DevNet Sandbox makes Cisco's free spread of technology available to developers and engineers by providing packaged labs we call Sandboxes. That's right, totally free! There are two types of sandboxes, Always-On and Reservation. Each sandbox typically highlight one Cisco product (think, CallManager, APIC, etc). Sandboxes can be used for development, testing APIs, learning how to configure a product, training, hackathons, and much more!
Always-On (AO) sandboxes are always ready to go when you are! AO sandboxes don't require a reservation. These environments are shared among all users so administrative access is restricted. This provides access to "kick the tires" with non-admin APIs on the fly.
Reservation sandboxes are private access environments and require a reservation. These "pre-packaged" sandboxes often include supporting equipment for the highlighted technology! These sandboxes contain a network, domain, name resolution, development servers and more. Reservation Sandboxes are accessed by connecting to a VPN and full administrative access is granted to all equipment in the sandbox.
Go to https://developer.cisco.com/sandbox and press 'Get Started with Sandbox' Once launched into our portal, the Sandbox catalog will appear. There are various sort and search options here. Look around and pick a Sandbox to try out! Try Always-On and Reservation sandboxes to understand the differences. Once complete, shoot us a line with your thoughts our Community Forum! Continuous feedback helps us to improve the Sandbox.
Having difficulty using Sandbox, or want to ask a question? Ask a question in the DevNet Sandbox Community Forum. We monitor this forum during business days - you can normally expect a response within 24 hours.