Professional Cloud ArchitectDesign and plan a cloud solution architectureEasy
A media company uses a large number of virtual machines (VMs) for video transcoding. These VMs are transient, performing short-lived batch jobs, and can tolerate preemption or restarts. The company wants to minimize compute costs for these workloads. Which type of Compute Engine VM should be used?
- APreemptible VMs
- BSole-tenant Nodes
- CCustom Machine Types
- DStandard VMs
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Preemptible VMs
Preemptible VMs are significantly cheaper than standard VMs and are ideal for fault-tolerant, short-lived batch jobs that can tolerate preemption, such as video transcoding.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Sole-tenant Nodes provide dedicated hardware for specific compliance or licensing needs, not for cost optimization of transient workloads.
- C. Custom Machine Types allow configuring specific CPU/memory, but don't inherently offer cost savings for preemptible workloads; they can be preemptible or standard.
- D. Standard VMs are more expensive and not necessary for workloads that can tolerate preemption.
Preemptible VMs
Low-cost Compute Engine instances that can be preempted (terminated) by Google Cloud if resources are needed elsewhere, ideal for fault-tolerant batch jobs.
- Significant cost savings (up to 80% off standard VMs)
- Instances can be terminated with 30-second notice
- Maximum run time of 24 hours
- Suitable for batch processing, fault-tolerant workloads
Memory trick: Preemptible VMs get preempted, but save money for jobs that don't mind a restart.