CODEWITHSUNDEEP
amazon-web-servicesamazon-ec2google-cloud-platformgoogle-compute-engine
zino
zino

Reputation: 1472

AWS/GCP: Is it possible to have a VM with dynamic CPU/RAM?

I want to write my program so I can "add more threads" to scale. This would mean using a standard library API to create more threads, and using only a single VM instance that dynamically scales from 1 core to 128 cores as needed.

Is there any cloud provider/OS combo that would allow me to automatically add more CPU cores and RAM to my guest OS on demand as utilisation approaches 100%?

I understand this would need to be implemented in the AWS/GCP hypervisor and the guest OS.

If not, is this possible in the future?

I know FAAS exists but I do not want to rely on network based storage - I just want to use disk storage on a single instance.

Upvotes: 6

Views: 1986

Answers (1)

Serhii
Serhii

Reputation: 4471

Unfortunately, such VMs aren't available for GCP and AWS.

GCP

Have a look at the documentation Machine types:

A machine type is a set of virtualized hardware resources available to a virtual machine (VM) instance, including the system memory size, virtual CPU (vCPU) count, and persistent disk limits. In Compute Engine, machine types are grouped and curated by families for different workloads. You can choose from general-purpose, memory-optimized, and compute-optimized families.

You must choose a machine type when you create an instance. You can select from a number of predefined machine types in each machine type family. If the predefined machine types do not meet your needs, you can create your own custom machine types.

and at the Changing the Machine Type of a Stopped Instance:

You can change the machine type of a stopped instance if it is not part of a managed instance group.

So, as you can see, it's not possible to have dynamic CPU/RAM for GCP VMs.

As a possible workaround for GCP, you can try to file a feature request at Google Issue Tracker.

AWS

Have a look at the documentation Instance types:

When you launch an instance, the instance type that you specify determines the hardware of the host computer used for your instance. Each instance type offers different compute, memory, and storage capabilities and are grouped in instance families based on these capabilities. Select an instance type based on the requirements of the application or software that you plan to run on your instance.

then at the Changing the instance type:

As your needs change, you might find that your instance is over-utilized (the instance type is too small) or under-utilized (the instance type is too large). If this is the case, you can change the size of your instance.

and at the section Resizing an Amazon EBS–backed instance:

You must stop your Amazon EBS–backed instance before you can change its instance type.

also at the section Migrating an instance store-backed instance:

When you want to move your application from one instance store-backed instance to an instance store-backed instance with a different instance type, you must migrate it by creating an image from your instance, and then launching a new instance from this image with the instance type that you need.

As you can see, it's quite the same story for AWS VMs.

You can try to request such feature by following this document.

Upvotes: 3

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