Quickstart¶

This guide will walk you through:

defining a task in a simple YAML format
provisioning a cluster and running a task
using the core SkyPilot CLI commands

Be sure to complete the installation instructions first before continuing with this guide.

Hello, SkyPilot!¶

Let’s define our very first task, a simple Hello, SkyPilot! program.

Create a directory from anywhere on your machine:

$ mkdir hello-sky
$ cd hello-sky

Copy the following YAML into a hello_sky.yaml file:

resources:
  # Optional; if left out, automatically pick the cheapest cloud.
  cloud: aws
  # 1x NVIDIA V100 GPU
  accelerators: V100:1

# Working directory (optional) containing the project codebase.
# Its contents are synced to ~/sky_workdir/ on the cluster.
workdir: .

# Typical use: pip install -r requirements.txt
# Invoked under the workdir (i.e., can use its files).
setup: |
  echo "Running setup."

# Typical use: make use of resources, such as running training.
# Invoked under the workdir (i.e., can use its files).
run: |
  echo "Hello, SkyPilot!"
  conda env list

This defines a task with the following components:

resources: cloud resources the task must be run on (e.g., accelerators, instance type, etc.)
workdir: the working directory containing project code that will be synced to the provisioned instance(s)
setup: commands that must be run before the task is executed (invoked under workdir)
run: commands that run the actual task (invoked under workdir)

All these fields are optional.

To launch a cluster and run a task, use sky launch:

$ sky launch -c mycluster hello_sky.yaml

Tip

This may take a few minutes for the first run. Feel free to read ahead on this guide.

Tip

You can use the -c flag to give the cluster an easy-to-remember name. If not specified, a name is autogenerated.

The sky launch command performs much heavy-lifting:

selects an appropriate cloud and VM based on the specified resource constraints;
provisions (or reuses) a cluster on that cloud;
syncs up the workdir;
executes the setup commands; and
executes the run commands.

In a few minutes, the cluster will finish provisioning and the task will be executed. The outputs will show Hello, SkyPilot! and the list of installed Conda environments.

Execute a task on an existing cluster¶

Once you have an existing cluster, use sky exec to execute a task on it:

$ sky exec mycluster hello_sky.yaml

The sky exec command is more lightweight; it

syncs up the workdir (so that the task may use updated code); and
executes the run commands.

Provisioning and setup commands are skipped.

Bash commands are also supported, such as:

$ sky exec mycluster python train_cpu.py
$ sky exec mycluster --gpus=V100:1 python train_gpu.py

For interactive/monitoring commands, such as htop or gpustat -i, use ssh instead (see below) to avoid job submission overheads.

View all clusters¶

Use sky status to see all clusters (across regions and clouds) in a single table:

$ sky status

This may show multiple clusters, if you have created several:

NAME       LAUNCHED     RESOURCES             COMMAND                            STATUS
gcp        1 day ago    1x GCP(n1-highmem-8)  sky cpunode -c gcp --cloud gcp     STOPPED
mycluster  4 mins ago   1x AWS(p3.2xlarge)    sky exec mycluster hello_sky.yaml  UP

SSH into clusters¶

Simply run ssh <cluster_name> to log into a cluster:

$ ssh mycluster

Multi-node clusters work too:

# Assuming 3 nodes.

# Head node.
$ ssh mycluster

# Worker nodes.
$ ssh mycluster-worker1
$ ssh mycluster-worker2

The above are achieved by adding appropriate entries to ~/.ssh/config.

Transfer files¶

After a task’s execution, use rsync or scp to download files (e.g., checkpoints):

$ rsync -Pavz mycluster:/remote/source /local/dest  # copy from remote VM

For uploading files to the cluster, see Syncing Code and Artifacts.

Stop/terminate a cluster¶

When you are done, run sky stop mycluster to stop the cluster. To terminate a cluster instead, run sky down mycluster. Find more commands that manage the lifecycle of clusters here.

Next steps¶

Congratulations! In this quickstart, you have launched a cluster, run a task, and interacted with SkyPilot’s CLI.

Next steps:

Adapt Tutorial: DNN Training to start running your own project on SkyPilot!
See the Task YAML reference, CLI reference, and more examples
To learn more, try out SkyPilot Tutorials in Jupyter notebooks
Try Interactive Nodes – launch VMs in one command without a YAML file
Explore SkyPilot’s unique features in the rest of the documentation

Quickstart

Contents