Create an AI-optimized G4 instance

This document describes the steps to create standalone virtual machine (VM) instances that use the G4 machine series. To learn more about these accelerator-optimized machine types, see G4 series.

To learn about other ways to create VMs or clusters, see Deployment options overview.

Limitations

When you create a standalone G4 VM, the following limitations apply:

If you want to use a compact placement policy, then review the restrictions for placement policies.

Before you begin

Before creating VMs, if you haven't already done so, complete the following steps:

  1. Choose a consumption option: your choice of consumption option determines how you get and use GPU resources. To learn more, see Choose a consumption option.
  2. Obtain capacity: the process to obtain capacity differs for each consumption option. To learn about the process to obtain capacity for your chosen consumption option, see Capacity overview.

Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

Console

When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

gcloud

In the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell.

Activate Cloud Shell

At the bottom of the Google Cloud console, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. Cloud Shell is a shell environment with the Google Cloud CLI already installed and with values already set for your current project. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.

REST

To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

    Install the Google Cloud CLI.

    If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to create VMs, ask your administrator to grant you the Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to create VMs. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create VMs:

  • compute.instances.create on the project
  • To use a custom image to create the VM: compute.images.useReadOnly on the image
  • To use a snapshot to create the VM: compute.snapshots.useReadOnly on the snapshot
  • To use an instance template to create the VM: compute.instanceTemplates.useReadOnly on the instance template
  • To specify a subnet for your VM: compute.subnetworks.use on the project or on the chosen subnet
  • To specify a static IP address for the VM: compute.addresses.use on the project
  • To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a VPC network: compute.subnetworks.useExternalIp on the project or on the chosen subnet
  • To assign a legacy network to the VM: compute.networks.use on the project
  • To assign an external IP address to the VM when using a legacy network: compute.networks.useExternalIp on the project
  • To set VM instance metadata for the VM: compute.instances.setMetadata on the project
  • To set tags for the VM: compute.instances.setTags on the VM
  • To set labels for the VM: compute.instances.setLabels on the VM
  • To set a service account for the VM to use: compute.instances.setServiceAccount on the VM
  • To create a new disk for the VM: compute.disks.create on the project
  • To attach an existing disk in read-only or read-write mode: compute.disks.use on the disk
  • To attach an existing disk in read-only mode: compute.disks.useReadOnly on the disk

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

Overview

Creating an instance with the G4 machine type includes the following steps:

  1. Optional: Create a compact placement policy
  2. Create an instance
  3. Install GPU drivers
  4. Optional: Enable NVIDIA Multi-Instance GPU mode

Optional: Create a compact placement policy

You can specify VM placement by creating a compact placement policy. When you apply a compact placement policy to your VMs, Compute Engine makes best-effort attempts to create VMs that are as close to each other as possible. If your application is latency-sensitive and requires maximum compactness, then specify the maxDistance field (Preview) when you create a compact placement policy. A lower maxDistance value ensures closer VM placement, but it also increases the chance that some VMs won't be created.

To create a compact placement policy, select one of the following options:

gcloud

To create a compact placement policy, use the gcloud beta compute resource-policies create group-placement command:

gcloud beta compute resource-policies create group-placement POLICY_NAME \
    --collocation=collocated \
    --max-distance=MAX_DISTANCE \
    --region=REGION

Replace the following:

  • POLICY_NAME: the name of the compact placement policy.
  • MAX_DISTANCE: the maximum distance configuration for your VMs, which can either be specified (Preview, recommended) or unspecified (remove the --max-distance flag). Based on what your machine type supports, you can specify one of the following values:
    • To place VMs in the same sub-block: 1
    • To place VMs in the same block: 2
    • To place VMs in adjacent blocks: 3
    Ensure that the maximum distance configuration supports the machine series and number of VMs that you plan to create. For more information, see About compact placement policies in the Compute Engine documentation.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the compact placement policy. Specify the region that contains the zone where you plan to create instances, and verify that the machine type that you want to use is available in that region. For information about regions, see GPU availability by regions and zones.

REST

To create a compact placement policy, make a POST request to the beta resourcePolicies.insert method. In the request body, include the collocation field set to COLLOCATED, and the maxDistance field.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/resourcePolicies
  {
    "name": "POLICY_NAME",
    "groupPlacementPolicy": {
      "collocation": "COLLOCATED",
      "maxDistance": MAX_DISTANCE
    }
  }

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: your project ID.
  • POLICY_NAME: the name of the compact placement policy.
  • MAX_DISTANCE: the maximum distance configuration for your VMs, which can either be specified (Preview, recommended) or unspecified (remove the maxDistance field). Based on what your machine type supports, you can specify one of the following values:
    • To place VMs in the same sub-block: 1
    • To place VMs in the same block: 2
    • To place VMs in adjacent blocks: 3
    Ensure that the maximum distance configuration supports the machine series and number of VMs that you plan to create. For more information, see About compact placement policies in the Compute Engine documentation.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the compact placement policy. Specify the region that contains the zone where you plan to create instances, and verify that the machine type that you want to use is available in that region. For information about regions, see GPU availability by regions and zones.