Reserving compute

Guarantee access to compute for a set duration for critical, preplanned workloads

Reservations let you access dedicated VMs for exactly your desired duration, from 3 hours to 2 weeks, with 1-hour increment flexibility.

All reservations include the ability to get partial credit for unused resources and for returning part of the reservation early. The resulting credits can be applied to future use of the Mithril platform and expire 6 months after being issued.

Prices for reserved instances are determined algorithmically based on availability and demand for the instance type and period you are reserving for.

A reservation applies to a certain GPU type, in a certain region, for a specific time interval (which can either start immediately or in the future). Based on these parameters, Mithril will generate reservation offers. An offer is composed of 3 prices:

• The Reserved Unit Price (in $/hr) is the rate at which the cost of the reservation is calculated (for all reserved capacity, across the entire length of the reservation). This is the maximum amount you might have to pay, if you fully use the reservation. This amount is charged in full when making the reservation.

• The Pause Credit (in $/hr) is the rate at which you accumulate credit for instances left temporarily unused. You don’t need to take any action to earn this credit, other than ensuring that unneeded instances are paused (via the console, the CLI, or the API). Note that paused instances only earn credit if they remain paused for at least one hour. The capacity corresponding to paused instances remains reserved, you can restart these instances at any time. There might be a delay of up to 7 minutes when you restart a paused instance.

• The Return Credit (in $/hr) is the rate at which you accumulate credit for returned capacity (in effect, when you shrink the reservation). You earn credit at this rate based on the number of instances returned, and the remaining duration of the reservation. Successive “return” actions are possible, allowing a reservation size to diminish over time as work gets completed and as you get a more precise understanding of the remaining need.

Credits will only be issued upon full collection of the payment for the original reservation. To use your credits, your account must be current and in good standing, including payment of all amounts owed to us, and we reserve the right to revoke your credits or suspend their use if these conditions are not met. Credits may not be purchased, have no cash value, are not redeemable for cash, and are not transferable. If your account is terminated for any reason, you will lose any credits associated with your account. This offer is subject to change.

Creating a reservation in the Mithril web console

From the Instances tab, choose, Create Instances and select Reserved .

In the reservation modal:

1

Select an instance type

Instance type refers to the specific combination of GPU, memory, and connection.

Ex: NVIDIA 8x H100 80GB SXM5

2

Select a region

Instances are currently offered in multiple US regions. Certain instance types are only available in select regions.

Note: Persistent storage must be provisioned in the same region you intend to use it. See Persistent storage to learn more.

3

Select a quantity of instances to include in your reservation

All instances within a single reservation are interconnected.

Note: The number of instances is not always equivalent to the number of GPUs. For example, selecting the 8x H100 instance type, and a quantity of 4 would yield a reservation with 32 total GPUs, 8 on each instance.

4

Set the duration of your reservation

This is the total time your instances will be provisioned, beginning at your specified start time. You can set the duration in one-hour increments from 3 hours up to 2 weeks. For reservations longer than two weeks, please contact your account team or email [email protected].

5

Set a start time

This is the time that your instances will initialize. Instances are normally accessible within 15-20 minutes of your predetermined start time. If you haven't received an alert from our monitoring system after 15-20 minutes, please contact your account team or email [email protected].

6

Chose a flexibility level

When creating a new reservation Mithril will generate two options. The “high flexibility” option offers higher credits (Pause Credit and Return Credit), but comes at a higher unit price. This is the more favorable option if you expect high variability in usage. The “low flexibility” option comes at a lower unit price but offers lower credits. This is the more favorable option if you expect to fully use the resources, for the entire duration of the reservation.

7

(Optional) Attach persistent storage

While each instance type includes ephemeral storage (see Instance types & specifications), using persistent storage ensures that no critical long-term data is lost in the case that the underlying hardware for one of your instances fails (Mithril will reallocate your reserved instance if this happens, but data saved to ephemeral storage may not be recoverable).

Note: To attach persistent storage, you must provision it in the same region before creating your reservation. See Persistent storage to learn more.

8

Select SSH keys

SSH keys are used to securely access your instances once they are allocated. Note: To attach an SSH key, you'll need to generate or add an existing key. See SSH keysto learn more.

9

(Optional) Add a startup script

The startup script will execute as soon as your instance is allocated to help you automatically set it up for your workloads.

10

Review & complete your reservation

Once you have fully configured your reservation and have reviewed the details, confirm you reservation. You will be billed for your reservation at the end of your billing period.

After a reservation is created, it cannot be canceled. Please carefully review your order before submitting.