Cluster Instances

To launch a cluster instance

1. Launch a cluster instance just as you would launch any other type of instance.

   For general instructions, see Launching an Instance from an AMI.

2. When prompted to choose an AMI, select the Cluster Compute Amazon Linux AMI.

3. When prompted to edit the instance details, select the instance type that meets your needs. Notice that you can only select high I/O and cluster instance types with these AMIs.

To customize your cluster instance

1. Customize your cluster instance just as you would any other type of instance. First, connect to your instance. For instructions, see Connecting to Amazon EC2 Instances.

2. Install software and applications on the instance, copy data, or attach additional EBS volumes. After you've configured your instance to meet your needs, you're ready to create an AMI.

To create an HVM AMI from your running cluster instance

1. Create an AMI from your cluster instance just as you would create an AMI from any other type of instance. For instructions that use the AWS Management Console, see Creating Amazon EBS-Backed AMIs Using the Console.

2. After you've created your AMI, you can terminate the instance that served as the basis for your AMI. Now you're ready to launch instances into a placement group using this AMI that you've created.

To create a placement group

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation bar, select the region for the placement group.

3. In the navigation pane, click Placement Groups.

4. Click Create Placement Group.

5. In the Create Placement group dialog box, provide a unique name for the placement group, and then click Yes, Create.

   When the status of the placement group is available, you're ready to launch cluster instances into the placement group.

To launch cluster instances into your placement group

1. Launch an instance using the Classic Wizard.

   For general instructions, see Launching an Instance from an AMI.

2. On the CHOOSE AN AMI page, click the My AMIs tab, and select the HVM AMI that you created.

3. When prompted by the Request Instances Wizard, select the placement group that you created from the Placement Group list.

To launch a cluster instance

1. Launch a cluster instance using the ec2-run-instances command, just as you would launch any other type of instance.

   Be sure to specify the Cluster Compute Amazon Linux AMI. This is an Amazon EBS-backed HVM AMI designed for cluster computing. Also specify one of the cluster instance types.

2. The following example launches a cc2.8xlarge instance.

   PROMPT> ec2-run-instances ami-xxxxxxxx --instance-type cc2.8xlarge

To customize your cluster instance

1. Customize your cluster instance just as you would any other type of instance. First, connect to your instance. For instructions, see Connecting to Amazon EC2 Instances.

2. Install software and applications on the instance, copy data, or attach additional EBS volumes. After you've configured your instance to meet your needs, you're ready to create an AMI.

To create an HVM AMI from your running cluster instance

1. Use the ec2-create-image command to create your own image from your customized instance.

   PROMPT>  ec2-create-image -n your_image_name  instance_id

   For example:

   PROMPT>  ec2-create-image -n "My_Custom_HVM_AMI" i-1a2b3c4d

   Amazon EC2 begins creating the image and returns the new image's ID. For example:

   IMAGE ami-5f4d3a2b 

2. To check whether the AMI is ready, use the following command.

   PROMPT>  ec2-describe-images -o self  

   Amazon EC2 returns information about the AMI.

To create a placement group

1. Use the ec2-create-placement-group command. You must name the placement group and set the -s option to cluster, as shown in the following example.

   PROMPT> ec2-create-placement-group XYZ-cluster -s cluster

   The following is example output.

   PLACEMENTGROUP  XYZ_cluster  cluster  available

2. Record the name of the placement group. You'll need this name when you launch your cluster instances into this group.

3. Use the ec2-describe-placement-groups command to get details about your cluster placement groups.

   If you do not specify the name of the cluster placement group, details about all the placement groups in your account are returned.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-placement-groups

   The following is example output.

   PLACEMENTGROUP  XYZ-cluster  cluster  available
   PLACEMENTGROUP  ABC-cluster  cluster  available

To launch cluster instances into your placement group

• Use the ec2-run-instances command with the name of the placement group.

  The following example launches 10 cc2.8xlarge instances into the XYZ-cluster placement group.

  PROMPT> ec2-run-instances ami-5f4d3a2b --instance-type cc2.8xlarge -n 10 --placement-group XYZ-cluster 

  The following is example output.

  RESERVATION     r-064bcd6d      999988887777    default
  INSTANCE i-89fea78c ... cc2.8xlarge ... us-east-1a ... XYZ-cluster   hvm
  ...

To launch a cluster instance

1. Launch a cluster instance using the RunInstances action, just as you would launch any other type of instance.

   Be sure to specify the Cluster Compute Amazon Linux AMI. This is an Amazon EBS-backed HVM AMI designed for cluster computing. Also specify one of the cluster instance types.

2. The following example launches a cc2.8xlarge instance.

   https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=RunInstances
   &ImageId=ami-xxxxxxxx
   &InstanceType=cc2.8xlarge
   &MaxCount=1
   &MinCount=1
   &AUTHPARAMS

To customize your cluster instance

1. Customize your cluster instance, just as you would any other type of instance. First, connect to your instance. For instructions, see Connecting to Amazon EC2 Instances.

