Engines Overview
An engine defines the compute infrastructure where AIchor runs workloads. Before projects can be created and experiments submitted, an administrator must configure at least one engine.
AIchor supports four setup modes:
- SaaS: AIchor runs workloads on InstaDeep infrastructure. Minimal cluster configuration is required.
- In the Cloud: Workloads run on the organisation's own AWS, GCP, or Azure account. AIchor can either provision the cluster or import an existing one.
- Hosted: Workloads run on InstaDeep on-premises infrastructure under a confidentiality agreement.
- On Premise: Workloads run on the organisation's own on-premises infrastructure.
Creating an engine
When selecting In the Cloud and choosing Create, AIchor provisions and manages the cluster lifecycle. Supported engine types for creation:
| Provider | Engine type |
|---|---|
| GCP | GKE |
| AWS | EKS |
| Azure | AKS |
Importing an engine
When selecting Import Existing Engine or On Premise, AIchor connects to a cluster that already exists. The cluster administrator is responsible for provisioning, upgrades, and patching. Supported engine types for import:
| Provider | Engine type |
|---|---|
| GCP | GKE |
| AWS | EKS |
| AWS | ParallelCluster (Slurm) |
| Azure | AKS |
| On-premises | Kubernetes |
Technical requirements
See Technical Requirements for the prerequisites that must be met on the cluster before AIchor can use it.