This document explains the requirements and limitations that apply when you useSymphony Connectors for Google Cloud.

IBM Spectrum Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud let you add computeresources from Google Cloud to your Symphony clusters. When your highperformance computing (HPC) workloads need more capacity than your existinginfrastructure provides, the connectors let Symphony's host factory serviceautomatically provision Compute Engine virtual machines (VM) instances or podsinGoogle Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This approach lets you scale your Symphonyenvironment into Google Cloud to meet peak demand for your HPC workloads.

When to use Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud

Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud integrate Symphony's host factoryservice with Google Cloud, letting you use Google Cloudresources in your Symphony cluster. Use Symphony Connectors forGoogle Cloud in the following scenarios:

• Cloud bursting: When your on-premises cluster resources areinsufficient, dynamically scale your Symphony workloads into Google Cloud toaccess additional compute capacity. Symphony Connectors for Google Cloudautomates the provisioning of resources as needed, integrated withexisting Symphony job scheduling.

• Hybrid cloud deployments: If you run Symphony workloads across bothon-premises and Google Cloud infrastructure, you can use this solution tounify resource management through the Symphony host factory framework. Thisapproach lets you manage your on-premises and Google Cloud resourcesfrom a single interface, simplifying job submission, monitoring, andresource management.

• Cost optimization: Use Google Cloud's flexible instance types andpricing models, such as Spot VMs (preemptible VMs), to runcost-sensitive workloads.

• Development and testing: To provision temporary compute resources fordevelopment or testing workflows, use Symphony Connectors for Google Cloudto quickly create and delete environments. Costs are optimized throughautomatic resource cleanup.

• Unified management: Use the host factory to create a consistent interfaceto manage both GKE pods and the Compute Engine instancesthat are used by Symphony.

• Seamless enterprise integration: Use this solution to extend yourexisting Symphony deployments into Google Cloud without requiringsignificant architectural changes.

Learn how Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud works

Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud provide the necessary components to makeGoogle Cloud a provider for the host factory service.

The following diagram shows the architecture of Symphony Connectors forGoogle Cloud:

This architecture contains three main groups:an IBM Spectrum Symphony environment, a Google Cloud host factory providerlayer, and Google Cloud services. The Symphony environment contains the hostfactory and provider scripts. This architecture uses the Google Cloud hostfactory provider CLI tools layer to translate requests, allowing the Symphonyscripts to control Compute Engine resources and a Kubernetes operator runningin GKE.

The following sections explain the main components of Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud.

IBM Spectrum Symphony host factory

An IBM Spectrum Symphony service that manages the lifecycle of compute hostsfrom various providers based on workload demand. This Symphony component is thesoftware that Google Cloud integrates with.

Provider scripts

The Symphony host factory service uses a set of shell scripts to integrate witha cloud provider. These scripts request and return resources.

By default, Symphony doesn't include a host factory provider for Google Cloud.

TheGoogle Cloud host factory provider lets theSymphony host factory framework communicate with Google Cloud.

The following table shows the scripts that Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud uses:

Google Cloud host factory provider

The Google Cloud host factory provider connects IBM Spectrum Symphony'shost factory framework to Google Cloud. This plugin includescommand-line interface (CLI) tools,calledproviders, that Symphony calls to request and manage resources forthe following workloads:

• For Compute Engine, use theCompute Engineprovider.

• For GKE workloads, use theGKEprovider. For GKE workloads, you must installan additionalKubernetes operator. This operatorruns within your GKE cluster to manage the lifecycle of the IBMSpectrum Symphony compute pods that are requested by using theGKE provider.

Because the CLI tools are Python modules, you can also run them manually byusing the Python interpreter. For more information, seeRunning fromPythonin GitHub.

Compute Engine provider

The Compute Engine provider (hf-gce) is a CLI tool designed tointegrate Symphony's host factory withCompute Engine. After you install the Compute Engine provider, youmust configure it inSymphony host factory. After this configuration is complete, host factoryautomatically invokes scripts that use thehf-gce CLI.

The Compute Engine provider interacts directly with the GoogleCompute Engine API to manage the lifecycle of VM instances based on Symphony'sdemands and the configurations defined in the provider instance and templates.The provider creates, monitors, and terminates Compute Engine VMs, whichthen join the Symphony cluster as compute nodes.

GKE provider

The GKE provider (hf-gke) is a CLI tool that connectsSymphony's host factory service with GKE. Host factory usesscripts that call thehf-gke CLI.

The GKE provider interacts with the API of theGKE cluster to create, query, and delete custom resources,specificallyGCPSymphonyResource andMachineReturnRequest resources.

TheKubernetes operator that runs within the GKE clusterhandles pod lifecycle management based on these custom resources.The GKE provider connects Symphony's resourcerequests to the Kubernetes custom resource-based orchestration.

Google Cloud service integrations

You can connect to Compute Engine and GKE. There are noadditional components for Compute Engine connections. ForGKE connections, there is a Kubernetes operator.

Kubernetes operator

This operator is only required for GKE workloads that yourun by using theGKE provider. Thisoperator runs within your GKE cluster to manage the lifecycle of Symphonycompute pods that are requested by using the GKE provider. TheGKE operator has the following features:

• Asynchronous operations: supports high-performance asynchronousprocessing, suitable for large-scale deployments.
• Preemption handling: includes automatic detection andmanagement of Spot VM preemptions.
• Custom resource definitions: usesGCPSymphonyResourceandMachineReturnRequest custom resources to manage resources.
• Resource cleanup: automates cleanup of completed resources,with configurable retention periods.
• Health monitoring: monitors integration health with built-in health checksand status reporting.

Limitations

Symphony Connectors for Google Cloud provision and manage the underlying computeinfrastructure (VM instances and GKE pods) for your Symphonycluster; they don't create new Symphony workloads. You continue to use theSymphony software to create, manage, schedule, and run your workloads.

What's next

• Install the Compute Engine Symphonyprovider
• Install the GKEprovider
• Troubleshoot IBM SpectrumSymphony connectors