machine-type

A machine type is a catalog resource that defines the compute shape of an agent VM. Each environment references one machine type by name via machine_type_ref. The platform provides built-in machine types for common VM shapes on GCP and AWS. Built-in machine types are immutable — they cannot be modified or deleted.

Fields

Name	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	yes	Unique identifier. DNS label format: `[a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,62}`.
`description`	string	no	Human-readable description shown in the dashboard. Maximum 1024 bytes.
`vcpus`	int32	yes	Number of virtual CPUs. Must be positive.
`memory_gb`	int32	yes	Memory in GiB. Must be positive.
`architecture`	string	yes	CPU architecture. Values: `ARCHITECTURE_AMD64`, `ARCHITECTURE_ARM64`.
`has_gpu`	bool	no	Whether this machine type includes a GPU. Default: `false`. Set it only where the machine type itself includes one — see GPU support.
`gpu_kind`	string	conditional	GPU kind (e.g. `t4`, `l4`, `a100`). Required when `has_gpu` is `true`. Must be empty when `has_gpu` is `false`.
`spec`	object	yes	Cloud-specific configuration. Exactly one of `gce`, `aws`, or `docker`.

GCE spec fields

Set spec.gce for GCP machine types:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`spec.gce.machine_type`	string	yes	GCE machine type (e.g. `n2-standard-32`). An accelerator-optimized machine type (e.g. `a2-highgpu-1g`) includes its own GPUs and must be paired with `has_gpu`. Must match `^[a-z][a-z0-9]([a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?$`.
`spec.gce.accelerator_type`	string	no	Must be empty. Separately attached accelerators are not yet supported — see GPU support.
`spec.gce.accelerator_count`	int32	no	Must be `0`. Separately attached accelerators are not yet supported — see GPU support.
`spec.gce.regions`	map	yes	Available regions with per-region cost configuration. At least one entry required. Keys are region strings (e.g. `us-central1`).

AWS spec fields

Set spec.aws for AWS machine types:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`spec.aws.instance_type`	string	yes	EC2 instance type (e.g. `m5.8xlarge`). Must match `^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*\.[a-z0-9]+$`.
`spec.aws.regions`	map	yes	Available regions with per-region cost configuration. At least one entry required. Keys are region strings (e.g. `us-east-1`).

GPU support

A GPU reaches an agent VM through the machine type itself. On GCE, that is an accelerator-optimized machine type — the a2, a3, a4, a4x, g2, and g4 series each include a fixed GPU model and count, so machine_type: a2-highgpu-1g with has_gpu: true provisions the GPUs that machine type comes with. On AWS, an EC2 GPU instance type such as g5.2xlarge works the same way. Nothing attaches a GPU to a GCE machine type that lacks one, so on GCE has_gpu and the machine type must agree:

has_gpu: true requires an accelerator-optimized spec.gce.machine_type. On any other machine type it claims a GPU the VM would not have, and is rejected.
An accelerator-optimized spec.gce.machine_type requires has_gpu: true (with gpu_kind), so the machine type describes the GPUs its VMs get.
spec.gce.accelerator_type and spec.gce.accelerator_count request accelerators attached separately to an ordinary machine type. That is not yet supported: setting either is rejected.

A rejected declaration fails the write, and an environment referencing a machine type stored with one fails VM creation with UNSUPPORTED_GPU_SHAPE.

Region configuration

Each entry in a regions map is a RegionConfig object:

Name	Type	Required	Description
`cost_per_hour`	double	yes	On-demand cost per hour in USD. Must be greater than 0.

Examples

Listing machine types

murmur get machine-type

NAME                        VCPUS  MEMORY  ARCH   GPU  DESCRIPTION
murmur-n2-standard-32       32     128     amd64  no   Platform managed — GCE n2-standard-32
murmur-m5-8xlarge           32     128     amd64  no   Platform managed — EC2 m5.8xlarge

Reading a single machine type

murmur get machine-type murmur-n2-standard-32

GCE machine type

name: my-gce-large
description: "GCE n2-standard-16"
vcpus: 16
memory_gb: 64
architecture: ARCHITECTURE_AMD64
has_gpu: false
spec:
  gce:
    machine_type: n2-standard-16
    regions:
      us-central1:
        cost_per_hour: 0.78

GCE GPU machine type

An accelerator-optimized machine type includes its GPUs, so no accelerator fields are set:

name: my-gce-gpu
description: "GCE a2-highgpu-1g with one A100"
vcpus: 12
memory_gb: 85
architecture: ARCHITECTURE_AMD64
has_gpu: true
gpu_kind: a100
spec:
  gce:
    machine_type: a2-highgpu-1g
    regions:
      us-central1:
        cost_per_hour: 3.67

