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    Create and use Spot VMs

    This page explains how to create and manage Spot VMs , including the following:

    • How to create, start, and identify Spot VMs
    • How to detect, handle, and test preemption of Spot VMs
    • Best practices for Spot VMs

    Spot VMs are virtual machine (VM) instances with the spot provisioning model . Spot VMs are available at a discount of up to 91% off of the default price of standard VMs. However, Compute Engine might reclaim the resources by preempting Spot VMs at any time. Spot VMs are recommended only for fault-tolerant workloads that can withstand VM preemption. Make sure your workload can manage preemption before you decide to create Spot VMs.

    If you want to create and manage Spot VMs with TPUs, then see the Cloud TPU documentation for Spot VMs instead.

    Before you begin

    • Read the conceptual documentation for Spot VMs :
      • Review the limitations and pricing of Spot VMs.
      • To prevent Spot VMs from consuming your quotas for standard VMs' CPUs, GPUs, and disks, consider requesting preemptible quota for Spot VMs.
    • If you haven't already, set up authentication . Authentication verifies your identity for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

      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

      1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:

        gcloud  
init

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

      2. Set a default region and zone .

      Terraform

      To use the Terraform samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

      1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

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

      3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

        gcloud  
auth  
application-default  
login

        You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

        If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity .

      For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .

      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.

    Create a Spot VM

    A Spot VM is any VM that is configured to use the spot provisioning model:

    • VM provisioning modelset to Spotin the Google Cloud console
    • --provisioning-model=SPOT in the gcloud CLI
    • "provisioningModel": "SPOT" in the Compute Engine API

    To learn how to create a Spot VM, select one of the following methods based on how you want to handle preemption :

    Alternatively, to create multiple Spot VMs with the same properties, you can create an instance template , and use the template to create a managed instance group (MIG) . For more information, see best practices .

    Create a Spot VM with 120 seconds for handling preemption

    Before creating a Spot VM with 120-second preemption notice, make sure you handle preemption within your workload .

    gcloud

    To create a Spot VM with a 120-second preemption notice duration from the gcloud CLI, use the gcloud beta compute instances create command and include the --preemption-notice-duration=120s flag. To create Spot VMs, you must include the --provisioning-model=SPOT flag. Optionally, you can specify a termination action for Spot VMs by also including the --instance-termination-action flag.

    gcloud beta compute instances create VM_NAME 
\
    --provisioning-model=SPOT \
    --preemption-notice-duration=120s \
    --instance-termination-action= TERMINATION_ACTION

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME : name of the new VM.
    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .

    For more information about the options you can specify when creating a VM, see Configuration options during instance creation . For example, to create Spot VMs with a specified machine type and image, use the following command:

    gcloud beta compute instances create VM_NAME 
\
    --provisioning-model=SPOT \
    --preemption-notice-duration=120s \
    [--image= IMAGE 
| --image-family= IMAGE_FAMILY 
] \
    --image-project= IMAGE_PROJECT 
\
    --machine-type= MACHINE_TYPE 
\
    --instance-termination-action= TERMINATION_ACTION

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME : name of the new VM.
    • IMAGE : specify one of the following:
      • IMAGE : a specific version of a public image or the image family. For example, a specific image is --image=debian-10-buster-v20200309 .
      • An image family . This creates the VM from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify --image-family=debian-10 , Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.
    • IMAGE_PROJECT : the project containing the image. For example, if you specify debian-10 as the image family, specify debian-cloud as the image project.

    • MACHINE_TYPE : the predefined or custom machine type for the new VM.

      To get a list of the machine types available in a zone, use the gcloud compute machine-types list command with the --zones flag.

    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .

    REST

    To create a Spot VM with a 120-second preemption notice duration from the Compute Engine API, use the beta instances.insert method and include the "preemptionNoticeDuration": { "seconds": 120 } field. You must specify a machine type and name for the VM. Optionally, you can also specify an image for the boot disk.

    To create Spot VMs, you must include the "provisioningModel": spot field. Optionally, you can also specify a termination action for Spot VMs by also including the "instanceTerminationAction" field.

    POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/  PROJECT_ID 
 
/zones/  ZONE 
 
/instances
{
 "machineType": "zones/ ZONE 
/machineTypes/ MACHINE_TYPE 
",
 "name": "  VM_NAME 
 
",
 "disks": [
   {
     "initializeParams": {
       "sourceImage": "projects/ IMAGE_PROJECT 
/global/images/ IMAGE 
"
     },
     "boot": true
   }
 ],
 "scheduling":
 {
     "provisioningModel": "SPOT",
     "preemptionNoticeDuration": { "seconds": 120 },
     "instanceTerminationAction": " TERMINATION_ACTION 
"
 }
}

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID : the project ID of the project to create the VM in.
    • ZONE : the zone to create the VM in. The zone must also support the machine type to use for the new VM.
    • MACHINE_TYPE : the predefined or custom machine type for the new VM.
    • VM_NAME : the name of the new VM.
    • IMAGE_PROJECT : the project containing the image. For example, if you specify family/debian-10 as the image family, specify debian-cloud as the image project.
    • IMAGE : specify one of the following:
      • A specific version of a public image. For example, a specific image is "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/debian-10-buster-v20200309" where debian-cloud is the IMAGE_PROJECT .
      • An image family . This creates the VM from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10" where debian-cloud is the IMAGE_PROJECT , Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.
    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .

    For more information about the options you can specify when creating a VM, see Configuration options during instance creation .

    Create a Spot VM with up to 30 seconds for handling preemption (default)

    By default, a Spot VM is notified of preemption at the start of 30-second best-effort shutdown period, and you must handle preemption within a shutdown script .

    Console

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create an instancepage.

      Go to Create an instance

    2. In Machine configurationpane, which is open by default, complete the following steps:

      1. In the Provisioning modelsection, select Spotfrom the VM provisioning modellist.

      2. Optional: To select the termination action that happens when Compute Engine preempts the VM, complete the following steps:

        1. Expand the VM provisioning model advanced settingssection.
        2. In the On VM terminationlist, select one of the following options:
          • To stop the VM during preemption, select Stop(default).
          • To delete the VM during preemption, select Delete.

    3. In the navigation menu, click Advanced. In the Advancedpane that appears, complete the following steps:

      1. In the Metadatasection, click Add item.
      2. In the Keyfield, enter shutdown-script for the metadata key.
      3. In the Valuefield, add the contents of a shutdown script that handles preemption. For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

    4. Optional: Specify other configuration options. For more information, see Configuration options during instance creation .

