Azure Batch
Azure Batch is a managed cloud service that enables you to efficiently run large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) applications without managing infrastructure.
Key Concepts
Azure Batch abstracts away the complexity of configuring, scheduling, and processing large datasets with supercomputing best practices. It consists of several key components:
- Compute Nodes: Virtual machines that run your workloads. These can be Windows or Linux.
- Pools: Collections of compute nodes that a Batch account manages. You specify the node size, count, and OS image.
- Jobs: A logical collection of tasks that execute on a pool of compute nodes.
- Tasks: The basic unit of work in Batch. Each task runs a command or program on a compute node.
- Applications: Packages of your application executables and supporting files that you can deploy to compute nodes.
Getting Started with Azure Batch
Follow these steps to get started with Azure Batch:
- Create an Azure Batch Account: You can do this through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or PowerShell.
- Create a Pool: Define the size and configuration of your compute nodes.
- Create a Job: Group your tasks together.
- Add Tasks: Define the commands or programs to run for each task.
- Monitor Your Jobs: Track the progress and output of your tasks.
Tip: Consider using Azure Container Instances (ACI) for simpler, single-instance tasks, and Azure Batch for large-scale parallel workloads.
Common Scenarios
Azure Batch is ideal for a wide range of parallel processing scenarios, including:
- Media Rendering: Processing video files, encoding, and visual effects.
- Financial Modeling: Running complex simulations and risk analysis.
- Genomics: Processing large DNA sequencing datasets.
- Scientific Simulations: Running physics simulations, weather forecasting, and molecular dynamics.
- Image Processing: Performing batch image transformations, analysis, and manipulation.
Code Examples
Here's a simple example of how you might define a task to run a command:
# Example task definition using Azure CLI
az batch task create --job-id my-batch-job --batch-account my-batch-account \
--task-id task1 --command-line "echo Hello from Azure Batch!"
Note: For more complex applications, you can package your code and dependencies as an Azure Batch Application package.