Create a MIG for HPC workloads with reservation-bound consumption

This tutorial shows you how to create a managed instance group (MIG) that uses a H4D HPC-optimized machine type. The MIG uses the reservation-bound provisioning model to obtain compute resources.

Creating a MIG lets you manage multiple virtual machines (VMs) as a single entity. Each VM in a MIG is based on an instance template. By automatically managing the VMs in the group, MIGs offer high availability and scalability. To learn more about MIGs, see Managed instance groups.

To learn about HPC VM and HPC cluster creation options, see Overview of HPC cluster creation.

This tutorial is intended for HPC engineers, platform administrators and operators, and for data and MPI specialists who are interested in creating a group of interconnected HPC instances to run their workloads. The resulting instances don't use an orchestrator for instance management or job scheduling.

If you want to create a managed instance group but don't need to create a dense deployment of instances, see instead Basic scenarios for creating managed instance groups (MIGs).

Objectives

  • Reserve blocks of capacity for the VM instances.
  • Optional: Create Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networks.
  • Optional: Create a workload policy.
  • Create an instance template.
  • Create a MIG using one of the following methods:
    • Create a MIG with a target size.
    • Create a MIG and a resize request.
  • Clean up the resources you created.

Costs

In this document, you use the following billable components of Google Cloud:

To generate a cost estimate based on your projected usage, use the pricing calculator.

New Google Cloud users might be eligible for a free trial.

When you finish the tasks that are described in this document, you can avoid continued billing by deleting the resources that you created. For more information, see Clean up.

Before you begin

  1. 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.

  2. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

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

  4. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  5. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  6. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  7. Enable the required API:

    Roles required to enable APIs

    To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles. 

    gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com

  8. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

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

  10. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  11. Create or select a Google Cloud project.

    Roles required to select or create a project

    • Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
    • Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

    • Create a Google Cloud project:

      gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.

    • Select the Google Cloud project that you created:

      gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID

      Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.

  12. Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  13. Enable the required API:

    Roles required to enable APIs

    To enable APIs, you need the Service Usage Admin IAM role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin), which contains the serviceusage.services.enable permission. Learn how to grant roles. 

    gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com

  14. Grant roles to your user account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1,roles/compute.networkAdmin 

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="user:USER_IDENTIFIER" --role=ROLE

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: your project ID.
    • USER_IDENTIFIER: the identifier for your user account—for example, myemail@example.com.
    • ROLE: the IAM role that you grant to your user account.

Reserve capacity

To use the commands in this tutorial, you must reserve the capacity for creating the instances in the MIG.

Create a future reservation for blocks of capacity

This action lets you reserve blocks of capacity for a defined duration, starting on a specific date and time that you choose. The reservation reserves blocks or sub-blocks of capacity in a cluster, which allows for dense deployments of VM instances.

To create a future reservation for a dense deployment, the process is as follows:

  1. Follow the process to reserve capacity by contacting your account team in the AI Hypercomputer documentation. In your future reservation request, provide the information as documented, with the following exceptions:

    • Machine type: Specify H4D machine types—h4d-standard-192, h4d-highmem-192, or h4d-highmem-192-lssd.
    • Zone: Specify one of the zones where H4D instances are available, as documented in the Available regions and zones table. To display the available zones only for H4D, in the Select a machine series list, select H4D.
    • Maintenance scheduling type: For H4D instances, you can specify either GROUPED or INDEPENDENT.
    • Reservation operational mode: For H4D instances, specify the value HIGHLY_AVAILABLE_CAPACITY.

  2. Quota is automatically increased before capacity is delivered. No action is required from you.

  3. When you create the instance template, specify the reservation-bound provisioning model. The VM instances in the MIG are provisioned from your reserved capacity.

You're charged for the entire reservation period, whether or not you use the reserved resources for the entire period. For more information, see Reservation billing.

Create a future reservation in calendar mode

If you need to use the reserved capacity for less than 90 days, you can create a future reservation in calendar mode using Dynamic Workload Scheduler. To get future reservation resources, the process is as follows:

  1. Search for available capacity and reserve resources by using the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI, or Compute Engine API.
  2. No quota is charged and no action is required from you.
  3. When you create the instance template, specify the reservation-bound provisioning model. The VM instances in the MIG are provisioned from your reserved capacity.

