Building Containerized AI Environments with GCP Cloud Build

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

In order to build containerized AI environments with Google Cloud Build, you would typically define a series of steps in your build configuration that would build your AI application's Docker container, run any tests you have defined, and then push the container to a container registry such as Google Container Registry (GCR) or Google Artifact Registry.

Google Cloud Build allows you to create custom build processes that automatically trigger from source code changes in repositories like Cloud Source Repositories, GitHub, or Bitbucket. Cloud Build can import source code, execute a build to your specifications, and produce artifacts such as Docker containers or Java archives.

Below is a Python program using Pulumi to define the necessary resources, such as a repository for source code and a Cloud Build trigger to build our AI environment container. This program assumes you already have a Dockerfile in the repository which Cloud Build will use to build the container image:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_gcp as gcp

# Configure the Google Cloud provider with the desired project and region
config = pulumi.Config()
project = config.require('project')
location = config.require('location')

# Use Dockerfile present in source repository to build the container with Google Cloud Build.
# This assumes that the Dockerfile and any necessary context files are in the root of the repo.
cloudbuild_trigger = gcp.cloudbuild.Trigger(
    "ai-env-build-trigger",
    description="Build Trigger for AI Environment Container",
    project=project,
    filename="cloudbuild.yaml",  # The name of the Cloud Build YAML configuration file
    included_files=[
        "Dockerfile",
        "**/*.py",  # Include Python files in case they change
        # Add other relevant files or patterns that should trigger the build
    ],
    substitutions={
        # Optional substitutions used in the cloudbuild.yaml file
        "_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME": "gcr.io/{project}/ai-env:latest".format(project=project),
    },
    # A sample build configuration (cloudbuild.yaml) is shown below 
)

# Export the Cloud Build Trigger ID to access it later, e.g., to check build statuses in the Google Cloud console.
pulumi.export('cloudbuild_trigger_id', cloudbuild_trigger.id)

# Sample cloudbuild.yaml config for building a Docker image and pushing to GCR:
# steps:
# - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
#   args: ['build', '-t', 'gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/ai-env:${COMMIT_SHA}', '.']
# - name: 'gcr.io/cloud-builders/docker'
#   args: ['push', 'gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/ai-env:${COMMIT_SHA}']
# images:
# - 'gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/ai-env:${COMMIT_SHA}'
# substitutions:
#   _DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME: 'gcr.io/${PROJECT_ID}/ai-env:latest'
```

This Pulumi program does the following:
1. Defines a Google Cloud Build trigger using the `pulumi_gcp.cloudbuild.Trigger` class.
2. Sets the trigger to look for changes in your repository, including the Dockerfile and any `.py` Python files that could constitute your AI environment.
3. Utilizes a Cloud Build YAML file (`cloudbuild.yaml`) to define the actual build steps performed by Cloud Build.
4. Specifies the `_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME` substitution variable for dynamic docker image naming.
5. Exports the Cloud Build Trigger ID for later reference.

For this to work, you'll need to have a `cloudbuild.yaml` file in your source repository that specifies the build steps for Cloud Build to follow. A simple example of such a file is included as a comment in the code.

This program doesn't directly build containerized AI Environments, rather it sets up the automated infrastructure needed to do so upon git push (or another VCS system).

Please replace the `config.require('project')` and `config.require('location')` with your Google Cloud project ID and location respectively (or set them in your Pulumi config file). Also, ensure your repository structure includes your AI application's source code and a Dockerfile in the root of the repository.