Powerful Optimization on Fast Machines
The Gurobi Cloud is a simple and cost-effective way to get up and running with powerful Gurobi optimization software running on cloud services. It allows you to launch one or more computers, pre-loaded with Gurobi software and dedicated to you, to handle whatever your optimization needs are. Simply choose the subscription plan and deployment option that best meets your needs, and then pay only for what you use.
The Gurobi Instant Cloud communication is secured with HTTPS encryption. Most Gurobi Cloud plans provide Gurobi Compute Server capabilities, which include queuing and load balancing for an unlimited number of client jobs. These plans also offer distributed optimization capabilities.
Features and Benefits
We handle all of the behind-the-scene details. Simply install Gurobi software on a local machine, download your license from the Cloud Manager (cloud.gurobi.com), and the Gurobi Instant Cloud connects your computer to the cloud.
Choose the number and power of machines you want, and even create multiple machine pools. Computers are available across the globe, with up to 768 GB of memory. Scale up or down your machine pools depending on your needs.
Once you have purchased a subscription plan, you pay only for the number and type of machines you use. You can even upgrade your plan to a higher usage level at any time. There are no restrictions on model sizes, users or client machines.
Your dedicated cloud servers are provisioned automatically in a matter of minutes, pre-configured with the latest Gurobi software and a license.
Gurobi Instant Cloud supports both environments for added flexibility and the best integration with your environment.
The Instant Cloud Manager lets you manage active machines and jobs, display detailed job information within the job dashboard, or access the history of recently used machines.
With a simple REST API, your application can control its cloud servers.
With the Gurobi Instant Cloud you receive one bill covering both license and machine costs.
Instant Cloud Manager
The Instant Cloud Manager lets you manage your licenses, machines, pools, and settings. You can also access the active machines and the history of recently used machines. The licenses can be shared among users of the same organization so that multiple users can manage a set of machines and pools.
To learn more, you can follow the steps from the getting started tutorial. To open the Instant Cloud Manager, you must be logged in and have an Instant Cloud license.
Getting StartedOpen Cloud Manager
Pools
A pool defines a configuration (machine type, region and other parameters) as well as a number of compute servers and distributed workers. Instant Cloud provides you with predefined pools for your licenses, and you can create new ones depending on your needs, for example:
- a pool with distributed workers for distributed optimization or tuning
- a pool with a large machine for challenging models
- a pool with multiple compute servers to load balance concurrent optimization jobs in production
- multiple pools in different data centers to minimize latency with your applications
- multiple pools for test, QA, and production
If you see that your application needs a larger machine or more machines, just update the pool definition. The next time the application will access the pool, the new machines will be launched according to the updated specification.
With the v8 engine, pools can be scaled up or down by starting or stopping machines of a pool in matter of minutes.
Regions and Machine Types
Gurobi Instant Cloud is available in 5 AWS regions (California, Virginia, Sydney, Tokyo and Frankfurt) and 3 Azure regions (US East, US West 2, EU West). Depending on the Cloud provider and region, you are able to select the right configuration for your application. Note that some configurations may not be available in all regions.
| Provider | Type | RAM (GB) | #Cores | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | c5.4xlarge | 32 | 8 | Compute Optimized |
| c5.9xlarge | 72 | 18 | Compute Optimized | |
| c5.18xlarge | 144 | 36 | Compute Optimized | |
| r4.8xlarge | 244 | 16 | Memory Optimized | |
| r4.16xlarge | 488 | 32 | Memory Optimized | |
| r5.24xlarge | 768 | 48 | Memory Optimized | |
| z1d.12xlarge | 384 | 24 | High Performance | |
| Azure | F16v2 | 32 | 8 | Compute Optimized |
| F32v2 | 64 | 16 | Compute Optimized | |
| F72v2 | 144 | 36 | Compute Optimized | |
| E64v3 | 432 | 32 | Memory Optimized | |
| H16m | 224 | 16 | High Performance |
Automated Provisioning
Your pools are integrated with the Gurobi client libraries so that machines will be launched automatically when you start an optimization session in your application. If the machines are already launched, they will be immediately used for optimization. You can select the pool you want to use by downloading the license file associated with each pool. No need to know more about cloud computing, Instant Cloud will do it for you.
$ gurobi_cl afiro.mps Waiting for cloud server to start.......... Capacity available on '999999-default' cloud pool - connecting... Established HTTPS encrypted connection Gurobi Optimizer version 8.1.0 Copyright (c) 2018, Gurobi Optimization, LLC [...] Solved in 3 iterations and 0.74 seconds Optimal objective -4.647531429e+02
The cloud license file will work seamlessly with all languages or environments supported by Gurobi: C++, Python, MATLAB, Java, .Net, C or R. You can also specify directly in your program the access id and the secret key found in the license file using the Gurobi environment constructor (see the Gurobi reference manual).
Job Management and History
With the v8 engine, you can now access the list of queued, running or recently ended jobs. The optimization expert can then open the job dashboard to display various views about the selected job:
- general job information and status
- current KPIs of the model and the algorithm
- changed parameters passed to the job
- charts showing the progress of the optimization
- live engine log
In addition, jobs can be automatically archived for later access to the metadata and the engine log.
Active Machines and History
As we have shown, the machines will be started when needed by Instant Cloud using the pools. In addition, you can list the active machines or access the history of recent machines to monitor your environment.
Advanced Integration
Using the Instant Cloud REST API, you can build custom frameworks to manage machines and pools. You can create pools, start and stop machines or pools without dealing, with the details of the cloud infrastructure. The API is secured by encrypted communications (HTTPS) and API keys that you can retrieve from the Instant Cloud Manager.
Other Cloud Options
If you wish to manage the machines on AWS/Azure yourself, we offer Gurobi Cloud for AWS/Azure. This option lets you access the same Gurobi Cloud plans, but will let you deploy and manage the servers according to your specific requirements within your own AWS/Azure account. Compared to Gurobi Instant Cloud, Gurobi Cloud for AWS/Azure does not offer a Web Interface to manage and monitor your machines, pools, and jobs. You will also be in charge of setting up the networking options and the certificates if you wish to use HTTPS encryption. Gurobi Cloud for AWS/Azure is supported in all AWS/Azure regions.
Please contact sales@gurobi.com to set up access to the Gurobi Cloud for AWS/Azure.
Setting up an AWS cloud instance for your existing perpetual license
If you use an elastic network interface (ENI) for a Linux instance, the key will remain valid. The recommended method is to create the instance with an ENI, then stop and start the instance as needed.
For a Linux instance, if you create an EC2 Elastic Network Interface, the license should remain valid when you stop and restart the instance using a larger machine type. For Windows, the license should remain valid when you stop and start the instance, without the need for an ENI. That said, if the license becomes invalid, you can request a license transfer, provided that you have purchased maintenance.
For more information please contact either Gurobi Sales or submit a case on the Gurobi Support Portal.
Cloud Trial
We are happy to approve 20 free hours of the Gurobi Cloud (up to $25 worth of machine credit) to qualified commercial users so they can test the Gurobi Cloud for themselves. These licenses have all the features and power of our regular commercial cloud licenses, including having no limit on problem sizes, but are meant for evaluation purposes only.
With approval of your free cloud trial license time, you will also receive:
- Free benchmarking services
- Free model tuning services
- Access to Gurobi’s world-class technical support
- Two free hours of one-on-one consulting services
Both our benchmarking and model tuning services can be done using anonymized files. This allows you to get the benefits of our benchmarking and tuning support, while meeting any confidentiality requirements you have.
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