Reservation lifecycle
The stages of a reservation, from payment to the end: Pending payment, Upcoming, Setting up, Live and Completed, and the wipe.
On this page
Every reservation moves through the same stages. Its current stage is shown on My Reservations and on the reservation's own page. All times are UTC.
The stages
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending payment | You're at checkout. The days are held for you for about 30 minutes. |
| Upcoming | Paid. The machine is yours from the start of the first day. |
| Setting up | The reservation has started and the machine is being prepared: ready within about 5 minutes. |
| Live | The machine is ready. Your dashboard shows the SSH command. |
| Completed | The reservation has ended and the machine has been wiped. |
Two other outcomes:
| Stage | What it means |
|---|---|
| Expired | The checkout wasn't paid in time, so the hold was released. Nothing was charged. |
| Refunded | The payment was refunded in full, for example after a late payment when no machine was free. |
From payment to start
After you pay, the reservation is Upcoming and you receive a confirmation email with your receipt. Twelve hours before the start we send a pre-start reminder with the dates and the SSH key the machine will be set up with. If you book less than 12 hours ahead, the reminder comes straight away.
The start
A daily reservation starts at 00:00 UTC on its first day. The machine is prepared for you:
- it's set up with the SSH key you chose,
- your startup script, if any, starts running, and
- the reservation turns Live, the SSH command appears in your dashboard, and we email you.
This takes up to about five minutes, during which the reservation shows Setting up.
While it's live
The machine is yours alone. Use it as you like within the Terms of Service: install software, download models, run long jobs. The dashboard shows how much time is left.
An hour before the end, we send an Ending soon email as a reminder to copy your data off.
The end and the wipe
A daily reservation ends at 23:59 UTC on its last day. At the end:
- your access to the machine stops, and running processes are stopped;
- the machine is wiped: your files, downloaded models, installed software, SSH key and any credentials on it are erased before the next customer's reservation;
- the reservation shows Completed.
We keep no backups of anything on the machine. Copy what you need before the end — see Copying files.
Your account keeps the reservation's record: its dates, cost, the SSH key name and the startup script text. You can see them on My Reservations under Past.
Longer than the maximum
A reservation can be at most the plan's maximum number of days (5 by default). For longer work, book a second reservation starting the day after — within your concurrent limit. It may be on a different machine, and it starts from a clean one, so copy your work across before the first one ends.