    5. To create and start the VM, click Create.

    gcloud

    To create a VM from the gcloud CLI, use the gcloud compute instances create command . To create Spot VMs, you must include the --provisioning-model=SPOT flag. To handle preemption, include the --metadata shutdown-script flag to specify a shutdown script. Optionally, you can specify a termination action for Spot VMs by also including the --instance-termination-action flag.

    gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME 
\
    --provisioning-model=SPOT \
    --metadata shutdown-script= SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT 
\
    --instance-termination-action= TERMINATION_ACTION

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME : name of the new VM.
    • SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT : a shutdown script, which you can format as shown in Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.
    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .

    For more information about the options you can specify when creating a VM, see Configuration options during instance creation . For example, to create Spot VMs with a specified machine type and image, use the following command:

    gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME 
\
    --provisioning-model=SPOT \
    --metadata shutdown-script= SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT 
\
    [--image= IMAGE 
| --image-family= IMAGE_FAMILY 
] \
    --image-project= IMAGE_PROJECT 
\
    --machine-type= MACHINE_TYPE 
\
    --instance-termination-action= TERMINATION_ACTION 
\

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME : name of the new VM.
    • SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT : a shutdown script that handles preemption. For more information about how to format and specify a shutdown script, see Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.
    • IMAGE : specify one of the following:
      • IMAGE : a specific version of a public image or the image family. For example, a specific image is --image=debian-10-buster-v20200309 .
      • An image family . This creates the VM from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify --image-family=debian-10 , Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.
    • IMAGE_PROJECT : the project containing the image. For example, if you specify debian-10 as the image family, specify debian-cloud as the image project.

    • MACHINE_TYPE : the predefined or custom machine type for the new VM.

      To get a list of the machine types available in a zone, use the gcloud compute machine-types list command with the --zones flag.

    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .

    Terraform

    You can use a Terraform resource to create a Spot VM using the scheduling block as shown in the following example.

    To add a shutdown script for handling preemption, also add a metadata block as shown in Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

     resource "google_compute_instance" "spot_vm_instance" {
  name         = "spot-instance-name"
  machine_type = "f1-micro"
  zone         = "us-central1-c"

  boot_disk {
    initialize_params {
      image = "debian-cloud/debian-11"
    }
  }

  scheduling {
    preemptible                 = true
    automatic_restart           = false
    provisioning_model          = "SPOT"
    instance_termination_action = "STOP"
  }

  network_interface {
    # A default network is created for all GCP projects
    network = "default"
    access_config {
    }
  }
}

    REST

    To create a VM from the Compute Engine API, use the instances.insert method . You must specify a machine type and name for the VM. Optionally, you can also specify an image for the boot disk.

    To create Spot VMs, you must include the "provisioningModel": spot field. To handle preemption, also include the "metadata" field and specify a shutdown script. Optionally, you can specify a termination action for Spot VMs by also including the "instanceTerminationAction" field.

    POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/  PROJECT_ID 
 
/zones/  ZONE 
 
/instances
{
  "machineType": "zones/ ZONE 
/machineTypes/ MACHINE_TYPE 
",
  "name": "  VM_NAME 
 
",
  "disks": [
    {
      "initializeParams": {
      "sourceImage": "projects/ IMAGE_PROJECT 
/global/images/ IMAGE 
"
      },
      "boot": true
    }
  ],
  "scheduling":
  {
      "provisioningModel": "SPOT",
      "instanceTerminationAction": " TERMINATION_ACTION 
"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "items": [
      {
        "key": "shutdown-script",
        "value": " SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT 
"
      }
    ]
  }
}

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID : the project ID of the project to create the VM in.
    • ZONE : the zone to create the VM in. The zone must also support the machine type to use for the new VM.
    • MACHINE_TYPE : the predefined or custom machine type for the new VM.
    • VM_NAME : the name of the new VM.
    • IMAGE_PROJECT : the project containing the image. For example, if you specify family/debian-10 as the image family, specify debian-cloud as the image project.
    • IMAGE : specify one of the following:
      • A specific version of a public image. For example, a specific image is "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/debian-10-buster-v20200309" where debian-cloud is the IMAGE_PROJECT .
      • An image family . This creates the VM from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify "sourceImage": "projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-10" where debian-cloud is the IMAGE_PROJECT , Compute Engine creates a VM from the latest version of the OS image in the Debian 10 image family.
    • TERMINATION_ACTION : Optional: specify which termination action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either STOP (default behavior) or DELETE .
    • SHUTDOWN_SCRIPT : a shutdown script that handles preemption. For more information about how to format and specify a shutdown script, see Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

    For more information about the options you can specify when creating a VM, see Configuration options during instance creation .

    Go

    The following example creates a Spot VM without a shutdown script for handling preemption. For more information about how to specify a shutdown script for a new or existing VM, see Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

      import 
  
 ( 
  
 "context" 
  
 "fmt" 
  
 "io" 
  
 compute 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1" 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb" 
  
 "google.golang.org/protobuf/proto" 
 ) 
 // createSpotInstance creates a new Spot VM instance with Debian 10 operating system. 
 func 
  
 createSpotInstance 
 ( 
 w 
  
 io 
 . 
 Writer 
 , 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
  
 string 
 ) 
  
 error 
  
 { 
  
 // projectID := "your_project_id" 
  
 // zone := "europe-central2-b" 
  
 // instanceName := "your_instance_name" 
  
 ctx 
  
 := 
  
 context 
 . 
 Background 
 () 
  
 imagesClient 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 compute 
 . 
  NewImagesRESTClient 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "NewImagesRESTClient: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 defer 
  
 imagesClient 
 . 
 Close 
 () 
  
 instancesClient 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 compute 
 . 
  NewInstancesRESTClient 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "NewInstancesRESTClient: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 defer 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Close 
 () 
  
 req 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 GetFromFamilyImageRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 "debian-cloud" 
 , 
  
 Family 
 : 
  
 "debian-11" 
 , 
  
 } 
  
 image 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 imagesClient 
 . 
 GetFromFamily 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 req 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "getImageFromFamily: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 diskType 
  
 := 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Sprintf 
 ( 
 "zones/%s/diskTypes/pd-standard" 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 disks 
  
 := 
  
 [] 
 * 
 computepb 
 . 
 AttachedDisk 
 { 
  
 { 
  
 AutoDelete 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 Bool 
 ( 
 true 
 ), 
  
 Boot 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 Bool 
 ( 
 true 
 ), 
  
 InitializeParams 
 : 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 AttachedDiskInitializeParams 
 { 
  
 DiskSizeGb 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 Int64 
 ( 
 10 
 ), 
  
 DiskType 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 diskType 
 ), 
  
 SourceImage 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 image 
 . 
 GetSelfLink 
 ()), 
  
 }, 
  
 Type 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 computepb 
 . 
  AttachedDisk_PERSISTENT 
 
 . 
 String 
 ()), 
  
 }, 
  
 } 
  
 req2 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 InsertInstanceRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 InstanceResource 
 : 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 Instance 
 { 
  
