Equinix Metal: Spot Instances

https://deploy.equinix.com/metal/

Equinix Metal is an automated colocation service. They allow spot-bidding on their unused metal capacity at prices are very competetive with the major cloud prviders. Their severs are generally top-of-the-line and more performant than other similarly priced cloud-instances.

See the available sever configurations here: https://deploy.equinix.com/product/servers/

Account

You will need an API Key in order to use the Equinix Terraform provider. You will need to sign-up for an account with Equinix Metal to get that. Equinix often flags new accounts for extra verification data so don't be surprised to get an email asking you to verify your identity, organization, use-case etc...

Once you have an account, you can create an API Key from your account settings page. Add that key to the providers.tf file.

Usage

1. Create a spot market request first, it will need to be fulfilled / rejected before other resources can be deduced

   docker pull hashicorp/terraform:latest && \
       docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it \
       -v $(pwd):/workspace \
       -w /workspace \
       hashicorp/terraform:latest apply -target equinix_metal_spot_market_request.req

2. Apply the rest of the resources. this should now provide you with the full details of your instance.

   docker pull hashicorp/terraform:latest && \
       docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it \
       -v $(pwd):/workspace \
       -w /workspace \
       hashicorp/terraform:latest apply

3. Destroy the spot market request. If you just delete the instance, it will be created again by the request.

   docker pull hashicorp/terraform:latest && \
       docker run --platform linux/amd64 -it \
       -v $(pwd):/workspace \
       -w /workspace \
       hashicorp/terraform:latest destroy -target equinix_metal_spot_market_request.req

Bidding Strategies

While your specific bidding strategy is entirely up to you, most users adopt one of these bidding strategies based on their use case:

1. Strictly Optimize Cost - Sacrifice availability for the deepest discount. This is great for long-running workloads that have flexible end dates.

   • Use Case: Research-style tasks
   • Suggested Bid: near minimum

2. Cost/Availability Balance - Slightly higher price than strictly cost optimized, but allows you to increase the likelihood of getting and keeping an instance for longer periods of time.

   • Use Case: Batch jobs that can handle some amount of reclamation
   • Suggested Bid: 10-20% above minimum

3. Bid On Demand Price - Receive a discount anytime the spot price is lower than on demand, immediately switching to on demand when it goes higher.

   • Use Case: Fully cloud native applications capable of easily moving workloads around
   • Suggested Bid: on demand price

4. Optimize Continuity - Bid very high to ensure availability and continuity.

   • Use Case: Accept some periods of higher-than-market prices in return for uptime continuity
   • Suggested Bid: 2x-3x on demand price

Prices and Inventory in Amsterdam

Machine Sizes: https://deploy.equinix.com/product/bare-metal/servers/

Current spot prices:

TOKEN=$(bw get notes equinix-api-token) && \
URL="https://api.equinix.com/metal/v1/market/spot/prices/metros" && \
METRO="am" && \
PRICES=$(curl -X GET -H "X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN" $URL -d "metro=$METRO" | \
python3 -c "import sys, json; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['spot_market_prices']['am'])"| sed "s/'/\"/g") && \
echo $PRICES |jq

{
  "a3.large.x86": {
    "price": 0.75
  },
  "c2.medium.x86": {
    "price": 2.01
  },
  "c3.medium.x86": {
    "price": 2.21
  },
  "c3.small.x86": {
    "price": 1.01
  },
  "m2.xlarge.x86": {
    "price": 4.01
  },
  "m3.large.x86": {
    "price": 0.68
  },
  "m3.small.x86": {
    "price": 0.11
  },
  "n2.xlarge.x86": {
    "price": 1.0
  },
  "n3.xlarge.x86": {
    "price": 0.45
  },
  "s3.xlarge.x86": {
    "price": 0.61
  },
  "t3.small.x86": {
    "price": 0.71
  },
  "t3.xsmall.x86": {
    "price": 0.71
  }
}

Requirements

Name	Version
cloudinit	~>2.2.0
equinix	~>1.10.0
random	~>3.3.1
time	~>0.7.2
tls	~>3.4.0

Providers

Name	Version
equinix	~>1.10.0
random	~>3.3.1
template	n/a

Modules

No modules.

Resources

Name	Type
equinix_metal_reserved_ip_block.load_balancer_ips	resource
equinix_metal_spot_market_request.req	resource
random_pet.identity	resource
equinix_metal_device.spot_vm	data source
equinix_metal_project.my_project	data source
equinix_metal_spot_market_request.dreq	data source
template_cloudinit_config.config	data source
template_file.cloudconfig	data source

Inputs

Name	Description	Type	Default	Required
billing-cycle	n/a	string	n/a	yes
description	n/a	string	n/a	yes
machine-size	n/a	string	n/a	yes
max-bid	n/a	number	n/a	yes
max-nodes	n/a	number	n/a	yes
min-nodes	n/a	number	n/a	yes
operating-system	n/a	string	n/a	yes
project-name	n/a	string	n/a	yes
spot-metro	n/a	string	n/a	yes
user-data-file	n/a	string	n/a	yes

Outputs

Name	Description
id	n/a