Create a runtime template

This page shows you how to create a runtime template in Colab Enterprise.

To run code in your notebook, you use a compute resource called a runtime. You can use the default runtime or a runtime created from a runtime template. By creating a runtime template, you can configure the template to optimize a runtime's performance, cost, and other characteristics based on your needs.

Learn more about runtimes and runtime templates.

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Go to project selector

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Vertex AI, Dataform, and Compute Engine APIs.

Enable the APIs

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Go to project selector

Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Vertex AI, Dataform, and Compute Engine APIs.

Enable the APIs

Required roles

To ensure that your user account has the necessary permissions to create a runtime template in Colab Enterprise, ask your administrator to grant your user account the Colab Enterprise Admin (roles/aiplatform.colabEnterpriseAdmin) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

Your administrator might also be able to give your user account the required permissions through custom roles or other predefined roles.

One or more of the required roles includes the dataform.repositories.list permission. Users who are granted the dataform.repositories.list permission or the Code Creator (roles/dataform.codeCreator) role in a project can list the names of code assets in that project by using the Dataform API or the Dataform command-line interface (CLI). Non-administrators using BigQuery Studio can only see code assets that they created or that were shared with them.

Create the runtime template

To create a runtime template, you can use the Google Cloud console or the Google Cloud CLI.

Console

To create a runtime template:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Colab Enterprise Runtime Templates page.

Go to Runtime templates
Click New template.

The Create new runtime template dialog appears.

Runtime basics

In the Runtime basics section, enter a Display name.
In the Region menu, select the region where you want your runtime template.
Optional: Add a Description of your runtime template.
Optional: To add a label, click Add label, and then enter a Key and Value pair. To add more labels, repeat this step.
Click Continue.

Configure compute

In the Configure compute section, in the Machine type menu, select a machine type. For information on machine types, see the Machine families resource and comparison guide.

If you select a machine type that has GPUs, select the Accelerator type and Accelerator count. If you're unable to select the number of GPUs that you want, you might need to increase your quota. See submit a quota increase request.
In the Disk type menu, select a disk type.
In the Disk size field, enter a size in GB.
In the Idle shutdown section:
- To turn off idle shutdown, clear Enable idle shutdown.
- To change the inactivity time period, in Time of inactivity before shutdown (Minutes), change the number to the number of minutes of inactivity that you want. In the Google Cloud console, this setting can be set to any integer value from 10 to 1440.
Click Continue.

Networking and security

In the Networking and security section, in the Network menu, select a network. If you don't select a network, your default network is selected.
In the Subnetwork menu, select a subnetwork.
To turn off public internet access, clear Enable public internet access.
To turn off end-user credential access, clear Enable end-user credentials.

Finish creating the runtime template

Click Create to finish creating the runtime template.

Your runtime template appears in the list on the Runtime templates tab.

gcloud

Before using any of the command data below, make the following replacements:

DISPLAY_NAME: the display name of your runtime template.
PROJECT_ID: your project ID.
REGION: the region where you want your runtime template.
MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type to use for your runtime.
ACCELERATOR_TYPE: the type of hardware accelerator to use for your runtime.
ACCELERATOR_COUNT: the number of accelerators to use for your runtime.

Execute the following command:

Linux, macOS, or Cloud Shell

gcloud colab runtime-templates create --display-name="DISPLAY_NAME" \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --region=REGION \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --accelerator-type=ACCELERATOR_TYPE \
    --accelerator-count=ACCELERATOR_COUNT

Windows (PowerShell)

gcloud colab runtime-templates create --display-name="DISPLAY_NAME" `
    --project=PROJECT_ID `
    --region=REGION `
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE `
    --accelerator-type=ACCELERATOR_TYPE `
    --accelerator-count=ACCELERATOR_COUNT

Windows (cmd.exe)

gcloud colab runtime-templates create --display-name="DISPLAY_NAME" ^
    --project=PROJECT_ID ^
    --region=REGION ^
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE ^
    --accelerator-type=ACCELERATOR_TYPE ^
    --accelerator-count=ACCELERATOR_COUNT

For more information about the command for creating a runtime template from the command line, see the gcloud CLI documentation.

Granting access to the runtime template

After you create a runtime template, you must grant access to it for a principal to be able to use it. A principal can create a runtime from a runtime template only when they have the following:

Access to the runtime template.
The required permissions for creating runtimes.

See Manage access to a runtime template.

Troubleshoot

This section shows you how to resolve issues with creating runtime templates in Colab Enterprise.

Unable to select enough GPUs

While creating a runtime template, you can't select the number of GPUs that you want. This might be because you don't have enough quota.

Colab Enterprise uses Compute Engine quota for GPUs. For more information, see the Compute Engine quota and limits overview.

To resolve this issue, request a higher quota limit.

What's next

Learn more about runtimes and runtime templates.
Learn how to create a runtime based on a runtime template.