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Difficulty: MediumPlanning Compute Engine Resources and Machine Types

An enterprise organization is deploying an internal data processing engine on Google Compute Engine that requires 4 vCPUs and 26 GB of RAM for a continuous, steady-state workload. Standard predefined machine types offer either 4 vCPUs with 16 GB of memory or 8 vCPUs with 32 GB of memory. The workload is non-fault-tolerant and cannot risk abrupt termination. Which Compute Engine machine type strategy should you select to meet these resource requirements with the lowest operational cost?

  1. Provision a custom machine type configured with 4 vCPUs and 26 GB of RAM.Answer
  2. B
    Provision a Spot VM instance with an 8 vCPU and 32 GB predefined machine type to reduce per-hour vCPU costs.
  3. C
    Provision an 8 vCPU and 32 GB predefined machine type and rely on automatic Sustained Use Discounts to offset the cost of unused capacity.
  4. D
    Deploy the processing engine using Cloud Functions single-concurrency executions to avoid Virtual Machine instance management overhead.

Answer

Provision a custom machine type configured with 4 vCPUs and 26 GB of RAM.
Google Compute Engine allows administrators to create custom machine types tailored to specific vCPU and memory needs. When workload specifications fall between standard predefined shapes, configuring a custom machine type prevents paying for unused compute cores while ensuring full memory requirements are met.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze workload resource requirements and constraints.
The workload requires 4 vCPUs, 26 GB memory, continuous uptime, and zero tolerance for preemption.
This rules out Spot VMs due to termination risk and serverless options like Cloud Functions due to execution time and memory limits.
2
Evaluate predefined vs. custom machine types.
Predefined standard types (like 4 vCPU / 16 GB or 8 vCPU / 32 GB) force either under-provisioning memory or paying for 4 extra unneeded vCPUs.
Compute Engine allows creating custom machine types where vCPUs and memory ratios can be independently customized.
3
Select the most cost-effective compute configuration.
Custom machine type with 4 vCPUs and 26 GB RAM directly meets all workload requirements at minimal cost.
Right-sizing compute resources avoids wasted expenditure on unutilized hardware.

Key Concept

Compute Engine Custom Machine Types
Estimated Time:1m 15s
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Topics

Planning Compute Engine Resources and Machine Types

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