2. Install software and applications on the instance, copy data, or attach additional EBS volumes. After you've configured your instance to meet your needs, you're ready to create an AMI.

To create an HVM AMI from your running cluster instance

• Construct a Query request, as shown in the following example.

  https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
  ?Action=CreateImage
  &InstanceId=i-1a2b3c4d
  &Name=My_Custom_HVM_AMI
  &AUTHPARAMS...

To create a placement group

1. Construct a Query request, as shown in the following example. You must name the placement group and specify the strategy as cluster.

   Action=CreatePlacementGroup
   &GroupName=XYZ-cluster
   &Strategy=cluster
   &AUTHPARAMS...

   The following is an example response.

   <CreatePlacementGroupResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
      <requestID>d4904fd9-82c2-4ea5-adfe-a9cc3EXAMPLE</requestId>
      <return>true</return>
   </CreatePlacementGroupResponse>

2. To get information about your cluster placement groups, construct a Query request similar to the following.

   Action=DescribePlacementGroups
   &GroupName.1=XYZ-cluster
   &AUTHPARAMS...

   The following is an example response.

   <DescribePlacementGroupsResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     <requestId>d4904fd9-82c2-4ea5-adfe-a9cc3EXAMPLE</requestId>
        <placementGroupSet>
           <item>
              <groupName>XYZ-cluster</groupName>
              <strategy>cluster</strategy>
              <state>available</state>
           </item>
        </placementGroupSet>
   </DescribePlacementGroupsResponse>

To launch cluster instances into your placement group

• Construct a Query request similar to the following example. This example launches 10 cc2.8xlarge instances in the XYZ-cluster placement group.

  Action=RunInstances
  &InstanceType=cc2.8xlarge
  &Placement.GroupName=XYZ-cluster
  &MinCount=10
  &MaxCount=10
  &AUTHPARAMS...

  The following is an example response.

  <RunInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     ...
     <placement>
        <availabiltyZone>us-east-1a</availabilityZone>
        <groupName>XYZ-cluster</groupName>
     </placement>
     ...
     <virtualizationType>hvm</virtualizationType>
  </RunInstancesResponse>

To terminate an instance

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, click Instances.

3. Right-click the instance, and then click Terminate.

4. When prompted for confirmation, click Yes, Terminate.

To delete a placement group

1. In the navigation pane, click Placement Groups.

2. Select the placement group, and click Delete.

3. When prompted for confirmation, click Yes, Delete.

To terminate an instance

• Use the ec2-terminate-instances command. This example command terminates the instance with the instance ID i-10a64379.

  ec2-terminate instances i-10a64379

  The following is an example of the output for this command.

  INSTANCE i-10a64379 running shutting-down

To delete a placement group

• Use the ec2-delete-placement-group command. This example command deletes the placement group named XYZ-cluster.

  PROMPT> ec2-delete-placement-group XYZ-cluster

  The following is an example of the output for this command.

  PLACEMENTGROUP  XYZ-cluster  deleted

To terminate an instance

• Construct a Query request similar to the following example.

  https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=TerminateInstances
  &InstanceId.1=i-10a64379
  &AUTHPARAMS

  The following is an example response.

  <TerminateInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/"> 
    <requestId>59dbff89-35bd-4eac-99ed-be587EXAMPLE</requestId>  
    <instancesSet> 
      <item>
        <instanceId>i-10a64379</instanceId>
        <currentState>
          <code>32</code>
          <name>shutting-down</name>
        </currentState>
        <previousState>
          <code>16</code>
          <name>running</name>
        </previousState>
      </item>    
    </instancesSet>
  </TerminateInstancesResponse>

To delete a placement group

• Construct a Query request similar to the following example.

  Action=DeletePlacementGroup
  &GroupName=XYZ-cluster
  &AUTHPARAMS...

  The following is an example response.

  <DeletePlacementGroupResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     <requestID>d4904fd9-82c2-4ea5-adfe-a9cc3EXAMPLE</requestId>
     <return>true</return>
  </DeletePlacementGroupResponse>

To install the driver for an Amazon Linux AMI

1. Make sure the kernel-devel package is installed and matches the version of the kernel you are currently running.

   [root@ip-xxx ~]# yum  install kernel-devel- uname –r

2. Install the NVIDIA driver.

   [root@ip-xxx ~]# /root/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64_260.19.12.run

3. Reboot the instance.

4. Confirm that the driver is functional.

   [root@ip-xxx ~]# /usr/bin/nvidia-smi -q -a

   The response lists the installed NVIDIA driver version and details about the GPUs.

5. Confirm that the GPUs are exposed.

   [root@ip-xxx ~]# ls /dev/*nv*
   /dev/nvidia0 /dev/nvidia1 /dev/nvidiactl /dev/nvram