 Name 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 instanceName 
 ), 
  
 Disks 
 : 
  
 disks 
 , 
  
 MachineType 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 fmt 
 . 
 Sprintf 
 ( 
 "zones/%s/machineTypes/%s" 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 "n1-standard-1" 
 )), 
  
 NetworkInterfaces 
 : 
  
 [] 
 * 
 computepb 
 . 
 NetworkInterface 
 { 
  
 { 
  
 Name 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 "global/networks/default" 
 ), 
  
 }, 
  
 }, 
  
 Scheduling 
 : 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 Scheduling 
 { 
  
 ProvisioningModel 
 : 
  
 proto 
 . 
 String 
 ( 
 computepb 
 . 
  Scheduling_SPOT 
 
 . 
 String 
 ()), 
  
 }, 
  
 }, 
  
 } 
  
 op 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Insert 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 req2 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "insert: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 = 
  
 op 
 . 
 Wait 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ); 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "unable to wait for the operation: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 instance 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Get 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 GetInstanceRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 Instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 }) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "createInstance: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Fprintf 
 ( 
 w 
 , 
  
 "Instance created: %v\n" 
 , 
  
 instance 
 ) 
  
 return 
  
 nil 
 }

    Java

    The following example creates a Spot VM without a shutdown script for handling preemption. For more information about how to specify a shutdown script for a new or existing VM, see Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

      import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. AccessConfig 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. AccessConfig 
.Type 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Address 
.NetworkTier 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. AttachedDisk 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. AttachedDiskInitializeParams 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. ImagesClient 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. InsertInstanceRequest 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Instance 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. InstancesClient 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. NetworkInterface 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Scheduling 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Scheduling 
. ProvisioningModel 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.io.IOException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.UUID 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException 
 ; 
 public 
  
 class 
 CreateSpotVm 
  
 { 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 void 
  
 main 
 ( 
 String 
 [] 
  
 args 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
 , 
  
 ExecutionException 
 , 
  
 InterruptedException 
 , 
  
 TimeoutException 
  
 { 
  
 // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample. 
  
 // Project ID or project number of the Google Cloud project you want to use. 
  
 String 
  
 projectId 
  
 = 
  
 "your-project-id" 
 ; 
  
 // Name of the virtual machine to check. 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
  
 = 
  
 "your-instance-name" 
 ; 
  
 // Name of the zone you want to use. For example: "us-west3-b" 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
  
 = 
  
 "your-zone" 
 ; 
  
 createSpotInstance 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 // Create a new Spot VM instance with Debian 11 operating system. 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 createSpotInstance 
 ( 
 String 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
 , 
  
 ExecutionException 
 , 
  
 InterruptedException 
 , 
  
 TimeoutException 
  
 { 
  
 String 
  
 image 
 ; 
  
 // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. 
  
 try 
  
 ( 
  ImagesClient 
 
  
 imagesClient 
  
 = 
  
  ImagesClient 
 
 . 
 create 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
 image 
  
 = 
  
 imagesClient 
 . 
  getFromFamily 
 
 ( 
 "debian-cloud" 
 , 
  
 "debian-11" 
 ). 
 getSelfLink 
 (); 
  
 } 
  
  AttachedDisk 
 
  
 attachedDisk 
  
 = 
  
 buildAttachedDisk 
 ( 
 image 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ); 
  
 String 
  
 machineTypes 
  
 = 
  
 String 
 . 
 format 
 ( 
 "zones/%s/machineTypes/%s" 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 "n1-standard-1" 
 ); 
  
 // Send an instance creation request to the Compute Engine API and wait for it to complete. 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 instance 
  
 = 
  
 createInstance 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 attachedDisk 
 , 
  
 true 
 , 
  
 machineTypes 
 , 
  
 false 
 ); 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 printf 
 ( 
 "Spot instance '%s' has been created successfully" 
 , 
  
 instance 
 . 
  getName 
 
 ()); 
  
 return 
  
 instance 
 ; 
  
 } 
  
 // disks: a list of compute_v1.AttachedDisk objects describing the disks 
  
 //     you want to attach to your new instance. 
  
 // machine_type: machine type of the VM being created. This value uses the 
  
 //     following format: "zones/{zone}/machineTypes/{type_name}". 
  
 //     For example: "zones/europe-west3-c/machineTypes/f1-micro" 
  
 // external_access: boolean flag indicating if the instance should have an external IPv4 
  
 //     address assigned. 
  
 // spot: boolean value indicating if the new instance should be a Spot VM or not. 
  
 private 
  
 static 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 createInstance 
 ( 
 String 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
  AttachedDisk 
 
  
 disk 
 , 
  
 boolean 
  
 isSpot 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 machineType 
 , 
  
 boolean 
  
 externalAccess 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
 , 
  
 ExecutionException 
 , 
  
 InterruptedException 
 , 
  
 TimeoutException 
  
 { 
  
 // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. 
  
 try 
  
 ( 
  InstancesClient 
 
  
 client 
  
 = 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
 . 
 create 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 instanceResource 
  
 = 
  
 buildInstanceResource 
 ( 
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 disk 
 , 
  
 machineType 
 , 
  
 externalAccess 
 , 
  
 isSpot 
 ); 
  
  InsertInstanceRequest 
 
  
 build 
  
 = 
  
  InsertInstanceRequest 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setProject 
 ( 
 projectId 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setRequestId 
 ( 
 UUID 
 . 
 randomUUID 
 (). 
 toString 
 ()) 
  
 . 
 setZone 
 ( 
 zone 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setInstanceResource 
 ( 
 instanceResource 
 ) 
  
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 client 
 . 
 insertCallable 
 (). 
 futureCall 
 ( 
 build 
 ). 
 get 
 ( 
 60 
 , 
  
 TimeUnit 
 . 
 SECONDS 
 ); 
  
 return 
  
 client 
 . 
 get 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 } 
  
 private 
  
 static 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 buildInstanceResource 
 ( 
 String 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
  AttachedDisk 
 
  
 disk 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 machineType 
 , 
  
 boolean 
  
 externalAccess 
 , 
  
 boolean 
  
 isSpot 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
  NetworkInterface 
 
  
 networkInterface 
  
 = 
  
 networkInterface 
 ( 
 externalAccess 
 ); 
  
  Instance 
 
 . 
 Builder 
  
 builder 
  
 = 
  
  Instance 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setName 
 ( 
 instanceName 
 ) 
  
 . 
 addDisks 
 ( 
 disk 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setMachineType 
 ( 
 machineType 
 ) 
  
 . 
 addNetworkInterfaces 
 ( 
 networkInterface 
 ); 
  
 if 
  
 ( 
 isSpot 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 // Set the Spot VM setting 
  
  Scheduling 
 
 . 
 Builder 
  
 scheduling 
  
 = 
  
 builder 
 . 
 getScheduling 
 () 
  
