Scalable Disk Storage for High-Performance AI Workloads

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

When building infrastructure for high-performance AI workloads, selecting a scalable disk storage solution is crucial. For cloud infrastructure on Azure, we can leverage Azure NetApp Volumes. This is a high-performance storage solution that can be dynamically scaled to accommodate AI workload demands. It provides low-latency file access suited to running advanced AI applications.

In the program below, we're going to create a NetApp Volume in Azure using Pulumi's `azure-native.netapp.Volume` resource. This volume will be part of a NetApp account and capacity pool, which must be created first if they do not already exist. A subnet dedicated to the NetApp account is also required for network delegation.

Here's what each component is for:

- `NetApp Account`: This is the main container for your Azure NetApp files workload. It contains capacity pools and volumes.
- `Capacity Pool`: This represents a pool of capacity that volumes can be placed into. It defines service level (performance) and size.
- `Volume`: This is the data repository within a capacity pool. It represents the file system you'll use to store and manage your files.

Here's a Pulumi program that sets up a scalable disk storage solution suitable for high-performance AI workloads using Azure NetApp:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_azure_native as azure_native

# Define your resource group where all Azure NetApp resources will live.
resource_group = azure_native.resources.ResourceGroup("ai_workload_rg")

# Create an Azure NetApp account within the resource group.
netapp_account = azure_native.netapp.Account("aiNetappAccount",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    location=resource_group.location)

# Create a capacity pool within the NetApp account for our volumes.
capacity_pool = azure_native.netapp.CapacityPool("aiCapacityPool",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    account_name=netapp_account.name,
    location=resource_group.location,
    service_level="Premium", # Chosen for high performance, other levels include "Standard" and "Ultra".
    size=4398046511104  # Size in bytes (4TiB) adjust based on your needs.
)

# Create a subnet and enables delegation to NetApp. Replace 'virtual_network_name' and 
# 'subnet_name' with the names of the existing VNet and subnet where you want to delegate to NetApp.
subnet_id = pulumi.Output.format("/subscriptions/{subscription_id}/resourceGroups/{resource_group_name}/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/{virtual_network_name}/subnets/{subnet_name}",
    subscription_id=pulumi.config.require("subscriptionId"),
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    virtual_network_name="YourVirtualNetwork",
    subnet_name="YourSubnet"
)

# Create the NetApp volume within the capacity pool.
netapp_volume = azure_native.netapp.Volume("aiNetappVolume",
    resource_group_name=resource_group.name,
    account_name=netapp_account.name,
    pool_name=capacity_pool.name,
    location=resource_group.location,
    volume_type="Data", # We select "Data" for typical data storage use cases.
    usage_threshold=107374182400, # 100 GiB limit, adjust based on your needs.
    subnet