How do I delete my linode GPU to avoid heavy charges but still maintain installation setup which includes an NVIDIA driver installation
Off the back of this great answer I have attempted to save an image locally and on Linode.
https://www.linode.com/community/questions/19705/what-is-a-good-way-to-delete-my-linode-so-i-dont-get-charged-but-still-save-my-l
I put the Linode GPU instance in Recovery mode, used the Lish console to then download to my local machine.
In addition to that I have tried to create an Image on Linode using the Linode UI.
My problem: When I restore the image on a GPU instance there's an issue with the NVIDIA driver. The "NVIDIA-SMI" says that there is no driver installed, but when I try to reinstall it I'm told that it's already installed.
My ideal goal: to install all NVIDIA/Deep Learning/Torch requirements to set up a DL box, but also to try to avoid heavy costs when the box isn't in use. To avoid costs I would need to delete the box each time I'm finished using it. The con is that I will be required to set up a new box and reinstall everything the next time I need to use it.
Question: Does anyone know if my goal of having a base box/image with one-off installations on it is possible? And is it possible to reload this box each time I need it with all the drivers etc still in place?
Thanks.
2 Replies
watrick
Linode Staff
I think what you have is the first part of a plan, with the image of your Linode. I've only worked with a GPU a few times, though I remembered some manual intervention needed when installing the driver. Looking at our guides, I found this one for manually installing the driver, instead of using the CUDA toolkit:
NVIDIA Driver Manual Installation
Looking over the instructions here, I think this is something that could be scripted in bash. Then, you could take it one step further and create a systemd package to enable this script file to run at boot:
Thank you very much for the reply.
I should probably clarify. I already have a script running the steps you mentioned above. If I create an image after I run this script, and then if I reboot using that image I receive the error that driver is installed, but also can't be found.
It appears that the pre-imaged installations are lost despite being still installed. I'm wondering if I can prevent this from happening so that I could reboot an image each time with all these installations readily accessible.
Cheers again.