 . 
 toBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
  setProvisioningModel 
 
 ( 
  ProvisioningModel 
 
 . 
 SPOT 
 . 
 name 
 ()) 
  
 . 
  setInstanceTerminationAction 
 
 ( 
 "STOP" 
 ); 
  
 builder 
 . 
 setScheduling 
 ( 
 scheduling 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 return 
  
 builder 
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 } 
  
 private 
  
 static 
  
  NetworkInterface 
 
  
 networkInterface 
 ( 
 boolean 
  
 externalAccess 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
  NetworkInterface 
 
 . 
 Builder 
  
 build 
  
 = 
  
  NetworkInterface 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setNetwork 
 ( 
 "global/networks/default" 
 ); 
  
 if 
  
 ( 
 externalAccess 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
  AccessConfig 
 
 . 
 Builder 
  
 accessConfig 
  
 = 
  
  AccessConfig 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setType 
 ( 
 Type 
 . 
 ONE_TO_ONE_NAT 
 . 
 name 
 ()) 
  
 . 
 setName 
 ( 
 "External NAT" 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setNetworkTier 
 ( 
 NetworkTier 
 . 
 PREMIUM 
 . 
 name 
 ()); 
  
 build 
 . 
  addAccessConfigs 
 
 ( 
 accessConfig 
 . 
 build 
 ()); 
  
 } 
  
 return 
  
 build 
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 } 
  
 private 
  
 static 
  
  AttachedDisk 
 
  
 buildAttachedDisk 
 ( 
 String 
  
 sourceImage 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
  AttachedDiskInitializeParams 
 
  
 initializeParams 
  
 = 
  
  AttachedDiskInitializeParams 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setSourceImage 
 ( 
 sourceImage 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setDiskSizeGb 
 ( 
 10 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setDiskType 
 ( 
 String 
 . 
 format 
 ( 
 "zones/%s/diskTypes/pd-standard" 
 , 
  
 zone 
 )) 
  
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 return 
  
  AttachedDisk 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
  setInitializeParams 
 
 ( 
 initializeParams 
 ) 
  
 // Remember to set auto_delete to True if you want the disk to be deleted 
  
 // when you delete your VM instance. 
  
 . 
 setAutoDelete 
 ( 
 true 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setBoot 
 ( 
 true 
 ) 
  
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 } 
 }

    Python

    The following example creates a Spot VM without a shutdown script for handling preemption. For more information about how to specify a shutdown script for a new or existing VM, see Run shutdown scripts . For an example shutdown script, see Handle preemption in this document.

      from 
  
 __future__ 
  
 import 
 annotations 
 import 
  
 re 
 import 
  
 sys 
 from 
  
 typing 
  
 import 
 Any 
 import 
  
 warnings 
 from 
  
 google.api_core.extended_operation 
  
 import 
 ExtendedOperation 
 from 
  
 google.cloud 
  
 import 
 compute_v1 
 def 
  
 get_image_from_family 
 ( 
 project 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 family 
 : 
 str 
 ) 
 - 
> compute_v1 
 . 
 Image 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Retrieve the newest image that is part of a given family in a project. 
 Args: 
 project: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to get image from. 
 family: name of the image family you want to get image from. 
 Returns: 
 An Image object. 
 """ 
 image_client 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 ImagesClient 
 () 
 # List of public operating system (OS) images: https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images/os-details 
 newest_image 
 = 
 image_client 
 . 
 get_from_family 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project 
 , 
 family 
 = 
 family 
 ) 
 return 
 newest_image 
 def 
  
 disk_from_image 
 ( 
 disk_type 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 disk_size_gb 
 : 
 int 
 , 
 boot 
 : 
 bool 
 , 
 source_image 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 auto_delete 
 : 
 bool 
 = 
 True 
 , 
 ) 
 - 
> compute_v1 
 . 
 AttachedDisk 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Create an AttachedDisk object to be used in VM instance creation. Uses an image as the 
 source for the new disk. 
 Args: 
 disk_type: the type of disk you want to create. This value uses the following format: 
 "zones/{zone}/diskTypes/(pd-standard|pd-ssd|pd-balanced|pd-extreme)". 
 For example: "zones/us-west3-b/diskTypes/pd-ssd" 
 disk_size_gb: size of the new disk in gigabytes 
 boot: boolean flag indicating whether this disk should be used as a boot disk of an instance 
 source_image: source image to use when creating this disk. You must have read access to this disk. This can be one 
 of the publicly available images or an image from one of your projects. 
 This value uses the following format: "projects/{project_name}/global/images/{image_name}" 
 auto_delete: boolean flag indicating whether this disk should be deleted with the VM that uses it 
 Returns: 
 AttachedDisk object configured to be created using the specified image. 
 """ 
 boot_disk 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AttachedDisk 
 () 
 initialize_params 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AttachedDiskInitializeParams 
 () 
 initialize_params 
 . 
 source_image 
 = 
 source_image 
 initialize_params 
 . 
 disk_size_gb 
 = 
 disk_size_gb 
 initialize_params 
 . 
 disk_type 
 = 
 disk_type 
 boot_disk 
 . 
 initialize_params 
 = 
 initialize_params 
 # Remember to set auto_delete to True if you want the disk to be deleted when you delete 
 # your VM instance. 
 boot_disk 
 . 
 auto_delete 
 = 
 auto_delete 
 boot_disk 
 . 
 boot 
 = 
 boot 
 return 
 boot_disk 
 def 
  
 wait_for_extended_operation 
 ( 
 operation 
 : 
 ExtendedOperation 
 , 
 verbose_name 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 "operation" 
 , 
 timeout 
 : 
 int 
 = 
 300 
 ) 
 - 
> Any 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Waits for the extended (long-running) operation to complete. 
 If the operation is successful, it will return its result. 
 If the operation ends with an error, an exception will be raised. 
 If there were any warnings during the execution of the operation 
 they will be printed to sys.stderr. 
 Args: 
 operation: a long-running operation you want to wait on. 
 verbose_name: (optional) a more verbose name of the operation, 
 used only during error and warning reporting. 
 timeout: how long (in seconds) to wait for operation to finish. 
 If None, wait indefinitely. 
 Returns: 
 Whatever the operation.result() returns. 
 Raises: 
 This method will raise the exception received from `operation.exception()` 
 or RuntimeError if there is no exception set, but there is an `error_code` 
 set for the `operation`. 
 In case of an operation taking longer than `timeout` seconds to complete, 
 a `concurrent.futures.TimeoutError` will be raised. 
 """ 
 result 
 = 
 operation 
 . 
 result 
 ( 
 timeout 
 = 
 timeout 
 ) 
 if 
 operation 
 . 
 error_code 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Error during 
 { 
 verbose_name 
 } 
 : [Code: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 error_code 
 } 
 ]: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 error_message 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 , 
 ) 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Operation ID: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 name 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 raise 
 operation 
 . 
 exception 
 () 
 or 
 RuntimeError 
 ( 
 operation 
 . 
 error_message 
 ) 
 if 
 operation 
 . 
 warnings 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Warnings during 
 { 
 verbose_name 
 } 
 : 
 \n 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 for 
 warning 
 in 
 operation 
 . 
 warnings 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 " - 
 { 
 warning 
 . 
 code 
 } 
 : 
 { 
 warning 
 . 
 message 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 return 
 result 
 def 
  
