

• Days remaining  173
• All lab hours have been used
• E-books claimed 0
• Exams 4/5

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@manutavou Yes learners are strongly advised to use the "Auto Stop" and "Auto destroy" timer in accordance with their choice/plan/strategy to effectively use the available allowed 400 lab hours. 

for OCP based courses - yes it takes 30 mins approx to get initialized ( by design ) every time the lab is stopped or rebuilt -  not a very ideal scenario I agree but in order to give you real production like learning experience to every learner this is what is best available from our side ( I am sure that can be improved in the future ) - learner must plan between lectures and guided exercises and start the lab 30 mins early to have it ready for your practice. 

These all are just our point of view and suggestions to help learners - for all official response on such matters - a ticket is advised to open with the approriate backend support.