You're charged for the entire reservation period, whether or not you use the reserved resources for the entire period. For more information, see Dynamic Workload Scheduler pricing.

Optional: Create VPC networks

Unless you choose to disable it, each project has a default network, which can be used to provide network connectivity for your instances. When you create a VM, you can specify a VPC network and subnet. If you omit this configuration, the default network and subnet are used.

H4D instances can be configured to use Cloud RDMA. Cloud RDMA enables low-latency reliable messaging capabilities by using an IRDMA network driver that supports Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) between Compute Engine instances.

For this tutorial:

  • If you want to configure the H4D instances to use Cloud RDMA, complete the steps in this section.
  • If you don't want to use Cloud RDMA, then you can skip this section and use the default network instead.

RDMA-enabled instances require a minimum of two network interfaces (NICs):

  • NIC type GVNIC: uses the gve driver for TCP/IP and Internet traffic for normal VM-VM and VM-Internet communication.
  • NIC type IRDMA: uses IDPF/iRDMA drivers for Cloud RDMA networking between instances.

Instances that use Cloud RDMA can have only one IRDMA interface. You can add up to eight additional GVNIC network interfaces for a total of 10 NICs per instance.

To set up the Falcon VPC networks to use with your instances, you can either follow the documented instructions or use the provided script.

Instruction guides

To create the networks, you can use the following instructions:

Script

You can create up to nine GVNIC network interfaces and one IRDMA network interface per instance. Each network interface must attach to a separate network. To create the networks, you can use the following script, which creates two networks for GVNIC and one network for IRDMA.

  1. Optional: Before running the script, list the RDMA network profiles to verify there is one available. 
      gcloud beta compute network-profiles list

  2. Copy the following code and run it in a Linux shell window.

      #!/bin/bash
  # Set the number of GVNIC interfaces to create. You can create up to 9.
  NUM_GVNIC=NUMBER_OF_GVNIC

  # Create standard VPC (networks and subnets) for the GVNIC interfaces
    for N in $(seq 0 $(($NUM_GVNIC - 1))); do
      gcloud compute networks create GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-$N \
          --subnet-mode=custom

      gcloud compute networks subnets create GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-sub-$N \
          --network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-$N \
          --region=REGION \
          --range=10.$N.0.0/16

      gcloud compute firewall-rules create GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-internal-$N \
          --network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-$N \
          --action=ALLOW \
          --rules=tcp:0-65535,udp:0-65535,icmp \
          --source-ranges=10.0.0.0/8
  done

  # Create SSH firewall rules
  gcloud compute firewall-rules create GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-ssh \
      --network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-0 \
      --action=ALLOW \
      --rules=tcp:22 \
      --source-ranges=IP_RANGE

  # Optional: Create a firewall rule for the external IP address for the
  #  first GVNIC network interface
  gcloud compute firewall-rules create GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-allow-ping-net-0 \
      --network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-0 \
      --action=ALLOW \
      --rules=icmp \
      --source-ranges=IP_RANGE

  # Create a network for the RDMA over Falcon network interface
  gcloud beta compute networks create RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma \
      --network-profile=ZONE-vpc-falcon \
      --subnet-mode custom

  # Create a subnet for the RDMA network
  gcloud beta compute networks subnets create RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma-sub \
      --network=RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma \
      --region=REGION \
      --range=10.2.0.0/16  # offset to avoid overlap with GVNIC subnet ranges

    Replace the following:

    • NUMBER_OF_GVNIC: the number of GVNIC interfaces to create. Specify a number from 1 to 9.
    • GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix to use for the standard VPC network and subnet that uses a GVNIC NIC type.
    • REGION: the region where you want to create the networks. This must correspond to the zone specified for the --network-profile flag, when creating the RDMA network. For example, if you specify the zone as europe-west4-b, then your region is europe-west4.
    • IP_RANGE: the range of IP addresses outside of the VPC network to use for the SSH firewall rules. As a best practice, specify the specific IP address ranges that you need to allow access from, rather than all IPv4 or IPv6 sources. Don't use 0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0 as a source range because this allows traffic from all IPv4 or IPv6 sources, including sources outside of Google Cloud.
    • RDMA_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix to use for the VPC network and subnet that uses the IRDMA NIC type.
    • ZONE: the zone where you want to create the networks and compute instances. Use either us-central1-a or europe-west4-b.