 create_instance 
 ( 
 project_id 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 zone 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 instance_name 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 disks 
 : 
 list 
 [ 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AttachedDisk 
 ], 
 machine_type 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 "n1-standard-1" 
 , 
 network_link 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 "global/networks/default" 
 , 
 subnetwork_link 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 None 
 , 
 internal_ip 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 None 
 , 
 external_access 
 : 
 bool 
 = 
 False 
 , 
 external_ipv4 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 None 
 , 
 accelerators 
 : 
 list 
 [ 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AcceleratorConfig 
 ] 
 = 
 None 
 , 
 preemptible 
 : 
 bool 
 = 
 False 
 , 
 spot 
 : 
 bool 
 = 
 False 
 , 
 instance_termination_action 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 "STOP" 
 , 
 custom_hostname 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 None 
 , 
 delete_protection 
 : 
 bool 
 = 
 False 
 , 
 ) 
 - 
> compute_v1 
 . 
 Instance 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Send an instance creation request to the Compute Engine API and wait for it to complete. 
 Args: 
 project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 zone: name of the zone to create the instance in. For example: "us-west3-b" 
 instance_name: name of the new virtual machine (VM) instance. 
 disks: a list of compute_v1.AttachedDisk objects describing the disks 
 you want to attach to your new instance. 
 machine_type: machine type of the VM being created. This value uses the 
 following format: "zones/{zone}/machineTypes/{type_name}". 
 For example: "zones/europe-west3-c/machineTypes/f1-micro" 
 network_link: name of the network you want the new instance to use. 
 For example: "global/networks/default" represents the network 
 named "default", which is created automatically for each project. 
 subnetwork_link: name of the subnetwork you want the new instance to use. 
 This value uses the following format: 
 "regions/{region}/subnetworks/{subnetwork_name}" 
 internal_ip: internal IP address you want to assign to the new instance. 
 By default, a free address from the pool of available internal IP addresses of 
 used subnet will be used. 
 external_access: boolean flag indicating if the instance should have an external IPv4 
 address assigned. 
 external_ipv4: external IPv4 address to be assigned to this instance. If you specify 
 an external IP address, it must live in the same region as the zone of the instance. 
 This setting requires `external_access` to be set to True to work. 
 accelerators: a list of AcceleratorConfig objects describing the accelerators that will 
 be attached to the new instance. 
 preemptible: boolean value indicating if the new instance should be preemptible 
 or not. Preemptible VMs have been deprecated and you should now use Spot VMs. 
 spot: boolean value indicating if the new instance should be a Spot VM or not. 
 instance_termination_action: What action should be taken once a Spot VM is terminated. 
 Possible values: "STOP", "DELETE" 
 custom_hostname: Custom hostname of the new VM instance. 
 Custom hostnames must conform to RFC 1035 requirements for valid hostnames. 
 delete_protection: boolean value indicating if the new virtual machine should be 
 protected against deletion or not. 
 Returns: 
 Instance object. 
 """ 
 instance_client 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 InstancesClient 
 () 
 # Use the network interface provided in the network_link argument. 
 network_interface 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 NetworkInterface 
 () 
 network_interface 
 . 
 network 
 = 
 network_link 
 if 
 subnetwork_link 
 : 
 network_interface 
 . 
 subnetwork 
 = 
 subnetwork_link 
 if 
 internal_ip 
 : 
 network_interface 
 . 
 network_i_p 
 = 
 internal_ip 
 if 
 external_access 
 : 
 access 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AccessConfig 
 () 
 access 
 . 
 type_ 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 AccessConfig 
 . 
 Type 
 . 
 ONE_TO_ONE_NAT 
 . 
 name 
 access 
 . 
 name 
 = 
 "External NAT" 
 access 
 . 
 network_tier 
 = 
 access 
 . 
 NetworkTier 
 . 
 PREMIUM 
 . 
 name 
 if 
 external_ipv4 
 : 
 access 
 . 
 nat_i_p 
 = 
 external_ipv4 
 network_interface 
 . 
 access_configs 
 = 
 [ 
 access 
 ] 
 # Collect information into the Instance object. 
 instance 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Instance 
 () 
 instance 
 . 
 network_interfaces 
 = 
 [ 
 network_interface 
 ] 
 instance 
 . 
 name 
 = 
 instance_name 
 instance 
 . 
 disks 
 = 
 disks 
 if 
 re 
 . 
 match 
 ( 
 r 
 "^zones/[a-z\d\-]+/machineTypes/[a-z\d\-]+$" 
 , 
 machine_type 
 ): 
 instance 
 . 
 machine_type 
 = 
 machine_type 
 else 
 : 
 instance 
 . 
 machine_type 
 = 
 f 
 "zones/ 
 { 
 zone 
 } 
 /machineTypes/ 
 { 
 machine_type 
 } 
 " 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Scheduling 
 () 
 if 
 accelerators 
 : 
 instance 
 . 
 guest_accelerators 
 = 
 accelerators 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 . 
 on_host_maintenance 
 = 
 ( 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Scheduling 
 . 
 OnHostMaintenance 
 . 
 TERMINATE 
 . 
 name 
 ) 
 if 
 preemptible 
 : 
 # Set the preemptible setting 
 warnings 
 . 
 warn 
 ( 
 "Preemptible VMs are being replaced by Spot VMs." 
 , 
 DeprecationWarning 
 ) 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Scheduling 
 () 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 . 
 preemptible 
 = 
 True 
 if 
 spot 
 : 
 # Set the Spot VM setting 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 . 
 provisioning_model 
 = 
 ( 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 Scheduling 
 . 
 ProvisioningModel 
 . 
 SPOT 
 . 
 name 
 ) 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 . 
 instance_termination_action 
 = 
 instance_termination_action 
 if 
 custom_hostname 
 is 
 not 
 None 
 : 
 # Set the custom hostname for the instance 
 instance 
 . 
 hostname 
 = 
 custom_hostname 
 if 
 delete_protection 
 : 
 # Set the delete protection bit 
 instance 
 . 
 deletion_protection 
 = 
 True 
 # Prepare the request to insert an instance. 
 request 
 = 
 compute_v1 
 . 
 InsertInstanceRequest 
 () 
 request 
 . 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 request 
 . 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 request 
 . 
 instance_resource 
 = 
 instance 
 # Wait for the create operation to complete. 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Creating the 
 { 
 instance_name 
 } 
 instance in 
 { 
 zone 
 } 
 ..." 
 ) 
 operation 
 = 
 instance_client 
 . 
 insert 
 ( 
 request 
 = 
 request 
 ) 
 wait_for_extended_operation 
 ( 
 operation 
 , 
 "instance creation" 
 ) 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Instance 
 { 
 instance_name 
 } 
 created." 
 ) 
 return 
 instance_client 
 . 
 get 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 , 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_name 
 ) 
 def 
  
