How to Provision Vultr Cloud GPU Instances

Updated on November 27, 2024

Vultr Cloud GPU instances are virtual machines that run with a fraction or full NVIDIA GPUs designed to run AI applications, machine learning, HPC, visual computing and VDI. Cloud GPU instances include a dedicated GPU device capable of running multiple application depending on your resource requirements.

Follow this guide to provision Vultr Cloud GPU instances using the Vultr Customer Portal, API, or CLI.

  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Vultr API
  • Vultr CLI
  1. Navigate to Products and select Compute on the list of product options.

    Navigate to Products

  2. Click Deploy to access the Deploy New Instance page.

    Deploy a new instance

  3. Select Cloud GPU.

    Select Cloud GPU

  4. Choose your desired Vultr location to deploy the instance.

    Select a Vultr Location

  5. Select a cloud image to install on your instance based on the following options:

    • Marketplace Apps: Install a prebuilt software stack or application and the recommended operating system image on the instance.

      Instance Marketplace apps

    • Operating System: Install a fresh operating system image on the instance.

      Instance OS

    • Upload ISO: Install a specific ISO available in your Vultr account or upload a new ISO image from your workstation to install on the instance.

      Upload ISO

    • ISO Library: Install a specific ISO image from the Vultr ISOs library.

      ISO Library

    • Backup: Recover a specific backup available in your Vultr account to the instance.

      Backup

    • Snapshot: Install a specific snapshot available in your Vultr account to the instance.

      Snapshot

  6. Select the instance specifications based on the following GPU type, vCPU, storage, bandwidth, and memory options:

    • NVIDIA A100:Suitable for AI, data analytics, and HPC workloads.

      A100 GPU Type

    • NVIDIA A40: Suitable for professional graphics and AI workloads.

      A40 GPU Type

    • NVIDIA A16: Suitable for virtual desktops and workstations that require GPU power and performance.

      A16 GPU Type

  7. Select optional Additional Features to enable on your instance.

    Enable Additional Features

    • Auto Backups: Enables automatic backups to enable data recovery incase the instance fails.
    • IPV6: Assigns a public IPV6 address to the instance.
    • DDoS Protection: Enables an extra security layer to prevent potential Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on your instance.
    • Cloud-Init User-Data: Enables the Cloud-Init data to run at the instance's initialization stage.
  8. Select optional Server Settings to activate on the instance.

    Enable optional server settings

    • SSH Keys: Installs a specific SSH key from your Vultr account to the instance.
    • Firewall Group: Activates a Vultr Firewall group to filter incoming network traffic on the instance.
  9. Optional: Select existing SSH keys to enable on your instance. Choose a Vultr firewall group to filter the instance traffic and click the IP Address drop-down to attach a reserved IP to your instance.

  10. Enter a new hostname in the Server Hostname field and a descriptive label in the Server Label field to apply on the instance.

    Set the Server Hostname and Label

  11. View the server quantity and the cost summary. Then, click Deploy Now to create the instance on your Vultr account.

    View Instance Summary

  1. Send a POST request to the Create Instance endpoint to create a new instance with a specific plan, operating system, and hostname in a specific Vultr location.

    console
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
      -X POST \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      --data '{
        "region" : "<vultr-location>",
        "plan" : "<gpu-instance-plan>",
        "os_id" : <os-id>,
        "label" : "<instance-label>",
        "hostname": "<hostname>",
      }'
    

    Visit the Create Instance API page to view additional attributes to add to apply on the Cloud GPU instance.

  1. Create a new Cloud GPU instance with a specific plan, operating system, and hostname in a specific Vultr location.

    console
    $ vultr-cli instance create --region <vultr-location> --plan <gpu-instance-plan> --os <os-id>  --label <instance-label> --host <hostname>
    

    Run vultr-cli instance create --help to view additional options to apply on the Cloud GPU instance.