Multi-cloud orchestration for ML workloads with automatic cost optimization. Use when you need to run training or batch jobs across multiple clouds, leverage spot instances with auto-recovery, or optimize GPU costs across providers.
Installation
Details
Usage
After installing, this skill will be available to your AI coding assistant.
Verify installation:
skills listSkill Instructions
name: skypilot-multi-cloud-orchestration description: Multi-cloud orchestration for ML workloads with automatic cost optimization. Use when you need to run training or batch jobs across multiple clouds, leverage spot instances with auto-recovery, or optimize GPU costs across providers. version: 1.0.0 author: Orchestra Research license: MIT tags: [Infrastructure, Multi-Cloud, Orchestration, GPU, Cost Optimization, SkyPilot] dependencies: [skypilot>=0.7.0]
SkyPilot Multi-Cloud Orchestration
Comprehensive guide to running ML workloads across clouds with automatic cost optimization using SkyPilot.
When to use SkyPilot
Use SkyPilot when:
- Running ML workloads across multiple clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.)
- Need cost optimization with automatic cloud/region selection
- Running long jobs on spot instances with auto-recovery
- Managing distributed multi-node training
- Want unified interface for 20+ cloud providers
- Need to avoid vendor lock-in
Key features:
- Multi-cloud: AWS, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes, Lambda, RunPod, 20+ providers
- Cost optimization: Automatic cheapest cloud/region selection
- Spot instances: 3-6x cost savings with automatic recovery
- Distributed training: Multi-node jobs with gang scheduling
- Managed jobs: Auto-recovery, checkpointing, fault tolerance
- Sky Serve: Model serving with autoscaling
Use alternatives instead:
- Modal: For simpler serverless GPU with Python-native API
- RunPod: For single-cloud persistent pods
- Kubernetes: For existing K8s infrastructure
- Ray: For pure Ray-based orchestration
Quick start
Installation
pip install "skypilot[aws,gcp,azure,kubernetes]"
# Verify cloud credentials
sky check
Hello World
Create hello.yaml:
resources:
accelerators: T4:1
run: |
nvidia-smi
echo "Hello from SkyPilot!"
Launch:
sky launch -c hello hello.yaml
# SSH to cluster
ssh hello
# Terminate
sky down hello
Core concepts
Task YAML structure
# Task name (optional)
name: my-task
# Resource requirements
resources:
cloud: aws # Optional: auto-select if omitted
region: us-west-2 # Optional: auto-select if omitted
accelerators: A100:4 # GPU type and count
cpus: 8+ # Minimum CPUs
memory: 32+ # Minimum memory (GB)
use_spot: true # Use spot instances
disk_size: 256 # Disk size (GB)
# Number of nodes for distributed training
num_nodes: 2
# Working directory (synced to ~/sky_workdir)
workdir: .
# Setup commands (run once)
setup: |
pip install -r requirements.txt
# Run commands
run: |
python train.py
Key commands
| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
sky launch | Launch cluster and run task |
sky exec | Run task on existing cluster |
sky status | Show cluster status |
sky stop | Stop cluster (preserve state) |
sky down | Terminate cluster |
sky logs | View task logs |
sky queue | Show job queue |
sky jobs launch | Launch managed job |
sky serve up | Deploy serving endpoint |
GPU configuration
Available accelerators
# NVIDIA GPUs
accelerators: T4:1
accelerators: L4:1
accelerators: A10G:1
accelerators: L40S:1
accelerators: A100:4
accelerators: A100-80GB:8
accelerators: H100:8
# Cloud-specific
accelerators: V100:4 # AWS/GCP
accelerators: TPU-v4-8 # GCP TPUs
GPU fallbacks
resources:
accelerators:
H100: 8
A100-80GB: 8
A100: 8
any_of:
- cloud: gcp
- cloud: aws
- cloud: azure
Spot instances
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
use_spot: true
spot_recovery: FAILOVER # Auto-recover on preemption
Cluster management
Launch and execute
# Launch new cluster
sky launch -c mycluster task.yaml
# Run on existing cluster (skip setup)
sky exec mycluster another_task.yaml
# Interactive SSH
ssh mycluster
# Stream logs
sky logs mycluster
Autostop
resources:
accelerators: A100:4
autostop:
idle_minutes: 30
down: true # Terminate instead of stop
# Set autostop via CLI
sky autostop mycluster -i 30 --down
Cluster status
# All clusters
sky status
# Detailed view
sky status -a
Distributed training
Multi-node setup
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
num_nodes: 4 # 4 nodes × 8 GPUs = 32 GPUs total
setup: |
pip install torch torchvision
run: |
torchrun \
--nnodes=$SKYPILOT_NUM_NODES \
--nproc_per_node=$SKYPILOT_NUM_GPUS_PER_NODE \
--node_rank=$SKYPILOT_NODE_RANK \
--master_addr=$(echo "$SKYPILOT_NODE_IPS" | head -n1) \
--master_port=12355 \
train.py
Environment variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
SKYPILOT_NODE_RANK | Node index (0 to num_nodes-1) |
SKYPILOT_NODE_IPS | Newline-separated IP addresses |
SKYPILOT_NUM_NODES | Total number of nodes |
SKYPILOT_NUM_GPUS_PER_NODE | GPUs per node |
Head-node-only execution
run: |
if [ "${SKYPILOT_NODE_RANK}" == "0" ]; then
python orchestrate.py
fi
Managed jobs
Spot recovery
# Launch managed job with spot recovery
sky jobs launch -n my-job train.yaml