 create_spot_instance 
 ( 
 project_id 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 zone 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 instance_name 
 : 
 str 
 ) 
 - 
> compute_v1 
 . 
 Instance 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Create a new Spot VM instance with Debian 10 operating system. 
 Args: 
 project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 zone: name of the zone to create the instance in. For example: "us-west3-b" 
 instance_name: name of the new virtual machine (VM) instance. 
 Returns: 
 Instance object. 
 """ 
 newest_debian 
 = 
 get_image_from_family 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 "debian-cloud" 
 , 
 family 
 = 
 "debian-11" 
 ) 
 disk_type 
 = 
 f 
 "zones/ 
 { 
 zone 
 } 
 /diskTypes/pd-standard" 
 disks 
 = 
 [ 
 disk_from_image 
 ( 
 disk_type 
 , 
 10 
 , 
 True 
 , 
 newest_debian 
 . 
 self_link 
 )] 
 instance 
 = 
 create_instance 
 ( 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 , 
 instance_name 
 , 
 disks 
 , 
 spot 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 return 
 instance

    Start Spot VMs

    Like other VMs, Spot VMs start upon creation. Likewise, if Spot VMs are stopped, you can restart the VMs to resume the RUNNING state. You can stop and restart preempted Spot VMs as many times as you would like, as long as there is capacity. For more information, see VM instance life cycle .

    If Compute Engine stops one or more Spot VMs in an autoscaling managed instance group (MIG) or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster, the group restarts the VMs when the resources become available again.

    Identify a VM's provisioning model and termination action

    Identify a VM's provisioning model to see if it is a standard VM, Spot VM, or preemptible VM . For a Spot VM, you can also identify the termination action . You can identify a VM's provisioning model and termination action using the Google Cloud console, gcloud CLI, or the Compute Engine API.

    Console

    1. Go to the VM instancespage.

      Go to the VM instances page

    2. Click the Nameof the VM you want to identify. The VM instance detailspage opens.

    3. Go to the Managementsection at the bottom of the page. In the Availability policiessubsection, check the following options:

      • If the VM provisioning modelis set to Spot, the VM is a Spot VM.
        • On VM terminationindicates which action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either Stopor Deletethe VM.
      • Otherwise, if the VM provisioning modelis set to Standardor —:
        • If the Preemptibilityoption is set to On, the VM is a preemptible VM.
        • Otherwise, the VM is a standard VM.

    gcloud

    To describe a VM from the gcloud CLI, use the gcloud compute instances describe command :

    gcloud compute instances describe VM_NAME

    where VM_NAME is the name of the VM that you want to check.

    In the output, check the scheduling field to identify the VM:

    • If the output includes the provisioningModel field set to SPOT , similar to the following, the VM is a Spot VM.

      ...
scheduling:
...
provisioningModel: SPOT
instanceTerminationAction: TERMINATION_ACTION 
...

      where TERMINATION_ACTION indicates which action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either stop ( STOP ) or delete ( DELETE ) the VM. If the instanceTerminationAction field is missing, the default value is STOP .

    • Otherwise, if the output includes the provisioningModel field set to standard or if the output omits the provisioningModel field:

      • If the output includes the preemptible field set to true , the VM is a preemptible VM.
      • Otherwise, the VM is a standard VM.

    REST

    To describe a VM from the Compute Engine API, use the instances.get method :

    GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ PROJECT_ID 
/zones/ ZONE 
/instances/ VM_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID : the project ID of the project that the VM is in.
    • ZONE : the zone where the VM is located.
    • VM_NAME : the name of the VM that you want to check.

    In the output, check the scheduling field to identify the VM:

    • If the output includes the provisioningModel field set to SPOT , similar to the following, the VM is a Spot VM.

      {
  ...
  "scheduling":
  {
     ...
     "provisioningModel": "SPOT",
     "instanceTerminationAction": " TERMINATION_ACTION 
"
     ...
  },
  ...
}

      where TERMINATION_ACTION indicates which action to take when Compute Engine preempts the VM, either stop ( STOP ) or delete ( DELETE ) the VM. If the instanceTerminationAction field is missing, the default value is STOP .

    • Otherwise, if the output includes the provisioningModel field set to standard or if the output omits the provisioningModel field:

      • If the output includes the preemptible field set to true , the VM is a preemptible VM.
      • Otherwise, the VM is a standard VM.

    Go

      import 
  
 ( 
  
 "context" 
  
 "fmt" 
  
 "io" 
  
 compute 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1" 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb" 
 ) 
 // isSpotVM checks if a given instance is a Spot VM or not. 
 func 
  
 isSpotVM 
 ( 
 w 
  
 io 
 . 
 Writer 
 , 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
  
 string 
 ) 
  
 ( 
 bool 
 , 
  
 error 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 // projectID := "your_project_id" 
  
 // zone := "europe-central2-b" 
  
 // instanceName := "your_instance_name" 
  
 ctx 
  
 := 
  
 context 
 . 
 Background 
 () 
  
 client 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 compute 
 . 
  NewInstancesRESTClient 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 false 
 , 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "NewInstancesRESTClient: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 defer 
  
 client 
 . 
 Close 
 () 
  
 req 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 GetInstanceRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 Instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 } 
  
 instance 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 client 
 . 
 Get 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 req 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 false 
 , 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "GetInstance: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 isSpot 
  
 := 
  
 instance 
 . 
 GetScheduling 
 (). 
 GetProvisioningModel 
 () 
  
 == 
  
 computepb 
 . 
  Scheduling_SPOT 
 
 . 
 String 
 () 
  
 var 
  
 isSpotMessage 
  
 string 
  
 if 
  
 ! 
 isSpot 
  
 { 
  
 isSpotMessage 
  
 = 
  
 " not" 
  
 } 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Fprintf 
 ( 
 w 
 , 
  
 "Instance %s is%s spot\n" 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 isSpotMessage 
 ) 
  
 return 
  
 instance 
 . 
 GetScheduling 
 (). 
 GetProvisioningModel 
 () 
  
 == 
  
 computepb 
 . 
  Scheduling_SPOT 
 
 . 
 String 
 (), 
  
 nil 
 }

    Java

      import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Instance 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. InstancesClient 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Scheduling 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.io.IOException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException 
 ; 
 public 
  
 class 
 CheckIsSpotVm 
  
 { 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 void 
  
 main 
 ( 
 String 
 [] 
  
 args 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
 , 
  
 ExecutionException 
 , 
  
 InterruptedException 
 , 
  
 TimeoutException 
  
 { 
  
 // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample. 
  
