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
