Using Instant Cloud in a Program
Using a cloud license file will work seamlessly with any program or supported environment: C++, Python, MATLAB, Java, .Net, C or R. The cloud license file can be easily downloaded from a license, or a pool using the Instant Cloud Manager.
In addition, when programming in C, C++, Python, Java or .Net, the Gurobi client libraries provide you with dedicated environment constructors to specify the access ID, the secret key and optionally the pool. If the pool is not provided, your job will be launched in the default pool associated with your cloud license. Please refer to the Gurobi Optimizer Reference Manual.
Customers who have used the previous version of Instant Cloud can still go through the manual process of starting the machines then waiting for the machines to be ready and finally passing the DNS name and user password in the dedicated constructor. However, using cloud pools is encouraged as it fully automates the process.
Each license comes with a predefined pool called 'default'. You can edit the configuration of pools in the Instant Cloud Manager or create new ones. The updated configuration will be effective for newly launched machines only. So if the machines of a pool are already running, please make sure to terminate them so that new configuration will be taken into account.
One of the important configuration options is the idle shutdown time. When a client program requests a cloud server, it takes some time (usually 1-2 minutes) to launch that server. Rather than forcing client programs to incur this delay each time they run, the Gurobi Instant Cloud leaves a server running until it has been idle for the specified idle shutdown time. In this way, a second client program may find a cloud server already available. You can set this to a small value if you want your server to shut down immediately after your job finishes, or to a very large value if you want your server to always be available.