Hands-on playground: common questions

The details provided with your Cloud server include a public IP address and a private IP address. If you're using the public IP address, only certain ports are open to external traffic. However, all ports are open to internal traffic to your servers if you're using a private IP address.

These ports are allowed for incoming traffic only. The rules are stateful, so once a connection is established, the connection is allowed to return on the same port. Outbound traffic originating from Cloud servers are only allowed on ports 22, 80, and 443 to the public internet. All other outbound traffic is restricted to within the Cloud server's security group.

The following ports are allowlisted and available to use across the public internet on Cloud servers:

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Whether you delete a Hands-on environment or it shuts down automatically, the data is deleted as well. Environments shut down automatically in the following timeframes:

• Cloud servers: Shut down after four hours and fully deleted after 14 days of non-usage
• Sandboxes: Four hours

  Note: Individual learners are limited to four-hour sessions in sandboxes, but learners on business plans have the option to extend their session by four additional hours. Learn more about Extended time limits.

• Hands on Labs: Under four hours (varies by lab)

Hands-on playground support has full access to data in the Hands-on playground, and use it only to troubleshoot issues and flag account abuse.

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To reset the password for a Cloud server:

1. Navigate to the Cloud Servers (opens in new tab) page.
2. Click the Quick Actions menu for the server you want to reset the password for
3. Click Reset Password.

This resets the password in the Temporary Password field located in the Cloud server's credentials.

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This error occurs if you try to change your cloud_user password without entering the current password. You’ll notice that when you first access the root account using the su- command, or when you first connect to a server using the provided credentials, you'll be prompted to change the password. To change the password, you must enter the "current" temporary password one more time.

When prompted to change your password and log in again, enter the following information in this order:

1. Login credentials provided for the server under Credentials
2. The temporary password
3. Y to continue
4. The temporary password again
5. Your new password

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As a security best practice, you won't be able to SSH into any of your Cloud servers as the root user by default. Once you’ve successfully logged in and changed the root user's password, you can decide whether you want to connect directly and make the appropriate configuration change to your SSH setup.

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Try the following:

1. If you’re creating a new server or restarting an existing one, wait a few minutes before connecting.
2. If you get a Connection Timed Out message, make sure that your router or firewall/network security policy allows for outbound TCP traffic through port 22 (SSH).
3. If you can connect using a public hostname but not the public IP address for your server, try running the dig command on the public hostname of your server in a terminal application. Check to verify that the IP address it returns matches the public IP address listed in your Cloud server details. If it doesn't match, stop and restart the server, then run dig on the public hostname again. When the IP addresses match, try connecting again.

If you still can't connect, submit a Support request.

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No.