  3. Optional: To verify that the VPC network resources are created successfully, check the network settings in the Google Cloud console:

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VPC networks page.

      Go to VPC networks

    2. Search the list for the networks that you created in the previous step.
    3. To view the subnets, firewall rules, and other network settings, click the name of the network.

Optional: Create a workload policy

If you want Compute Engine to place VM instances in a single block or adjacent blocks, then specify instance placement by creating a workload policy. However if you want Compute Engine to place your instances on a specific block, then skip this step and provide the name of the block in the reservation affinity when you create the instance template.

If you already have a workload policy, you can reuse it. When you apply a workload policy to your MIG, Compute Engine makes best-effort attempts to create instances that are as close to each other as possible. If your application is latency-sensitive and you want the instances to be closer together (maximum compactness), then specify the maxTopologyDistance field when creating a workload policy.

You cannot update a workload policy after you create it. To make changes in a workload policy, you must create a new one.

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

gcloud

To create a workload policy, use the gcloud compute resource-policies create workload-policy command.

  • For a best-effort placement of VMs, specify only the --type=high-throughput flag in the command:

    gcloud compute resource-policies create workload-policy WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME \
    --type=high-throughput \
    --region=REGION

  • For strict colocation of VMs, specify the --max-topology-distance flag in the command:

    gcloud compute resource-policies create workload-policy WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME \
    --type=high-throughput \
    --max-topology-distance=TOPOLOGY_DISTANCE \
    --region=REGION

Replace the following:

  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME: the name of the workload policy.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the workload policy. Specify a region in which you want to create the MIG and the machine type that you want to use is available. For information about regions and zones, see Available regions and zones.

REST

To create a workload policy, make a POST request to the resourcePolicies.insert method.

  • For a best-effort placement of VMs, specify only the type field in the request as follows:

    POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/resourcePolicies
  {
    "name": "WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME"
    "workloadPolicy": {
      "type": "HIGH_THROUGHPUT"
    }
  }

  • For strict colocation of VMs, specify the maxTopologyDistance field in the request as follows:

    POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/resourcePolicies
  {
    "name": "WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME"
    "workloadPolicy": {
      "type": "HIGH_THROUGHPUT",
      "maxTopologyDistance": "TOPOLOGY_DISTANCE"
    }
  }

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: your project ID
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the workload policy. Specify a region in which you want to create the MIG and the machine type that you want to use is available. For information about regions and zones, see Available regions and zones.
  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_NAME: the name of the workload policy.

Create an instance template

To specify the instance and consumption properties for each instance in the MIG, create an instance template by using one of the following methods:

gcloud

To create a regional instance template, use the gcloud compute instance-templates create command.

gcloud compute instance-templates create INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --image-family=IMAGE_FAMILY \
    --image-project=IMAGE_PROJECT \
    --instance-template-region=REGION \
    --boot-disk-type=hyperdisk-balanced \
    --boot-disk-size=DISK_SIZE \
    --scopes=cloud-platform \
    
--network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC, \
      network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-0, \
      subnet=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-sub-0, \
      stack-type=STACK_TYPE, \
      address=EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS \
--network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC, \
      network=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-1, \
      subnet=GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-sub-1,no-address \
--network-interface=nic-type=IRDMA, \
      network=RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma, \
      subnet=RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma-sub, \
      stack-type=IPV4_ONLY,no-address \
    --reservation-affinity=specific \
    --reservation=RESERVATION \
    --provisioning-model=RESERVATION_BOUND \
    --instance-termination-action=DELETE \
    --maintenance-policy=TERMINATE

Replace the following:

  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of the instance template.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the H4D machine type to use for the instance.
  • IMAGE_FAMILY: the image family of the OS image that you want to use. For a list of supported operating systems, see Supported operating systems.
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project ID of the OS image.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the instance template. Specify a region in which the machine type that you want to use is available.
  • DISK_SIZE: the size of the boot disk in GiB.

  • GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix that you used when creating the standard VPC networks and subnets for the gVNIC interfaces.

    If you are using the default network, include only a single --network-interface field with the nic-type field set to GVNIC. Also, omit the network and subnetwork settings for this network interface.

  • STACK_TYPE: Optional: the stack type to use for the gVNIC interface. Specify either IPV4_ONLY or IPV4_IPV6. If you don't specify a value, IPV4_ONLY is used by default.

  • EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS: Optional: a static external IPv4 address to use with the gVNIC network interface. You must have previously reserved an external IPv4 address. Do one of the following:

    • Specify a valid IPv4 address from the subnet.
    • Use the flag no-address if you don't want the network interface to have an external IP address.
    • Specify address='' if you want the network interface to receive an ephemeral external IP address.

    To specify an external IPv6 address for the GVNIC network interface, use the flag --external-ipv6-address instead.

  • RDMA_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix that you used when creating the VPC network and subnet for the IRDMA network interface.

    If you are not using Cloud RDMA with your H4D instances, omit the --network-interface field for the IRDMA interface.

  • RESERVATION: the name of the reservation that you want to use.

    RESERVATION: either the reservation name or a specific block within a reservation. To get the reservation name or the available blocks, see View reserved capacity. Based on your requirement for instance placement, choose one of the following:

    • To create instances across blocks or on a single block:

      projects/RESERVATION_OWNER_PROJECT_ID/reservations/RESERVATION_NAME

      Additionally, for a single block, create the MIG by applying a workload policy that specifies a block collocation (maxTopologyDistance=BLOCK) . Compute Engine then applies the policy to the reservation and creates instances on the same block.

    • To create instances on a specific block:

      projects/RESERVATION_OWNER_PROJECT_ID/reservations/RESERVATION_NAME/reservationBlocks/RESERVATION_BLOCK_NAME

REST

To create a regional instance template, make a POST request to the regionInstanceTemplates.insert method.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates
{
  "name":"INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME",
  "properties":{
    "disks":[
      {
        "boot":true,
        "initializeParams":{
          "diskSizeGb":"DISK_SIZE",
          "diskType":"hyperdisk-balanced",
          "sourceImage":"projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/family/IMAGE_FAMILY"
        },
        "mode":"READ_WRITE",
        "type":"PERSISTENT"
      }
    ],
    "machineType":"MACHINE_TYPE",
    
        "networkInterfaces": [
        {
          "network": "GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-0",
          "subnetwork": "GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-sub-0",
          "accessConfigs": [
            {
                "type": "ONE_TO_ONE_NAT",
                "name": "External IP",
                "natIP": "EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS"
            }
          ],
          "stackType": "IPV4_ONLY",
          "nicType": "GVNIC",
      },
      {
          "network": "GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-net-1",
          "subnetwork": "GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX-sub-1",
          "stackType": "IPV4_ONLY",
          "nicType": "GVNIC",
      },
      {
          "network": "RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma",
          "subnetwork": "RDMA_NAME_PREFIX-irdma-sub",
          "stackType": "IPV4_ONLY",
          "nicType": "IRDMA",
      }
    ],
,
    "reservationAffinity":{
        "consumeReservationType":"SPECIFIC_RESERVATION",
        "key":"compute.googleapis.com/reservation-name",
        "values":[
          "RESERVATION"
        ]
      },
    "scheduling":{
        "provisioningModel":"RESERVATION_BOUND",
        "instanceTerminationAction":"DELETE",
        "onHostMaintenance": "TERMINATE",
        "automaticRestart":true
      }
  }
}

Replace the following:

  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of the instance template.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type to use for the instance. Specify a H4D machine type. For more information, see H4D machine types.
  • IMAGE_FAMILY: the image family of the OS image that you want to use. For a list of supported operating systems, see Supported operating systems.
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project ID of the OS image.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the instance template. Specify a region in which the machine type that you want to use is available. For information about regions, see Regions and zones.
  • DISK_SIZE: the size of the boot disk in GiB.