 // Project ID or project number of the Google Cloud project you want to use. 
  
 String 
  
 projectId 
  
 = 
  
 "your-project-id" 
 ; 
  
 // Name of the virtual machine to check. 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
  
 = 
  
 "your-route-name" 
 ; 
  
 // Name of the zone you want to use. For example: "us-west3-b" 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
  
 = 
  
 "your-zone" 
 ; 
  
 boolean 
  
 isSpotVm 
  
 = 
  
 isSpotVm 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 zone 
 ); 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 printf 
 ( 
 "Is %s spot VM instance - %s" 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 isSpotVm 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 // Check if a given instance is Spot VM or not. 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 boolean 
  
 isSpotVm 
 ( 
 String 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 ) 
  
 throws 
  
 IOException 
  
 { 
  
 // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created 
  
 // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. 
  
 try 
  
 ( 
  InstancesClient 
 
  
 client 
  
 = 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
 . 
 create 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 instance 
  
 = 
  
 client 
 . 
 get 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 ); 
  
 return 
  
 instance 
 . 
  getScheduling 
 
 (). 
 getProvisioningModel 
 () 
  
 . 
 equals 
 ( 
  Scheduling 
 
 . 
 ProvisioningModel 
 . 
 SPOT 
 . 
 name 
 ()); 
  
 } 
  
 } 
 }

    Python

      from 
  
 google.cloud 
  
 import 
  compute_v1 
 
 def 
  
 is_spot_vm 
 ( 
 project_id 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 zone 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 instance_name 
 : 
 str 
 ) 
 - 
> bool 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Check if a given instance is Spot VM or not. 
 Args: 
 project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 zone: name of the zone you want to use. For example: "us-west3-b" 
 instance_name: name of the virtual machine to check. 
 Returns: 
 The Spot VM status of the instance. 
 """ 
 instance_client 
 = 
  compute_v1 
 
 . 
  InstancesClient 
 
 () 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_client 
 . 
  get 
 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 , 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_name 
 ) 
 return 
 ( 
 instance 
 . 
 scheduling 
 . 
 provisioning_model 
 == 
  compute_v1 
 
 . 
  Scheduling 
 
 . 
  ProvisioningModel 
 
 . 
 SPOT 
 . 
 name 
 )

    Manage preemption of a Spot VM

    To learn how to manage the preemption of a Spot VM, review the following sections:

    Handle preemption

    When Compute Engine begins preempting a Spot VM, you can try to perform cleanup actions before the VM finishes shutting down. Handling preemption can include gracefully stopping a running process and transferring the state of your workload.

    You can use the following methods to handle preemption for a Spot VM:

    • Handle preemption within your workload.We recommend this method for Spot VMs with a 120-second preemption notice duration ( Preview ). Specifically, within your workload, configure code for handling preemption to wait to run until preemption starts as explained in Detect preemption within a VM . Then, your code for handling preemption runs during the preemption notice duration . (Optionally, these VMs can also specify a shutdown script, which runs during a shutdown period.)
    • Handle preemption within a shutdown script.We recommend this method for Spot VMs without a preemption notice duration, which is the default configuration. Specifically, configure your code for handling preemption within a shutdown script as shown in the following example. The shutdown script automatically runs for up to 30 seconds during the best-effort shutdown period for any type of shutdown. Consequently, you might want to configure the code for handling preemption to only run if the VM is being preempted as explained in Detect preemption within a VM .

    The following example demonstrates how to handle preemption by uploading a checkpoint file to a Cloud Storage bucket within a shutdown script, and how to add a shutdown script while creating or updating a Spot VM. This script runs when the VM starts to shut down, before the operating system's normal kill command stops all remaining processes. After gracefully stopping a specified program, the script performs a parallel upload of a checkpoint file to a Cloud Storage bucket.

    #!/bin/bash

MY_PROGRAM=" PROGRAM_NAME 
" # For example, "apache2" or "nginx"
MY_USER=" LOCAL_USER 
"
CHECKPOINT="/home/$MY_USER/checkpoint.out"
BUCKET_NAME=" BUCKET_NAME 
" # For example, "my-checkpoint-files" (without gs://)

echo "Shutting down!  Seeing if ${MY_PROGRAM} is running."

# Find the newest copy of $MY_PROGRAM
PID="$(pgrep -n "$MY_PROGRAM")"

if [[ "$?" -ne 0 ]]; then
  echo "${MY_PROGRAM} not running, shutting down immediately."
  exit 0
fi

echo "Sending SIGINT to $PID"
kill -2 "$PID"

# Portable waitpid equivalent
while kill -0 "$PID"; do
   sleep 1
done

echo "$PID is done, copying ${CHECKPOINT} to gs://${BUCKET_NAME} as ${MY_USER}"

su "${MY_USER}" -c "gcloud storage cp $CHECKPOINT gs://${BUCKET_NAME}/"

echo "Done uploading, shutting down."

    This script assumes the following:

    • The VM was created with at least read/write access to Cloud Storage. For instructions about how to create a VM with the appropriate scopes, see the authentication documentation .

    • You have an existing Cloud Storage bucket and permission to write to it.

    To add this script to a VM, configure the script to work with the workload on your VM and add it to the VM's metadata.

    1. Copy or download the shutdown script:

      • Copy the preceding shutdown script after replacing the following:

        • PROGRAM_NAME is the name of the process or program you want to shut down. For example, apache2 or nginx .
        • LOCAL_USER is the username you are logged into the virtual machine as.
        • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the Cloud Storage bucket where you want to save the program's checkpoint file. Note the bucket name does not start with gs:// in this case.

      • Download the shutdown script to your local workstation and then replace the following variables in the file:

        • [PROGRAM_NAME] is the name of the process or program you want to shut down. For example, apache2 or nginx .
        • [LOCAL_USER] is the username you are logged into the virtual machine as.
        • [BUCKET_NAME] is the name of the Cloud Storage bucket where you want to save the program's checkpoint file. Note the bucket name does not start with gs:// in this case.

    2. Add the shutdown script to a new VM or an existing VM .

    Detect preemption of Spot VMs

    The following sections explain the methods you can use to detect preemption of Spot VMs.

    • Detect preemption within a VM : For example, use this method to check for preemption within a shutdown script or to trigger preemption handling for Spot VMs with a 120-second preemption notice duration ( Preview ).
    • View preemption operations : For example, use this method when you want to determine why Spot VMs shut down.

