About VMs that use the reservation-bound model

This document describes virtual machine (VM) instances that use the reservation-bound provisioning model, including their benefits and creation requirements.

When you create a VM, you must also specify the underlying provisioning model, which defines the availability, pricing, and lifespan for your VMs. The reservation-bound provisioning model lets you create A4X, A4, or A3 Ultra VMs by using reserved capacity from a future reservation in calendar mode or future reservation in AI Hypercomputer.

The reservation-bound provisioning model offers the following benefits:

• Cost control: you don't incur additional charges when you create VMs by using your reserved capacity. You only incur charges for resources that aren't part of your reservation, such as disks or IP addresses.

• Lifecycle management: based on the termination action that you specify when creating VMs, Compute Engine stops or deletes the VM at the end of the reservation period.

Understand VMs that use the reservation-bound provisioning model

The following sections describe the requirements that you apply when you create VMs by using the reservation-bound provisioning model.

VM creation prerequisites

Before you create VMs by using the reservation-bound provisioning model, you must reserve resources for creating VMs by using one of the following methods:

• To reserve up to 80 A4 or A3 Ultra VMs, and for up to 90 days, use future reservation requests in calendar mode.

• To reserve more than 80 A4X, A4, or A3 Ultra VMs, and for longer than 90 days, use future reservation requests in AI Hypercomputer.

If Google Cloud approves your future reservation request, then Compute Engine automatically creates (auto-creates) a reservation at the start of your reservation period. You can then use the reservation to create VMs.

VM creation requirements

To create a VM by using the reservation-bound provisioning model, you must specify the following configurations:

• The VM and the reservation must have matching properties. You can only use your reserved capacity to create VMs if the VM and auto-created reservation properties exactly match. For more information, see the requirements for consuming reservations.

• The VM must specifically target the reservation for consumption. When you create a VM, you must specify the name of the auto-created reservation to target for consumption, as well as set the reservationAffinity field to SPECIFIC_RESERVATION. For more information, see Consume a specifically targeted reservation.

• The VM must use the reservation-bound provisioning model. When you create a VM, you must specify the reservation-bound provisioning model as follows:

  • In the Google Cloud console, in the Provisioning model list, select Reservation-bound.

  • In the Google Cloud CLI, include the --provisioning-model=RESERVATION_BOUND flag in the command.

  • In the Compute Engine API, include the "provisioningModel": "RESERVATION_BOUND" field in the request body.

• The VM must be stopped or deleted at the reservation end time. When you create a VM, you must specify whether to stop or delete the VM at the reservation's end time by using the instanceTerminationAction field. For more information, see Limit the run time of a new VM.

After you create the VM, the VM starts running and keeps running until you stop or delete it, or until the Compute Engine stops or deletes the VM at the reservation's end time.

Quota

When you create a VM by using the reservation-bound provisioning model, you don't need quota for the reserved resources that you use to create the VM. You only need quota for the resources that aren't part of your reservation, such as disks and IP addresses. For more information about the different types of quota, see Allocation quotas.

Pricing

When you create a VM by using the reservation-bound provisioning model, you incur charges as follows:

• Charges start when you create the VM. However, you don't incur additional charges for the reserved resources that you use to create your VM. You only incur charges for the resources that aren't part of the reservation, such as disks or IP addresses. For more information, see the billing for reservations.

• Charges stop when the reservation that you used to create the VM reaches its end time. At that time, Compute Engine deletes the reservation, and stops or deletes your VM based on the termination action that is specified in the VM.

  Important: After Compute Engine stops a VM and changes its state to STOPPING, you keep incurring charges for any resources that are attached to the VM, such as disks or GPUs. To avoid unnecessary costs, detach and delete any resources that you no longer need, or delete the VM altogether. For more information, see the pricing for a VM's uptime.

Limitations

VMs that you create by using the reservation-bound provisioning model can only use the following machine series:

• A4X

• A4

• A3 Ultra

To inquire about using other accelerator-optimized machine series with the reservation-bound provisioning model, contact your account team or the sales team.

What's next

• Create a VM that uses the reservation-bound model

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