Install Vertex AI client libraries

This page guides you through installing Vertex AI client libraries for Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped, which let you interact with various Vertex AI services from your application and development environment. You can learn about the types of client libraries available for Vertex AI APIs and the steps for installing them from the tar file.

This page is for application developers within application operator groups responsible for setting up their application and development environments to enable AI features. For more information, see Audiences for GDC air-gapped documentation.

Each Vertex AI service provides an API. While you can interact directly with these APIs through raw server requests, client libraries simplify programmatic access from supported languages on Distributed Cloud. They reduce the necessary code required, especially when working in environments like a JupyterLab notebook.

You can install a Vertex AI client library using these methods:

Extract the library file directly from the tar file.
Use a JupyterLab notebook to import the library.
Import a client library from a notebook. For information, see Manage notebooks.

Vertex AI client libraries

Vertex AI offers different versions of client libraries for CentOS and Ubuntu operating systems.

The naming conventions of Vertex AI client libraries in the tar file are based on the operating system, the service name, and the version. The filenames adhere to the following format:

OS-google-cloud-SERVICE-VERSION.tar.gz

Replace the following:

OS: the name of the operating system where you want to install the client library. Allowed values are centos and ubuntu.
SERVICE: the name of the Vertex AI service from which you want to download the client library. The following are the allowed values:
- aiplatform: the Vertex AI Platform client library.
- speech: the Speech-to-Text client library.
- translate: the Vertex AI Translation client library.
- vision: the OCR client library.
VERSION: the version number of the client library, such as 3.8.0.

The following table contains the Vertex AI client libraries that Distributed Cloud supports:

Vertex AI service	Operating system	Filename
OCR	Centos	`centos-google-cloud-vision-3.0.0.tar.gz`
OCR	Ubuntu	`ubuntu-google-cloud-vision-3.0.0.tar.gz`
Speech-to-Text	Centos	`centos-google-cloud-speech-2.15.0.tar.gz`
Speech-to-Text	Ubuntu	`ubuntu-google-cloud-speech-2.15.0.tar.gz`
Vertex AI Translation	Centos	`centos-google-cloud-translate-3.8.0.tar.gz`
Vertex AI Translation	Ubuntu	`ubuntu-google-cloud-translate-3.8.0.tar.gz`
Vertex AI Platform	Centos	`centos-google-cloud-aiplatform-1.34.0.tar.gz`
Vertex AI Platform	Ubuntu	`ubuntu-google-cloud-aiplatform-1.34.0.tar.gz`

Before you begin

Before downloading the tar file and extracting client libraries, follow these steps:

Set up a project for Vertex AI.
Authenticate with gdcloud CLI:
```
gdcloud auth login
```
For more information about how to authenticate with your configured identity provider, see the gdcloud CLI authentication.
Assign the Cloud AI Viewer (cloud-ai-viewer) role to a service account. The service account requires this role to access the Vertex AI services.
Verify that you have installed Python version 3.7.

Install a client library

After completing the prerequisites, follow these steps to download the tar file, and use the tar file to install a client library:

Download the client library you want to install:
```
wget https://GDC_URL/.well-known/static/client-libraries/CLIENT_LIBRARY
```
Replace the following:
- GDC_URL: the URL of your organization in GDC.
- CLIENT_LIBRARY: the filename of the client library you want to download.
Extract the library file:
```
tar -zxf CLIENT_LIBRARY
```
Install the client library in Distributed Cloud:
```
pip install -r FOLDER_NAME/requirements.txt --no-index --find-links FOLDER_NAME
```
Replace FOLDER_NAME with the path to the local directory where you downloaded the library file.
Import the client library using a Python script. The following example shows a code snippet of a Python script that imports the Vertex AI Translation client library to illustrate what importing libraries looks like:
```
from google.cloud import translate
translate_client = translate.Client(
 client_options={"API_ENDPOINT": "https://foo-translation.googleapis.com"})
result
= translate_client.translate(text, target_language="ru")

[...]
```
Note: This code sample is not complete. To make a Vertex AI Translation request, learn about translation features or translate text.
Save the Python script with a name, such as translation-service.py.
Run the Python script:
```
python SCRIPT_NAME
```
Replace SCRIPT_NAME with the name you gave to your Python script, such as translation-service.py.