Leveraging Reserved Instances for Savings

Introduction

Goal of the Tutorial

This tutorial aims to provide an understanding of how to leverage Reserved and Spot Instances in cloud computing for cost optimization.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to understand what Reserved and Spot Instances are, how they work, and how to use them to save costs in cloud computing.

Prerequisites

• Basic knowledge of cloud computing

Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding Reserved Instances

Reserved Instances are a billing concept where you reserve a virtual machine on a per-hour basis and get significant discounts compared to the on-demand pricing. They are best for predictable workloads.

Understanding Spot Instances

Spot Instances are spare cloud computing instances that can be used at steep discounts compared to on-demand pricing. They are best for flexible start and end times, or workloads that are only feasible at very low compute prices.

Best Practices

• Reserved Instances should be used for base load — i.e., the minimum CPU and memory requirements that your application needs 24/7.
• Spot Instances should be used for spiky, time-flexible, or non-critical workloads.

Code Examples

We will use AWS as our cloud service provider for the examples.

Example 1: Launching an EC2 Reserved Instance

# This is a simple AWS CLI command to launch a reserved instance
aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 --count 1 --instance-type m4.large --key-name MyKeyPair --security-group-ids sg-903004f8 --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e

This command launches a m4.large instance in the specified subnet with the specified security group.

Example 2: Launching an EC2 Spot Instance

# This is a simple AWS CLI command to request a spot instance
aws ec2 request-spot-instances --spot-price "0.05" --instance-count 1 --type "one-time" --launch-specification file://my-spot-instance.json

This command requests one spot instance at a maximum price of $0.05 per hour. The instance specification is provided in the my-spot-instance.json file.

Summary

In this tutorial, we have learned about Reserved and Spot Instances in cloud computing and how to leverage them for cost savings. We've also seen how to launch these instances using AWS CLI.

Practice Exercises

1. Compare the pricing of on-demand instances and reserved instances on AWS.

   • Tip: You can use the AWS Pricing Calculator for this exercise.

2. Practice launching a reserved instance and a spot instance on AWS.

   • Tip: Remember to terminate the instances after the practice to avoid unnecessary charges.

Next Steps

• Learn more about other cost-saving strategies in cloud computing.
• Practice creating and managing Reserved and Spot Instances in other cloud service providers like Google Cloud and Azure.

Additional Resources

• AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Instances
• Google Cloud Documentation: Preemptible VM Instances
• Azure Documentation: Azure Reserved VM Instances