Persistent Sandboxes Overview

In this article:

There are two types of sandboxes in CloudShell and both are displayed and managed from the Sandboxes dashboard: regular and persistent.

  • Regular sandboxes are time-based sandboxes and are great for testing, demos and DevOps.
  • Persistent sandboxes have no end time. Persistent sandboxes are deployed from persistent blueprints.

Configuration

Blueprints defined as persistent blueprints can be deployed either as regular time-limited sandboxes or as persistent sandboxes with no end time.

To configure a persistent blueprint:

  1. Log in to CloudShell.
  2. In the blueprint workspace, open the blueprint properties.

  3. In the General page, select the Enabling the checkbox will allow this blueprint to be reserved either as a persistent sandbox with no end time, or as a regular sandbox check box.

  4. Click Update at the bottom.

Deployment

To deploy a persistent sandbox:

  1. Reserve the blueprint.
  2. In the Reserve dialog box, select Persistent Sandbox.
  3. Click Reserve.

Who can view and manage persistent blueprints/sandboxes

Persistent blueprints/sandboxes are much the same as regular ones in this regard.

  • Regular users, domain admins and system admins can view and manage persistent blueprints.
  • External users defined as permitted users on the persistent sandbox can view and access it.

How are persistent blueprints presented in CloudShell

  • The following indications in the Sandboxes dashboard and in the sandbox workspace are displayed:

    Sandboxes dashboard:

    • Status changes to "Unplanned End" for active persistent sandboxes in the Sandboxes dashboard and more info window (). Running persistent sandboxes also don't have a progress bar.

    Sandbox workspace:

    • Sandbox indication changes to "Persistent Sandbox" and sandbox status is "No End Time"

Restrictions

The following features and options are unavailable for persistent blueprints/sandboxes:

  • Job Scheduling, New Job Scheduling: Persistent blueprint attached to a job is deployed as a regular sandbox and ends when the job's execution ends
  • Save and Restore
  • Duration
  • Extend duration
  • Sandbox's Export Calendar Event (ICS) option
  • Sandbox's Deploy/Update dialog boxes:
  • Schedule, Recurrence
  • Before end email notification