  • GVNIC_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix that you used when creating the standard VPC networks and subnets for the gVNIC interfaces.

    If you are using the default network, include only a single --network-interface field with the nic-type field set to GVNIC. Also, omit the network and subnetwork settings for this network interface.

  • EXTERNAL_IPV4_ADDRESS: Optional: a static external IPv4 address to use with the gVNIC network interface. You must have previously reserved an external IPv4 address.

    To specify an external IPv6 address for the GVNIC network interface, use the flag --external-ipv6-address instead.

  • RDMA_NAME_PREFIX: the name prefix that you used when creating the VPC network and subnet for the IRDMA network interface.

    If you are not using Cloud RDMA with your H4D instances, omit the --network-interface field for the IRDMA interface.

  • RESERVATION: the name of the reservation that you want to use.

    RESERVATION: either the reservation name or a specific block within a reservation. To get the reservation name or the available blocks, see View reserved capacity. Based on your requirement for instance placement, choose one of the following:

    • To create instances across blocks or on a single block:

      projects/RESERVATION_OWNER_PROJECT_ID/reservations/RESERVATION_NAME

      Additionally, for a single block, create the MIG by applying a workload policy that specifies a block collocation (maxTopologyDistance=BLOCK) . Compute Engine then applies the policy to the reservation and creates instances on the same block.

    • To create instances on a specific block:

      projects/RESERVATION_OWNER_PROJECT_ID/reservations/RESERVATION_NAME/reservationBlocks/RESERVATION_BLOCK_NAME

After you create the instance template, you can view the template to see its ID and review its instance properties.

Create a MIG

Depending on your workload requirements, you can create a MIG in either of the following configurations:

Create a MIG with a target size

If you can start your job without creating all of the VM instances at once, then create a MIG with a target size. The target size determines the number of instances in the MIG. The MIG starts creating instances based on current resource availability. If any resource is temporarily unavailable, the MIG continuously attempts to create instances to meet the target size.

To create a MIG with a target size, select one of the following options:

gcloud

To create a MIG with a specified target size, use the instance-groups managed create command.

In this step, the commands to create a MIG use a workload policy to specify VM placement. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then remove the --workload-policy flag.

Create a zonal or regional MIG as follows:

  • To create a zonal MIG, use the following command: 
    gcloud compute instance-groups managed create MIG_NAME \
  --template=INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL \
  --size=TARGET_SIZE \
  --workload-policy=WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL \
  --zone=ZONE
  • To create a regional MIG, use the following command: 
    gcloud compute instance-groups managed create MIG_NAME \
    --template=INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL \
    --size=TARGET_SIZE \
    --workload-policy=WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL \
    --region=REGION
Replace the following:
  • MIG_NAME: the name of the MIG.
  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL: the URL of the instance template that you want to use to create VMs in the MIG. The URL can contain either the ID or name of the instance template. Specify one of the following values:
    • For a regional instance template: projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates/INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
    • For a global instance template: INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
  • TARGET_SIZE: the number of VMs that you want in the MIG.
  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL: Optional: the URL of the workload policy. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then you can remove the --workload-policy flag.
  • ZONE: the zone in which you want to create the MIG. If you use a workload policy, then specify a zone within the policy's region.
  • REGION: the region in which you want to create the MIG. If you use a workload policy, then specify the same region as that of the policy. For a regional MIG, instead of a region, you can specify the zones in that region by using the --zones flag.

REST

To create a MIG with a specified target size, make a POST request as follows.

In this step, the requests to create a MIG use a workload policy to specify VM placement. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then remove the resourcePolicies.workloadPolicy field from the request body.

