IBM Virtual Private Cloud
Contents
IBM Virtual Private Cloud#
The IBM VPC client of Lithops can provide a truely serverless user experience on top of IBM VPC where Lithops creates new VSIs (Virtual Server Instance) dynamically in runtime, and scale Lithops jobs against them. Alternatively Lithops can start and stop an existing VSI instances.
Note that IBM VPC is a standalone backend, and as such, you can configure extra parameters in the ‘standalone’ section of the configuration:
Group |
Key |
Default |
Mandatory |
Additional info |
---|---|---|---|---|
standalone |
runtime |
python3 |
no |
Runtime name to run the functions. Can be a Docker image name |
standalone |
auto_dismantle |
True |
no |
If False then the VM is not stopped automatically. |
standalone |
soft_dismantle_timeout |
300 |
no |
Time in seconds to stop the VM instance after a job completed its execution |
standalone |
hard_dismantle_timeout |
3600 |
no |
Time in seconds to stop the VM instance after a job started its execution |
standalone |
exec_mode |
consume |
no |
One of: consume, create or reuse. If set to create, Lithops will automatically create new VMs for each map() call based on the number of elements in iterdata. If set to reuse will try to reuse running workers if exist |
standalone |
pull_runtime |
False |
no |
If set to True, Lithops will execute the command |
standalone |
workers_policy |
permissive |
no |
One of: permissive, strict. If set to strict will force creation of required workers number |
standalone |
gpu |
False |
no |
If True docker started with gpu support. Requires host to have neccessary hardware and software preconfigured and docker image runtime with gpu support specified |
Configure a Container registry#
To configure Lithops to access a private container registry, you need to add the following keys to the standalone section in config:
standalone:
....
docker_server : <Container registry server>
docker_user : <Container registry username>
docker_password : <Container registry access token>
Configure IBM Container Registry#
To configure Lithops to access to a private docker repository in your IBM Container Registry, you need to extend the standalone config and add the following keys:
standalone:
....
docker_server : us.icr.io # Change-me if you have the CR in another region
docker_user : iamapikey
docker_password : <IBM IAM API KEY>
IBM VPC#
The assumption that you already familiar with IBM Cloud, have your IBM IAM API key created (you can create new keys here), have valid IBM COS account, region and resource group.
Follow IBM VPC setup if you need to create IBM Virtual Private Cloud. Decide the region for your VPC. The best practice is to use the same region both for VPC and IBM COS, hoewever there is no requirement to keep them in the same region.
Choose an operating system image for VSI#
Any Virtual Service Instance (VSI) need to define the instance’s operating system and version. Lithops support both standard operting system choices provided by the VPC or using pre-defined custom images that already contains all dependencies required by Lithops.
Option 1: Lithops is compatible with any Ubuntu 22.04 image provided in IBM Cloud. In this case, no further action is required and you can continue to the next step. Lithops will install all required dependencies in the VSI by itself. Notice this can consume about 3 min to complete all installations.
Option 2: Alternatively, you can use a pre-built custom image that will greatly improve VSI creation time for Lithops jobs. To benefit from this approach, navigate to runtime/ibm_vpc, and follow the instructions.
Lithops and the VSI create and reuse mode#
In this mode, Lithops will automatically create new worker VM instances in runtime, scale Lithops job against generated VMs, and automatically delete VMs when the job is completed.
