Spot & Preemptible Instances: 80-90% Discount on Compute

# Request a Spot Instance
aws ec2 request-spot-instances \
  --spot-price "0.05" \
  --instance-count 5 \
  --type "one-time" \
  --launch-specification '{
    "ImageId": "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0",
    "InstanceType": "m5.large",
    "Placement": {"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1a"}
  }'

# Describe spot price history
aws ec2 describe-spot-price-history \
  --instance-types m5.large \
  --product-description "Linux/UNIX" \
  --start-time 2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

# Check spot instance status
aws ec2 describe-spot-instance-requests \
  --filters "Name=state,Values=active"

# Create a Spot Fleet
aws ec2 create-fleet \
  --target-capacity-specification '{"TotalTargetCapacity": 20, "DefaultTargetCapacityType": "spot"}' \
  --launch-template-configs '{"LaunchTemplateSpecification": {"LaunchTemplateName": "worker-template", "Version": "1"}}' \
  --type "instant"

# Create an Azure Spot VM
az vm create \
  --resource-group batch-rg \
  --name spot-worker-1 \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --size Standard_D4s_v3 \
  --priority Spot \
  --eviction-policy Delete \
  --max-price -1

# Create a VMSS with Spot priority
az vmss create \
  --resource-group batch-rg \
  --name spot-vmss \
  --image UbuntuLTS \
  --instance-count 5 \
  --vm-sku Standard_D4s_v3 \
  --priority Spot \
  --eviction-policy Delete \
  --max-price -1 \
  --single-placement-group false

# Create a GCP Spot VM
gcloud compute instances create spot-worker-1 \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --machine-type e2-standard-4 \
  --provisioning-model=SPOT \
  --instance-termination-action=STOP

# Create a preemptible VM
gcloud compute instances create preemptible-worker-1 \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --machine-type e2-standard-4 \
  --preemptible

# Set maintenance behavior for Spot VMs
gcloud compute instances create resilient-worker \
  --zone us-central1-a \
  --machine-type e2-standard-4 \
  --provisioning-model=SPOT \
  --instance-termination-action=DELETE \
  --max-run-duration=4h

# AWS: Listen for spot termination notice
import requests
import time

def check_termination():
    url = "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/spot/termination-time"
    while True:
        try:
            resp = requests.get(url, timeout=5)
            if resp.status_code == 200:
                print(f"Termination at: {resp.text}")
                save_checkpoint()
                return
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
            pass
        time.sleep(5)

def save_checkpoint():
    print("Saving checkpoint before termination...")
    # Save state, upload results, drain connections

# GCP: Similar metadata endpoint
# gcloud compute instances describe --zone us-central1-a spot-worker-1

# Kubernetes: Handle spot interruption with node lifecycle handler
kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: spot-handler
  namespace: kube-system
data:
  spot-handler.sh: |
    #!/bin/bash
    kubectl cordon \$NODE_NAME
    kubectl drain \$NODE_NAME --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data
EOF

# checkpoint_worker.py
import dill, os

CHECKPOINT_FILE = "/tmp/checkpoint.pkl"

class BatchProcessor:
    def __init__(self, tasks):
        self.tasks = tasks
        self.completed = self.load_checkpoint()

    def load_checkpoint(self):
        if os.path.exists(CHECKPOINT_FILE):
            with open(CHECKPOINT_FILE, "rb") as f:
                return dill.load(f)
        return []

    def save_checkpoint(self, task_id):
        self.completed.append(task_id)
        with open(CHECKPOINT_FILE, "wb") as f:
            dill.dump(self.completed, f)

    def run(self):
        for task in self.tasks:
            if task["id"] in self.completed:
                continue
            process(task)
            self.save_checkpoint(task["id"])

processor = BatchProcessor([{"id": i, "data": f"item-{i}"} for i in range(1000)])
processor.run()

# Spot.io ELX (Elastigroup) example
spotinst elastigroup create \
  --name "batch-workers" \
  --provider "aws" \
  --region "us-east-1" \
  --strategy '{"risk": 100, "fallbackToOd": true}' \
  --capacity '{"minimum": 2, "maximum": 20, "target": 5}'