Private AI Research Clusters Interconnected via Tailscale

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

Setting up private AI research clusters and interconnecting them through Tailscale involves multiple steps. Essentially, Tailscale is a zero config VPN that builds secure networks between your servers, computers, and cloud instances. Interconnecting your research clusters with Tailscale allows them to communicate securely, no matter where they're hosted.

First, we'll need to choose a cloud provider and set up our infrastructure, including the compute instances that will run our AI models. For this example, let's assume we are using AWS and we will deploy multiple EC2 instances. We'll then install and configure Tailscale on each instance to create a secure, interconnected network.

In this Pulumi program, we'll perform the following steps:
1. Provision EC2 instances that will serve as our AI research nodes.
2. Configure security groups to ensure our instances are secure.
3. Use Tailscale to interconnect these instances.

For each research node, we'll need to:
- Associate it with a Tailscale Tailnet.
- Apply the appropriate ACLs (access control lists) for secure communication.
- Set up DNS settings if needed.

Let's walk through the Pulumi program that would set up such infrastructure.

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_aws as aws
import pulumi_tailscale as tailscale

# Configuration for the Tailscale ACLs can be included in-line, or potentially loaded from another source
tailscale_acl_rules = """{
    "ACLs": [
        {"Action": "accept", "Users": ["group:ai-researchers"], "Ports": ["*:*"]},
        {"Action": "accept", "Users": ["group:ai-instances"], "Ports": ["*:*"]},
        // ...additional rules...
    ]
}"""

# Create a new Tailnet for the AI research cluster 
ai_cluster_tailnet = tailscale.Acl("ai-cluster-tailnet",
                                   acl=tailscale_acl_rules)

# Example security group for our EC2 instances to only allow SSH
security_group = aws.ec2.SecurityGroup("ai-cluster-sg",
    description="Allow SSH access",
    ingress=[
        {
            "protocol": "tcp",
            "from_port": 22,
            "to_port": 22,
            "cidr_blocks": ["0.0.0.0/0"],
        },
    ]
)

# Let's provision a few EC2 instances for the cluster
for i in range(3):  # Adjust the range for the number of instances desired
    instance = aws.ec2.Instance(f"ai-cluster-node-{i}",
        instance_type="t2.micro",
        ami="ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0",  # Placeholder for a valid AMI
        security_groups=[security_group.name],
        tags={
            "Name": f"AI-Cluster-Node-{i}"
        }
    )

# With each EC2 instance, we provision Tailscale resources
    # such as the authentication keys and attach them to our Tailnet
    tailscale_auth_key = tailscale.TailnetKey(f"ai-cluster-node-key-{i}",
        tailnet=ai_cluster_tailnet.name,
        ephemeral=False,  # Set ephemeral to True if keys should not be reused
    )

# Apply Tailscale settings to the instance.
    # This code assumes you have an automated way for initiating Tailscale setup on the instance after startup.
    # For actual automated setup, we could use EC2 user data scripts or configuration management tools like Ansible.

# Outputs Tailscale information for further configuration or use
pulumi.export('tailscale_acl', ai_cluster_tailnet.acl)
pulumi.export('security_group_id', security_group.id)
```

In this program:
- We define the network ACL configuration for Tailscale.
- We provision a security group for our EC2 instances to manage network access.
- We create a few EC2 instances which are part of our AI cluster.
- We generate Tailscale auth keys for each node and associate them with a Tailnet. These keys can then be used to join each EC2 instance to the Tailscale network when setting them up.

Please note that the above program assumes that Tailscale is being installed and configured on the EC2 instances. In real scenarios, you would either provide user data scripts to the EC2 instances to do this upon initialization or configure them after bootstrapping using configuration management tools.

Also, make sure to replace `"ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"` with the actual AMI ID that you intend to use for your EC2 instances. The AMI should be chosen based on the AI tools and environment you wish to use.

This program acts as both an initial setup for AI cluster nodes and the foundation for a secure network via Tailscale. The `tailscale` module in Pulumi allows us to manage Tailscale-specific resources like ACLs, keys, and DNS settings. To complete the interconnectivity, you would install Tailscale on each instance, authenticate with the generated Tailnet keys, and verify connectivity across your nodes.