# Virtual Machine Leasing

## VM Leasing

VM leasing lets you enforce automatic *power-off* or *deletion* of virtual machines (VMs) after a fixed amount of time. Leases are defined **once per tenant** and inherited by every existing and future VM that belongs to that tenant. Administrators and self-service users can also override the lease for an individual VM when needed.

### Lease-End Actions

| Action        | Result                                                        | Typical Use Case                                   |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **Power Off** | VM is gracefully shut down. Disks and metadata are retained.  | Development or lab workloads you may revive later. |
| **Delete**    | VM (and its attached ephemeral disks) is permanently removed. | Disposable environments or cost-control scenarios. |

## Tenant-Level Lease Policy

You can set the tenant-level lease policy by navigating to **Settings** **>** **Tenants & Users** **>** **Tenants** (on left navigation pane) **>** choose a **Tenant** **>** click the **Manage Lease Policy** button on the table header.

The tenant lease policy management screens allow you to manage the following lease configuration:

**Enable Lease Policy**: Turns leasing on or off for the tenant.

**Lease Duration**: The total time in *Days, Hours, Minutes* that each VM may run before the lease expires. The timer starts at VM creation.

**Action Upon Lease Expiration:** Defines the action triggered on lease expiration.

* **Power Off VM (default**): the VM is shut down.
* **Delete VM:** the VM is deleted.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Info**

Caution If you shorten the lease and existing VMs have already exceeded the new duration, the chosen lease-end action executes immediately.
{% endhint %}

## Per-VM Lease Customization

You can modify a lease at the VM level by navigating to **Virtual Machines** on the left-hand navigation pane **>** **Virtual Machines** **>** select a **virtual machine** **>** **Other** dropdown in the table header **>** **Customize Lease**

You can perform the following actions on the VM lease from the customization screen.

* **Specify action upon lease expiration:** Defines the action triggered on lease expiration for the selected VM. **This selection overrides the action set at the tenant level.**
  * **Power Off VM (default**): the VM is shut down.
  * **Delete VM:** the VM is deleted.
* **End sooner**: Pick a new date/time earlier than the current expiration to force an earlier shutdown or deletion.
* **Extend unexpired VMs**: Extend the lease by *up to one additional lease period* as defined in the tenant policy (e.g., +5 days if the policy is 5 days). You can repeat extensions indefinitely.
* **Extend expired VMs**: Even after a VM’s lease has expired, you can grant an extension (subject to the same maximum).

{% hint style="info" %}
**Info**

After a VM is powered-off by the lease engine, any manual power-on is only momentary. PCD will power the VM off again almost immediately.
{% endhint %}

## Permissions Matrix

The following table outlines the VM leasing permissions that the Admin, Self-Service, and Read-Only roles have.

| Role                  | Set Tenant Policy | Edit Lease (VM-level) | Create VM |
| --------------------- | ----------------- | --------------------- | --------- |
| **Admin**             | ✔                 | ✔                     | ✔         |
| **Self-service User** | ✖                 | ✔                     | ✔         |
| **Read-only User**    | ✖                 | ✖                     | ✖         |

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom                                      | Cause                                      | Resolution                                             |
| -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| VM powers off immediately after you start it | Lease already expired                      | Extend the lease or disable the tenant-level policy.   |
| Cannot extend lease beyond a certain date    | Max extension equals one full lease period | Increase the lease duration at the tenant level first. |