Session Settings

Configuring your session options

Configure your session with various options to customize the experience for your students and judges.

Accessing Settings

Navigate to Session from the main menu to access session configuration. The Session menu contains:

  • Dev-ops Templates — Manage templates available to competitors
  • Settings — Session information, feature toggles, and danger zone
  • Servers — Infrastructure and machine configuration
  • Logs — View deployment logs for any student Beta
Modules are managed separately via the Modules menu item in the main navigation.

Session Information

The Settings page displays your session's basic information:

  • Session Name — Read-only, set during session creation
  • Session Logo — Upload or update your session logo (SVG, PNG, JPG)
  • DNS Name — Your session's subdomain (shown in sidebar)

Dev-ops Templates

Dev-ops templates are pre-configured project bases that students use. Each template includes Docker images, deployment scripts, and pre-configured environments.

Managing Templates

Navigate to Session → Dev-ops Templates to manage available templates:

  • View — See all templates available for your account
  • Enable/Disable — Toggle templates on or off for this session
  • Add New — Create custom templates for your account

Adding a Custom Template

Click "Add New Template" to create a custom dev-ops template:

  1. Git Repository URL — Enter a GitHub or GitLab URL and click the fetch button to auto-fill name, slug, and description
  2. Name — Display name shown to students (e.g., "Laravel 11")
  3. Template Name — Slug used in Docker and Git (auto-formatted as you type)
  4. Description — Brief description of included technologies
  5. ZIP File — Upload a ZIP containing the template (optional)
Tip: Enter a GitHub or GitLab URL first, then click the fetch button to automatically populate the template details.
Custom templates are available across your entire account and can be used in any session.
Need help creating a template? See the Dev-ops Template Setup Guide for Dockerfile and workflow examples.

Feature Toggles

Chat

Enable or disable the built-in chat feature for communication during the session.

Marking

Enable the marking room feature for judges and experts to evaluate competitor work.

Student Internet Control

When enabled, allows you to control internet access for individual competitors. Useful for sessions that require restricted network access.

Modules Run in Parallel

Allow multiple modules to run simultaneously. When disabled, only one module can be active at a time.

Advanced Settings

Click the Advanced section header to expand additional session options.

Session Timezone

Set the timezone for your session. This affects how module start/end times are interpreted and displayed. The default is UTC.

  • All module times (start, end, started at, completed at) are shown in the session timezone
  • When you enter a fixed start/end time for a module, it is interpreted in this timezone
  • Auto-start scheduling uses this timezone — a module set to start at 09:00 in UTC+2 will start at 09:00 local time
  • Times are stored internally as UTC for consistency
Set your timezone before creating modules with fixed schedules. Changing the timezone after modules are created will shift their displayed times.

Scheduler Controls

Control how frequently the system collects data about deployments and server health. These settings appear in the Settings page under "Scheduler Controls".

Machine Stats Controls server resource monitoring (CPU, RAM, disk). Disable to reduce load on infrastructure.
Git Data Controls deployment status collection from Git. Disable if deployments are not updating.
Custom Interval Override the default polling frequency (in seconds). Leave empty for automatic adaptive scheduling.

Use Pause All to temporarily stop all background jobs, and Resume All to restore normal operation.

The system uses adaptive scheduling — it automatically adjusts polling frequency based on session activity. Custom intervals override this behavior.

Server Configuration

The Servers tab allows you to configure the infrastructure for your session:

  • Nodes — Physical or virtual servers hosting containers
  • Machines — LXC containers for session infrastructure
  • Network Settings — DNS and DHCP configuration
Server configuration is advanced functionality. Contact support if you need assistance.

Deployment Logs Beta

The Logs tab lets you view deployment logs for any student's containers. This is useful for debugging deployment failures or application errors without needing direct server access.

Accessing Logs

There are two ways to open the Logs page:

  1. Navigate to Session → Logs from the sidebar menu
  2. Click View Logs from any student's dropdown on the Students page — this pre-selects the student automatically

Filtering Logs

Use the cascading filters to narrow down which logs to display:

Student Select a student to view their logs. Required.
Module Optionally filter by module. Leave on "All Modules" to see everything.
Mapping Auto-populated based on student and module selection. The default mapping is pre-selected.
Source Application shows PHP/app container output. Container shows all other Docker output (nginx, etc.).

Log Controls

  • Manual refresh — Click the refresh button to fetch the latest logs
  • Auto refresh — Enable the checkbox to automatically reload logs every 30 seconds
  • Logs show the last 24 hours of entries (up to 200)
The Logs feature must be enabled in your account's feature settings. If disabled, you'll see a message on the Logs page.

Session Lifecycle

A session goes through several stages:

  1. Setup — Configure modules, add competitors, test infrastructure
  2. Deploy — Initialize competitor environments and Git repositories
  3. Running — Active session with modules in progress
  4. Complete — All modules finished, results available
  5. Lock — Archive the session, prevent further changes