Set up Azure HPC or AI VMs

  • Article

This how-to guide explains how to create a basic Azure virtual machine (VM) for HPC and AI with NVIDIA or AMD GPUs. These VM sizes are intended for workloads that require high-performance computing (HPC sizes), or GPU-accelerated computing (AI sizes).

Choose your VM size

Azure VMs have many different options, called VM sizes. There are different series of VM sizes for HPC and VM sizes GPU-optimized computing. Select the appropriate VM size for the workload you want to use. For help with selecting sizes, see the VM selector tool.

Not all Azure products are available in all Azure regions. For more information, see the current list of products available by region.

Create your VM

Before you can deploy a workload, you need to create your VM through the Azure portal.

Depending on your VM's operating system, review either the Linux VM quickstart or Windows VM quickstart. Then, create your VM with the following settings:

  1. For Subscription, select the Azure subscription that you want to use for this VM.

  2. For Region, select a region with capacity available for your VM size.

  3. For Image, select the image of the VM you chose in the previous section.

    Note

    For the purpose of example, this guide uses the image NVIDIA GPU-Optimized Image for AI & HPC – v21.04.1 – Gen 1. If you're using another image, you might need to install other software, like the NVIDIA driver and Docker, before proceeding.

  4. For Size, select the HPC or GPU instance type. For more information, see how to choose your VM size.

  5. For SSH public key source, select Generate a new key pair.

  6. Wait for key validation to complete.

  7. When prompted, select Download private key and create resource.

    Note

    Downloading the key pair is necessary to SSH into your VM for later configuration.

  8. For Key pair name, enter a name for your key pair.

  9. Under the Networking tab, make sure Accelerated Networking is disabled.

  10. Optionally, add a data disk to your VM. For more information, see how to add a data disk to a Linux VM or to a Windows VM.

    Note

    Adding a data disk helps you store models, data sets, and other necessary components for benchmarking.

  11. Select Review + create to create your VM.

Connect to your VM

Connect to your new VM using SSH, which allows you to perform further configuration. Some connection methods include:

Set up VM

Set up your new VM for HPC or AI workloads. Install the newest NVIDIA or AMD GPU driver, which maps to your VM size.

Next steps