Admins can create an unallocated pool of pre-provisioned environments within a course. When a user enrols in a self-paced course, instead of having to wait for the environment to build, they are given an environment from the unallocated pool, allowing for instant access.
How it works
When you set an environment pool size, Heropa automatically provisions that many environments in advance.
Provisioning an environment means:
- All required VMs, network(including public IPs), and storage are created.
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The VM is started, allowing boot-up scripts and first-boot configurations to complete.
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Once provisioning is complete, the environment is shut down when the idle shutdown policy is triggered.
This ensures the environment is fully prepared and ready to use when a student enrols. At enrolment, the pre-provisioned environment is assigned instantly and restarted for the student.
Important considerations
Even when an environment is shut down, it still consumes resources:
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Heropa-managed accounts → Provisioned environments consume storage from your subscription.
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BYO cloud accounts → Provisioned environments consume service quota resources (e.g., vCPUs, IP addresses, storage). Maintaining large pools may lead to quota limits being reached.
Configuring the environment pool
In Course Details, Configuration tab, specify how many environments to add to the unallocated pool.
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The unallocated pool level is automatically maintained.
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When a user enrols and an environment is issued, the pool balance is topped back up to the specified number.
Tip: Start with a small pool size and adjust based on course demand to avoid unnecessary resource consumption.
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