Vast.ai Core Workflow A: Instance Provisioning & Job Execution

Overview

Primary workflow for Vast.ai: search for GPU offers, provision an instance, transfer data, execute a training or inference job, collect artifacts, and destroy the instance to stop billing. This is the money-path operation for every Vast.ai user.

Prerequisites

Completed vastai-install-auth setup
Docker image published to a registry (Docker Hub, GHCR, etc.)
SSH key uploaded to Vast.ai
Training data accessible via URL or local path

Instructions

Step 1: Search Offers with Filters

import subprocess, json

def search_offers(gpu_name="RTX_4090", min_vram=24, min_reliability=0.95,
                  max_price=0.50, num_gpus=1):
    """Search Vast.ai marketplace with specific filters."""
    query = (
        f"num_gpus={num_gpus} gpu_name={gpu_name} "
        f"gpu_ram>={min_vram} reliability>{min_reliability} "
        f"inet_down>200 dph_total<={max_price} rentable=true"
    )
    result = subprocess.run(
        ["vastai", "search", "offers", query, "--order", "dph_total", "--raw"],
        capture_output=True, text=True, check=True,
    )
    offers = json.loads(result.stdout)
    print(f"Found {len(offers)} offers matching criteria")
    for o in offers[:5]:
        print(f"  ID {o['id']}: {o['gpu_name']} {o['gpu_ram']}GB "
              f"${o['dph_total']:.3f}/hr reliability={o['reliability2']:.3f}")
    return offers

Step 2: Provision an Instance

def provision_instance(offer_id, image, disk_gb=50, onstart_cmd=""):
    """Create an instance from the best offer."""
    cmd = [
        "vastai", "create", "instance", str(offer_id),
        "--image", image,
        "--disk", str(disk_gb),
    ]
    if onstart_cmd:
        cmd.extend(["--onstart-cmd", onstart_cmd])

    result = subprocess.run(cmd, capture_output=True, text=True, check=True)
    instance_info = json.loads(result.stdout)
    instance_id = instance_info.get("new_contract")
    print(f"Instance {instance_id} provisioning...")
    return instance_id

Step 3: Wait for Instance Ready

import time

def wait_for_instance(instance_id, timeout=300):
    """Poll until instance status is 'running'."""
    start = time.time()
    while time.time() - start < timeout:
        result = subprocess.run(
            ["vastai", "show", "instance", str(instance_id), "--raw"],
            capture_output=True, text=True,
        )
        info = json.loads(result.stdout)
        status = info.get("actual_status", "unknown")
        print(f"  Status: {status}")
        if status == "running":
            ssh_host = info.get("ssh_host")
            ssh_port = info.get("ssh_port")
            print(f"  SSH: ssh -p {ssh_port} root@{ssh_host}")
            return info
        time.sleep(15)
    raise TimeoutError(f"Instance {instance_id} did not start within {timeout}s")

Step 4: Transfer Data and Execute Job

# Upload training data to instance
scp -P $SSH_PORT ./data/training.tar.gz root@$SSH_HOST:/workspace/

# Execute training job remotely
ssh -p $SSH_PORT root@$SSH_HOST << 'REMOTE'
cd /workspace
tar xzf training.tar.gz
python train.py --epochs 10 --batch-size 32 --output /workspace/checkpoints/
REMOTE

Step 5: Collect Artifacts and Destroy

def cleanup_instance(instance_id, ssh_host, ssh_port, output_dir="./results"):
    """Download results and destroy instance."""
    import os
    os.makedirs(output_dir, exist_ok=True)

    # Download model checkpoints
    subprocess.run([
        "scp", "-P", str(ssh_port), "-r",
        f"root@{ssh_host}:/workspace/checkpoints/",
        output_dir,
    ], check=True)
    print(f"Artifacts saved to {output_dir}")

    # CRITICAL: Destroy instance to stop billing
    subprocess.run(["vastai", "destroy", "instance", str(instance_id)], check=True)
    print(f"Instance {instance_id} destroyed — billing stopped")

Complete Workflow

# End-to-end: search → provision → run → collect → destroy
offers = search_offers(gpu_name="RTX_4090", max_price=0.30)
if not offers:
    raise RuntimeError("No offers available")

instance_id = provision_instance(
    offer_id=offers[0]["id"],
    image="pytorch/pytorch:2.2.0-cuda12.1-cudnn8-runtime",
    disk_gb=50,
    onstart_cmd="pip install transformers datasets",
)
info = wait_for_instance(instance_id)
# ... transfer data, run job, collect results ...
cleanup_instance(instance_id, info["ssh_host"], info["ssh_port"])

Output

GPU instance provisioned from the cheapest matching offer
Training job executed with GPU acceleration
Model checkpoints and logs downloaded locally
Instance destroyed (billing stopped)

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
No offers match filters	GPU type or price too restrictive	Relax `dph_total` or try different `gpu_name`
Instance stuck in `loading`	Docker image is very large	Use a smaller base image or pre-cached template
SSH timeout after creation	Firewall or key mismatch	Verify SSH key is uploaded at cloud.vast.ai
Job OOM killed	Insufficient GPU VRAM	Reduce batch size or search for more VRAM
Instance preempted (spot)	Host reclaimed interruptible instance	Use on-demand or implement checkpoint recovery

Resources

Next Steps

For multi-instance orchestration and cost optimization, see vastai-core-workflow-b.

Examples

Fine-tune LLM: Search for A100 80GB offers, provision with the huggingface/transformers image, upload a LoRA config, run fine-tuning for 3 epochs, download the adapter weights, destroy the instance.

Batch inference: Provision 4 cheap RTX 4090 instances in parallel, distribute an inference dataset across them, collect results, and destroy all instances in a loop.