Create a zonal or regional MIG as follows:

  • To create a zonal MIG, make a POST request to the instanceGroupManagers.insert method. 
    POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers
{
  "versions": [
    {
      "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL"
    }
  ],
  "name": "MIG_NAME",
  "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL",
  "targetSize": "TARGET_SIZE",
  "resourcePolicies": {
    "workloadPolicy": WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL
  }
}
  • To create a regional MIG, make a POST request to the regionInstanceGroupManagers.insert method. 
      POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceGroupManagers
  {
    "versions": [
      {
        "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL"
      }
    ],
    "name": "MIG_NAME",
    "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL",
    "targetSize": "TARGET_SIZE",
    "resourcePolicies": {
      "workloadPolicy": WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL
    }
  }
Replace the following:
  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID.
  • ZONE: the zone in which you want to create the MIG. If you use a workload policy, then specify a zone within the policy's region.
  • REGION: the region in which you want to create a MIG. If you use a workload policy, then specify the same region as that of the policy.
  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL: the URL of the instance template that you want to use to create VMs in the MIG. The URL can contain either the ID or name of the instance template. Specify one of the following values:
    • For a regional instance template: projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates/INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
    • For a global instance template: INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
  • MIG_NAME: the name of the MIG.
  • TARGET_SIZE: the number of VMs that you want in the MIG.
  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL: Optional: the URL of the workload policy. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then you can remove the resourcePolicies.workloadPolicy field.

Create a MIG and a resize request

To create all the requested instances at the same time, create a MIG without any instances in it. After creating the empty MIG, you then create a resize request in the MIG. When the resources are available to create all the instances at once, the resize request adds the instances to the MIG.

To create a MIG and resize request, select one of the following options:

gcloud

In this step, the commands to create a MIG use a workload policy to specify VM placement. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then remove the --workload-policy flag.

Create a zonal or regional MIG and a resize request as follows:

  • To create a zonal MIG and a resize request in it, do the following:

    1. Create a zonal MIG using the instance-groups managed create command as follows.

      gcloud compute instance-groups managed create MIG_NAME \
    --template=INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL \
    --size=0 \
    --workload-policy=WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL \
    --zone=ZONE

    2. Create a resize request in the zonal MIG using the instance-groups managed resize-requests create command as follows:

      gcloud compute instance-groups managed resize-requests create MIG_NAME \
    --resize-request=RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME \
    POPULATION_METHOD \
    --zone=ZONE

  • To create a regional MIG and a resize request in it, do the following:

    1. Create a regional MIG using the instance-groups managed create command as follows.

      gcloud compute instance-groups managed create MIG_NAME \
    --template=INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL \
    --size=0 \
    --workload-policy=WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL \
    --zones=ZONE \
    --target-distribution-shape=any-single-zone \
    --instance-redistribution-type=none

    2. Create a resize request in the regional MIG using the beta instance-groups managed resize-requests create command as follows:

      gcloud beta compute instance-groups managed resize-requests create MIG_NAME \
    --resize-request=RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME \
    POPULATION_METHOD \
    --region=REGION

Replace the following:

  • MIG_NAME: the name of the MIG.
  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL: the URL of the instance template that you want to use to create VMs in the MIG. The URL can contain either the ID or name of the instance template. Specify one of the following values:
    • For a regional instance template: projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates/INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
    • For a global instance template: INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL: Optional: the URL of the workload policy. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then you can remove the --workload-policy flag.
  • ZONE: the zone in which you want to create the MIG. For a regional MIG also, you must specify a zone. This zone must be the zone that contains the profile for your VPC network and must be a zone where the machine type is available. For more information, see Limitations.
  • RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME: the name of the resize request, which must be unique within the specified MIG. Otherwise, creating the resize request fails.

  • POPULATION_METHOD: the method of adding instances to the MIG. Use one of the following:

    • --resize-by=COUNT: add the specified number of instances to the MIG all at once. The instance names are automatically-generated.
    • --instances=INSTANCE_NAME_LIST: add instances with the specified names to the MIG all at once. Replace INSTANCE_NAME_LIST with a comma-separated list of instance names. The number of names you provide determines the number of instances to create with this resize request.
  • REGION: the region in which the MIG is located.

REST

In this step, the requests to create a MIG use a workload policy to specify VM placement. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then remove the resourcePolicies.workloadPolicy field from the request body.