AWS machine type

name: my-aws-large
description: "EC2 m5.8xlarge"
vcpus: 32
memory_gb: 128
architecture: ARCHITECTURE_AMD64
has_gpu: false
spec:
  aws:
    instance_type: m5.8xlarge
    regions:
      us-east-1:
        cost_per_hour: 1.536
      us-west-2:
        cost_per_hour: 1.536

Creating a machine type

cat <<'EOF' | murmur set machine-type my-aws-large
name: my-aws-large
description: "EC2 m5.8xlarge"
vcpus: 32
memory_gb: 128
architecture: ARCHITECTURE_AMD64
has_gpu: false
spec:
  aws:
    instance_type: m5.8xlarge
    regions:
      us-east-1:
        cost_per_hour: 1.536
EOF

Errors

Code	Meaning	What to do
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`name is required`	Provide a `name` field.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`name must match [a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,62}`	Use a lowercase DNS label for the name.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`description exceeds 1024 byte limit`	Shorten the `description` to 1024 bytes or fewer.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`vcpus must be positive`	Set `vcpus` to a value greater than 0.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`memory_gb must be positive`	Set `memory_gb` to a value greater than 0.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`architecture is required`	Set `architecture` to `ARCHITECTURE_AMD64` or `ARCHITECTURE_ARM64`.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`unknown architecture value <N>`	Use a valid `architecture` value.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gpu_kind is required when has_gpu is true`	Provide `gpu_kind` when `has_gpu` is `true`.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gpu_kind must be empty when has_gpu is false`	Remove `gpu_kind`, or set `has_gpu` to `true` on a machine type that includes GPUs.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`spec is required (aws, gce, or docker)`	Provide exactly one of `spec.aws`, `spec.gce`, or `spec.docker`.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`aws.instance_type "<value>" does not match EC2 format`	Use a valid EC2 instance type string (e.g. `m5.8xlarge`).
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gce.machine_type "<value>" does not match GCE format`	Use a valid GCE machine type string (e.g. `n2-standard-32`).
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gce.accelerator_type and gce.accelerator_count must be unset: separately attached accelerators are not yet supported on GCE. Use an accelerator-optimized machine type, which includes its GPUs`	Remove `spec.gce.accelerator_type` and `spec.gce.accelerator_count`, and name an accelerator-optimized `machine_type` such as `a2-highgpu-1g` — see GPU support.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`has_gpu requires an accelerator-optimized gce.machine_type (a2, a3, a4, a4x, g2, g4 series); "<value>" includes no GPU`	Name an accelerator-optimized `spec.gce.machine_type`, or remove `has_gpu` and `gpu_kind` — see GPU support.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gce.machine_type "<value>" includes GPUs: set has_gpu and gpu_kind to describe them`	Set `has_gpu: true` and `gpu_kind` on the machine type, so it describes the GPUs its VMs get.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`aws.regions must be non-empty`	Add at least one region to `spec.aws.regions`.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gce.regions must be non-empty`	Add at least one region to `spec.gce.regions`.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`aws.regions["<region>"].cost_per_hour must be > 0`	Set `cost_per_hour` to a positive value for the given region.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`gce.regions["<region>"].cost_per_hour must be > 0`	Set `cost_per_hour` to a positive value for the given region.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`docker machine types cannot request GPU`	Remove `has_gpu` and `gpu_kind`, or use a GCE or AWS spec with a GPU-inclusive machine type — see GPU support.
`INVALID_ARGUMENT`	`platform machine types are reserved for builtins and cannot be written via the catalog`	Do not set the `platform` field. Built-in machine types are managed by the platform.
`FAILED_PRECONDITION`	`cannot delete machine-type "<name>": referenced by environment: <names>`	Remove the `machine_type_ref` from the referencing environments before deleting the machine type.

Environments and placements — concept overview
Catalog — how catalog resources work
murmur set — CLI command for creating and updating catalog resources
murmur get — CLI command for reading catalog resources

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Fields

GCE spec fields

AWS spec fields

GPU support

Region configuration

Examples

Listing machine types

Reading a single machine type

GCE machine type

GCE GPU machine type

AWS machine type

Creating a machine type

Errors

​Fields

​GCE spec fields

​AWS spec fields

​GPU support

​Region configuration

​Examples

​Listing machine types

​Reading a single machine type

​GCE machine type

​GCE GPU machine type

​AWS machine type

​Creating a machine type

​Errors

​Related

Fields

GCE spec fields

AWS spec fields

GPU support

Region configuration

Examples

Listing machine types

Reading a single machine type

GCE machine type

GCE GPU machine type

AWS machine type

Creating a machine type

Errors

Related