    Detect preemption within a VM

    To detect if a VM is being preempted from inside the VM itself, check the metadata server for the preempted value in your VM's default metadata . For example, use the following methods:

    • Check the current value of preempted .You can run the following curl command from within your VM to obtain the current value for preempted :

      curl "http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/preempted" -H "Metadata-Flavor: Google" TRUE

      If this value is TRUE , the VM was preempted by Compute Engine, otherwise it is FALSE . For example, use this command within a shutdown script to check if the shutdown was caused by preemption or not.

    • Wait until preempted is TRUE .To wait until preempted is TRUE , you can append ?wait_for_change=true to the URL of the previous command. This command performs a hanging HTTP GET request that only returns when the metadata has changed and the VM has been preempted.

      curl "http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/preempted?wait_for_change=true" -H "Metadata-Flavor: Google" TRUE

      This command is useful when you want to trigger preemption handling outside of a shutdown script. For example, use this method to trigger preemption handling for Spot VMs with a 120-second preemption notice duration ( Preview ).

    View preemption operations

    You can view preemption operations from Compute Engine by using the Google Cloud console , gcloud CLI or the Compute Engine API .

    Console

    You can check if a VM was preempted by checking the system activity logs.

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logspage.

      Go to Logs

    2. Select your project and click Continue.

    3. Add compute.instances.preempted to the filter by label or text searchfield.

    4. Optionally, you can also enter a VM name if you want to see preemption operations for a specific VM.

    5. Press enter to apply the specified filters. The Google Cloud console updates the list of logs to show only the operations where a VM was preempted.

    6. Select an operation in the list to see details about the VM that was preempted.

    gcloud

    Use the gcloud compute operations list command with a filter parameter to get a list of preemption events in your project.

    gcloud compute operations list \
    --filter="operationType=compute.instances.preempted"

    Optionally, you can use additional filter parameters to further scope the results. For example, to see preemption events only for instances within a managed instance group, use the following command:

    gcloud compute operations list \
    --filter="operationType=compute.instances.preempted AND targetLink:instances/ BASE_INSTANCE_NAME 
"

    where BASE_INSTANCE_NAME is the base name specified as a prefix for the names of all the VMs in this managed instance group.

    The output is similar to the following:

    NAME                  TYPE                         TARGET                                        HTTP_STATUS STATUS TIMESTAMP
systemevent-xxxxxxxx  compute.instances.preempted  us-central1-f/instances/example-instance-xxx  200         DONE   2015-04-02T12:12:10.881-07:00

    An operation type of compute.instances.preempted indicates that the VM instance was preempted. You can use the gcloud compute operations describe command to get more information about a specific preemption operation.

    gcloud compute operations describe SYSTEM_EVENT 
\
    --zone= ZONE

    Replace the following:

    • SYSTEM_EVENT : the system event from the output of the gcloud compute operations list command—for example, systemevent-xxxxxxxx .
    • ZONE : the zone of the system event—for example, us-central1-f .

    The output is similar to the following:

    ...
operationType: compute.instances.preempted
progress: 100
selfLink: https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-f/operations/systemevent-xxxxxxxx
startTime: '2015-04-02T12:12:10.881-07:00'
status: DONE
statusMessage: Instance was preempted.
...

    REST

    To get a list of recent system operations for a specific project and zone, use the zoneOperations.get method .

    GET https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ PROJECT_ID 
/zones/ ZONE 
/operations

    Replace the following:

    Optionally, to scope the response to show only preemption operations, you can add a filter to your API request:

    operationType="compute.instances.preempted"

    Alternatively, to see preemption operations for a specific VM, add a targetLink parameter to the filter:

    operationType="compute.instances.preempted" AND
targetLink="https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ PROJECT_ID 
/zones/ ZONE 
/instances/ VM_NAME

    Replace the following: + PROJECT_ID : the project ID . + ZONE : the zone . + VM_NAME : the name of a specific VM in this zone and project.

    The response contains a list of recent operations. For example, a preemption looks similar to the following:

    {
  "kind": "compute#operation",
  "id": "15041793718812375371",
  "name": "systemevent-xxxxxxxx",
  "zone": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-f",
  "operationType": "compute.instances.preempted",
  "targetLink": "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/my-project/zones/us-central1-f/instances/example-instance",
  "targetId": "12820389800990687210",
  "status": "DONE",
  "statusMessage": "Instance was preempted.",
  ...
}

    Test preemption settings

    You can run simulated maintenance events on your Spot VMs to force them to preempt. Use this feature to test how your workloads detect and handle preemption. To learn how to test maintenance events on your instances, see Simulate a host maintenance event .

    Best practices

    Here are some best practices to help you get the most out of Spot VMs.

    • Use instance templates. Rather than creating Spot VMs one at a time, you can use instance templates to create multiple Spot VMs with the same properties. Instance templates are required for using MIGs. Alternatively, you can also create multiple Spot VMs using the bulk instance API .

    • Use MIGs to regionally distribute and automatically recreate Spot VMs. Use MIGs to make workloads on Spot VMs more flexible and resilient. For example, use regional MIGs to distribute VMs across multiple zones, which helps mitigate resource-availability errors. Additionally, use autohealing to automatically recreate Spot VMs after they are preempted.

    • Pick smaller machine types. Resources for Spot VMs come out of excess and backup Google Cloud capacity. Capacity for Spot VMs is often easier to get for smaller machine types , meaning machine types with less resources like vCPUs and memory. You might find more capacity for Spot VMs by selecting a smaller custom machine type, but capacity is even more likely for smaller predefined machine types. For example, compared to capacity for the n2-standard-32 predefined machine type, capacity for the n2-custom-24-96 custom machine type is more likely, but capacity for the n2-standard-16 predefined machine type is even more likely.

    • Run large clusters of Spot VMs during off peak times. The load on Google Cloud data centers varies with location and time of day, but generally lowest on nights and weekends. As such, nights and weekends are the best times to run large clusters of Spot VMs.

    • Design your workloads to be fault and preemption tolerant. It's important to be prepared for the fact that there are changes in preemption patterns at different points in time. For example, if a zone suffers a partial outage, large numbers of Spot VMs could be preempted to make room for standard VMs that need to be moved as part of the recovery. In that small window of time, the preemption rate would look very different than on any other day. If your workload assumes that preemptions are always done in small groups, you might not be prepared for such an event.

    • Retry creating Spot VMs that have been preempted. If your Spot VMs have been preempted, try creating new Spot VMs once or twice before falling back to standard VMs. Depending on your requirements, it might be a good idea to combine standard VMs and Spot VMs in your clusters to ensure that work proceeds at an adequate pace.

    • Use shutdown scripts. Manage shutdown and preemption notices with a shutdown script that can save a job's progress so that it can pick up where it left off, rather than start over from scratch.

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