Checkpointing
name: training-job
file_mounts:
/checkpoints:
name: my-checkpoints
store: s3
mode: MOUNT
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
use_spot: true
run: |
python train.py \
--checkpoint-dir /checkpoints \
--resume-from-latest
Job management
# List jobs
sky jobs queue
# View logs
sky jobs logs my-job
# Cancel job
sky jobs cancel my-job
File mounts and storage
Local file sync
workdir: ./my-project # Synced to ~/sky_workdir
file_mounts:
/data/config.yaml: ./config.yaml
~/.vimrc: ~/.vimrc
Cloud storage
file_mounts:
# Mount S3 bucket
/datasets:
source: s3://my-bucket/datasets
mode: MOUNT # Stream from S3
# Copy GCS bucket
/models:
source: gs://my-bucket/models
mode: COPY # Pre-fetch to disk
# Cached mount (fast writes)
/outputs:
name: my-outputs
store: s3
mode: MOUNT_CACHED
Storage modes
| Mode | Description | Best For |
|---|---|---|
MOUNT | Stream from cloud | Large datasets, read-heavy |
COPY | Pre-fetch to disk | Small files, random access |
MOUNT_CACHED | Cache with async upload | Checkpoints, outputs |
Sky Serve (Model Serving)
Basic service
# service.yaml
service:
readiness_probe: /health
replica_policy:
min_replicas: 1
max_replicas: 10
target_qps_per_replica: 2.0
resources:
accelerators: A100:1
run: |
python -m vllm.entrypoints.openai.api_server \
--model meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf \
--port 8000
# Deploy
sky serve up -n my-service service.yaml
# Check status
sky serve status
# Get endpoint
sky serve status my-service
Autoscaling policies
service:
replica_policy:
min_replicas: 1
max_replicas: 10
target_qps_per_replica: 2.0
upscale_delay_seconds: 60
downscale_delay_seconds: 300
load_balancing_policy: round_robin
Cost optimization
Automatic cloud selection
# SkyPilot finds cheapest option
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
# No cloud specified - auto-select cheapest
# Show optimizer decision
sky launch task.yaml --dryrun
Cloud preferences
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
any_of:
- cloud: gcp
region: us-central1
- cloud: aws
region: us-east-1
- cloud: azure
Environment variables
envs:
HF_TOKEN: $HF_TOKEN # Inherited from local env
WANDB_API_KEY: $WANDB_API_KEY
# Or use secrets
secrets:
- HF_TOKEN
- WANDB_API_KEY
Common workflows
Workflow 1: Fine-tuning with checkpoints
name: llm-finetune
file_mounts:
/checkpoints:
name: finetune-checkpoints
store: s3
mode: MOUNT_CACHED
resources:
accelerators: A100:8
use_spot: true
setup: |
pip install transformers accelerate
run: |
python train.py \
--checkpoint-dir /checkpoints \
--resume
Workflow 2: Hyperparameter sweep
name: hp-sweep-${RUN_ID}
envs:
RUN_ID: 0
LEARNING_RATE: 1e-4
BATCH_SIZE: 32
resources:
accelerators: A100:1
use_spot: true
run: |
python train.py \
--lr $LEARNING_RATE \
--batch-size $BATCH_SIZE \
--run-id $RUN_ID
# Launch multiple jobs
for i in {1..10}; do
sky jobs launch sweep.yaml \
--env RUN_ID=$i \
--env LEARNING_RATE=$(python -c "import random; print(10**random.uniform(-5,-3))")
done
Debugging
# SSH to cluster
ssh mycluster
# View logs
sky logs mycluster
# Check job queue
sky queue mycluster
# View managed job logs
sky jobs logs my-job
Common issues
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Quota exceeded | Request quota increase, try different region |
| Spot preemption | Use sky jobs launch for auto-recovery |
| Slow file sync | Use MOUNT_CACHED mode for outputs |
| GPU not available | Use any_of for fallback clouds |
References
- Advanced Usage - Multi-cloud, optimization, production patterns
- Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
Resources
- Documentation: https://docs.skypilot.co
- GitHub: https://github.com/skypilot-org/skypilot
- Slack: https://slack.skypilot.co
- Examples: https://github.com/skypilot-org/skypilot/tree/master/examples
More by davila7
View allAgile product ownership toolkit for Senior Product Owner including INVEST-compliant user story generation, sprint planning, backlog management, and velocity tracking. Use for story writing, sprint planning, stakeholder communication, and agile ceremonies.
Create SEO-optimized marketing content with consistent brand voice. Includes brand voice analyzer, SEO optimizer, content frameworks, and social media templates. Use when writing blog posts, creating social media content, analyzing brand voice, optimizing SEO, planning content calendars, or when user mentions content creation, brand voice, SEO optimization, social media marketing, or content strategy.
Build complex AI systems with declarative programming, optimize prompts automatically, create modular RAG systems and agents with DSPy - Stanford NLP's framework for systematic LM programming
Multi-channel demand generation, paid media optimization, SEO strategy, and partnership programs for Series A+ startups. Includes CAC calculator, channel playbooks, HubSpot integration, and international expansion tactics. Use when planning demand generation campaigns, optimizing paid media, building SEO strategies, establishing partnerships, or when user mentions demand gen, paid ads, LinkedIn ads, Google ads, CAC, acquisition, lead generation, or pipeline generation.