Create a zonal or regional MIG and a resize request as follows:

  • To create a zonal MIG and a resize request in it, do the following:
    1. Create a zonal MIG by making a POST request to the instanceGroupManagers.insert method as follows. 
      POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers
{
  "versions": [
    {
      "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL"
    }
  ],
  "name": "MIG_NAME",
  "targetSize": 0,
  "resourcePolicies": {
    "workloadPolicy": WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL
  }
}
    2. Create a resize request in the zonal MIG by making a POST request to the instanceGroupManagerResizeRequests.insert method as follows: 
      POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instanceGroupManagers/MIG_NAME/resizeRequests
{
  "name": "RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME",
  POPULATION_METHOD
}
  • To create a regional MIG and a resize request in it, do the following:
    1. Create a regional MIG by making a POST request to the regionInstanceGroupManagers.insert method as follows. 
      POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceGroupManagers
{
  "versions": [
    {
      "instanceTemplate": "INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL"
    }
  ],
  "name": "MIG_NAME",
  "targetSize": 0,
  "distributionPolicy": {
    "targetShape": "ANY_SINGLE_ZONE",
    "zones": [
      {
        "zone": "projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE"
      }
    ]
  },
  "updatePolicy": {
    "instanceRedistributionType": "NONE"
  },
  "resourcePolicies": {
    "workloadPolicy": WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL
  }
}
    2. Create a resize request in the regional MIG by making a POST request to the beta.regionInstanceGroupManagerResizeRequests.insert method as follows: 
      POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceGroupManagers/MIG_NAME/resizeRequests
{
  "name": "RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME",
  POPULATION_METHOD
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID.
  • ZONE: the zone in which you want to create the MIG. For a regional MIG also, you must specify a zone. This zone must be the zone that contains the profile for your VPC network and must be a zone where the machine type is available. For more information, see Limitations.
  • REGION: the region in which you want to create the MIG.
  • INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_URL: the URL of the instance template that you want to use to create VMs in the MIG. The URL can contain either the ID or name of the instance template. Specify one of the following values:
    • For a regional instance template: projects/PROJECT_ID/regions/REGION/instanceTemplates/INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
    • For a global instance template: INSTANCE_TEMPLATE_ID
  • MIG_NAME: the name of the MIG.
  • WORKLOAD_POLICY_URL: Optional: the URL of the workload policy. If you don't want to use a workload policy, then you can remove the resourcePolicies.workloadPolicy field.
  • RESIZE_REQUEST_NAME: the name of the resize request, which must be unique within the specified MIG. Otherwise, creating the resize request fails.

  • POPULATION_METHOD: the method of adding instances to the MIG. Use one of the following:

    • "resizeBy":COUNT: replace COUNT with the specified number of instances to add to the MIG all at once. The instance names are automatically-generated.
    • "instanceNames":INSTANCE_NAME_LIST: add instances with the specified names to the MIG all at once. Replace INSTANCE_NAME_LIST with a comma-separated list of instance names. The number of names you provide determines the number of instances to create with this resize request.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used in this tutorial, either delete the project that contains the resources, or keep the project and delete the individual resources.

Delete your project

Delete a Google Cloud project:

gcloud projects delete PROJECT_ID

Delete the resources

  1. Delete resize requests in a MIG.

  2. Delete the MIG and instances.

  3. If the auto-delete state for the disks was set to False in the instance template, then the disks are not automatically deleted when the VM instance is deleted. You can delete the disks using one of the following methods:

    Console

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Disks page.

    Go to Disks

    1. Select the rows that contain the disks that you created in this tutorial. Make sure the In use by column is empty for each disk.

    2. Click Delete, and then click Delete to confirm.

    gcloud

    Use the gcloud compute disks deletecommand.

    gcloud compute disks delete DISK_NAME \
    --project PROJECT_ID --zone ZONE

    Replace the following:

    • DISK_NAME : the name of the disk to delete
    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project that contains the disk
    • ZONE: the zone of the disk

    REST

    Use the disks.delete method to delete the disks.

    DELETE https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project that contains the disk
    • ZONE: the zone of the disk
    • DISK_NAME : the name of the disk to delete

  4. Delete the networks.

  5. Delete the instance template.

What's next