Lithops configuration for the create and reuse mode#
Edit your lithops config and add the relevant keys:
lithops:
backend: ibm_vpc
ibm:
iam_api_key: <iam-api-key>
standalone:
exec_mode: reuse
ibm_vpc:
region: <REGION>
resource_group_id: <RESOURCE_GROUP_ID>
Summary of the configuration keys for the create and reuse mode#
Group |
Key |
Default |
Mandatory |
Additional info |
---|---|---|---|---|
ibm_vpc |
region |
yes |
VPC Region. For example |
|
ibm_vpc |
resource_group_id |
yes |
Resource group id from your IBM Cloud account. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/account/resource-groups |
|
ibm_vpc |
vpc_id |
no |
VPC id of an existing VPC. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/vpc-ext/network/vpcs |
|
ibm_vpc |
vpc_name |
no |
VPC name of an existing VPC (if |
|
ibm_vpc |
security_group_id |
no |
Security group id of an existing VPC. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/vpc-ext/network/securityGroups |
|
ibm_vpc |
subnet_id |
no |
Subnet id of an existing VPC. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/vpc-ext/network/subnets |
|
ibm_vpc |
ssh_key_id |
no |
SSH public key id. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/vpc-ext/compute/sshKeys |
|
ibm_vpc |
gateway_id |
no |
Gateway id. Get it from https://cloud.ibm.com/vpc-ext/network/publicGateways |
|
ibm_vpc |
image_id |
no |
Virtual machine image id |
|
ibm_vpc |
ssh_username |
root |
no |
Username to access the VPC |
ibm_vpc |
ssh_password |
no |
Password for accessing the worker VMs. If not provided, it is created randomly |
|
ibm_vpc |
ssh_key_filename |
no |
Path to the ssh key file provided to access the VPC. It will use the default path if not provided |
|
ibm_vpc |
boot_volume_profile |
general-purpose |
no |
Virtual machine boot volume profile |
ibm_vpc |
boot_volume_capacity |
100 |
no |
Virtual machine boot volume capacity in GB. Set it to 10 if using a custom image. |
ibm_vpc |
worker_profile_name |
cx2-2x4 |
no |
Profile name for the worker VMs |
ibm_vpc |
master_profile_name |
cx2-2x4 |
no |
Profile name for the master VM |
ibm_vpc |
delete_on_dismantle |
True |
no |
Delete the worekr VMs when they are stopped |
ibm_vpc |
max_workers |
100 |
no |
Max number of workers per |
ibm_vpc |
worker_processes |
2 |
no |
Number of Lithops processes within a given worker. This can be used to parallelize function activations within a worker. It is recommendable to set this value to the same number of CPUs of a worker VM. |
ibm_vpc |
singlesocket |
False |
no |
Try to allocate workers with single socket CPU. If eventually running on multiple socket, a warning message printed to user. Is True standalone workers_policy must be set to strict to trace workers states |
Lithops and the VSI consume mode#
In this mode, Lithops can start and stop an existing VM, and deploy an entire job to that VM. The partition logic in this scenario is different from the auto create mode, since entire job executed in the same VM.
Lithops configuration for the consume mode#
Edit your lithops config and add the relevant keys:
lithops:
backend: ibm_vpc
ibm:
iam_api_key: <iam-api-key>
ibm_vpc:
region : <REGION>
instance_id : <INSTANCE ID OF THE VM>
floating_ip : <FLOATING IP ADDRESS OF THE VM>
If you need to create new VM, then follow the steps to create and update Lithops configuration:
Create an Ubuntu 22.04 virtual server instance (VSI) in IBM VPC virtual server instances UI with CPUs and RAM needed for your application.
Reserve and associate a floating IP address in IBM VPC floating IPs UI to be used for the virtual server instance.
Get the floating IP address of your virtual server instance which can be found here.
Get the endpoint of your subnet region, endpoint URLs list can be found here.
Get the virtual server instance ID by selecting on your instance in IBM VPC virtual server instances UI and then extracting from the instance’s details.
Summary of the configuration keys for the consume mode#
Group |
Key |
Default |
Mandatory |
Additional info |
---|---|---|---|---|
ibm_vpc |
region |
yes |
VPC Region. For example |
|
ibm_vpc |
instance_id |
yes |
virtual server instance ID |
|
ibm_vpc |
floating_ip |
yes |
Floatting IP address atached to your VM instance |
|
ibm_vpc |
ssh_key_filename |
no |
Path to the ssh key file provided to create the VM. It will use the default path if not provided |
|
ibm_vpc |
worker_processes |
2 |
no |
Number of Lithops processes within a given worker. This can be used to parallelize function activations within a worker. It is recommendable to set this value to the same number of CPUs of the VM. |
Test Lithops#
Once you have your compute and storage backends configured, you can run a hello world function with:
lithops test -b ibm_vpc -s ibm_cos
Viewing the execution logs#
You can view the function executions logs in your local machine using the lithops client:
lithops logs poll
The master and worker VMs contains the Lithops service logs in /tmp/lithops/service.log
You can login to the master VM and get a live ssh connection with:
lithops attach -b ibm_vpc