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This page describes the workstation configuration parameters that provide support for boosting your workstations. Specifying a boost configuration temporarily allows your workstation to use a more powerful set of resources on demand, including VM type, GPUs, boot disk size, and nested virtualization. For example, a team may need a more powerful workstation with GPUs attached for certain applications. By specifying a boost configuration in the workstation config, workstations created as a part of this config can be started using the boost configuration when running applications requiring GPUs. In the API, these parameters are collectively referred to as the
BoostConfig.BoostConfig.
Creating a boost configuration
To create a workstation config that includes a boost configuration, run the following gcloud CLI command:
If the workstation config includes a boost configuration, when starting a workstation, users can choose to use a VM provisioned under the BoostConfig by passing the boost config id in the start request. If no boost config id is provided in the start request, the system will choose a VM from the pool provisioned under the default config.
To boost a specific workstation, run the following gcloud CLI command:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Boost your workstation\n\nThis page describes the workstation configuration parameters that provide support for boosting your workstations. Specifying a boost configuration temporarily allows your workstation to use a more powerful set of resources on demand, including VM type, GPUs, boot disk size, and nested virtualization. For example, a team may need a more powerful workstation with GPUs attached for certain applications. By specifying a boost configuration in the workstation config, workstations created as a part of this config can be started using the boost configuration when running applications requiring GPUs. In the API, these parameters are collectively referred to as the\n[`BoostConfig`](/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig).[`BoostConfig`](/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig).\n\nCreating a boost configuration\n------------------------------\n\nTo create a workstation config that includes a boost configuration, run the following `gcloud` CLI command: \n\n```\n gcloud beta workstations configs create WORKSTATION_CONFIG_ID \\\n --cluster=WORKSTATION_CLUSTER_ID \\\n --region=LOCATION \\\n --project=PROJECT_ID \\\n --boost-config=id=BOOST_CONFIG_ID,machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE,accelerators=ACCELERATORS,enable-nested-virtualization=ENABLE_NESTED_VIRTUALIZATION,boot-disk-size=BOOT_DISK_SIZE,pool-size=POOL_SIZE\n```\n\nReplace the following:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e: the ID of the project that contains the workstation configuration.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION\u003c/var\u003e: the location of the workstation cluster.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eWORKSTATION_CLUSTER_ID\u003c/var\u003e: the name workstation cluster that contains the workstation configuration.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eWORKSTATION_CONFIG_ID\u003c/var\u003e: the name of the workstation configuration to be created.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOST_CONFIG_ID\u003c/var\u003e: The ID to be used for the boost configuration.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eMACHINE_TYPE\u003c/var\u003e: The type of machine that boosted VM instances will use (for example,`e2-standard-4`).\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eENABLE_NESTED_VIRTUALIZATION\u003c/var\u003e: Whether to enable nested virtualization.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eACCELERATORS\u003c/var\u003e: A list of the type and count of accelerator cards attached to the boost instance.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOT_DISK_SIZE\u003c/var\u003e: The size of the boot disk for the VM in gigabytes (GB).\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePOOL_SIZE\u003c/var\u003e: The number of boost VMs that the system should keep idle.\n\nSee [Boost Config API reference](/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig) for more information about each parameter and their defaults.\n\nStarting a boosted workstation\n------------------------------\n\nIf the workstation config includes a boost configuration, when starting a workstation, users can choose to use a VM provisioned under the `BoostConfig` by passing the `boost config id` in the start request. If no `boost config id` is provided in the start request, the system will choose a VM from the pool provisioned under the default config.\n\nTo boost a specific workstation, run the following `gcloud` CLI command: \n\n```\n gcloud beta workstations start WORKSTATION_ID \\\n --boost=BOOST_CONFIG_ID\n```\n\nReplace the following:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eWORKSTATION_ID\u003c/var\u003e: the name workstation to start.\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eBOOST_CONFIG_ID\u003c/var\u003e: The ID matching the boost configuration to boost up to."]]
