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googlecolab / colabtools

Python libraries for Google Colaboratory
Apache License 2.0
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Suspend and reload a Colab kernel image #4281

Open MalcolmSlaney opened 10 months ago

MalcolmSlaney commented 10 months ago

My current (ML) colab takes about an hour to compute the cells and state I need to do my work. Colab Pro is much better about not terminating my kernel, but it still happens overnight.

I wish there was a way to suspend (or save) the kernel state so I could return to it later? I suspect the disk space to save an image costs less than the hour of compute time every morning when I start work.

Is there any way to save the entire Python state? (I don't think so since not all objects can be pickled.)

Failing that, it would be really nice if I could suspend my kernel image and bring it back later. I'm sure that many people would want to save multiple states. But just saving one would help a lot.

-- Malcolm

EvanWiederspan commented 10 months ago

Have you looked at our marketplace option? https://research.google.com/colaboratory/marketplace.html

You can run your own Google Cloud VM and connect to it from Colab, which lets your machine live as long as you want and store data in between uses

MalcolmSlaney commented 10 months ago

Oh, good point. I was hoping to not fire up my own machine. But you are right that is a good solution.

I wonder if Colab Pro or my own machine will be cheaper????? I like the simplicity of the Colab hosted machines (just three options) and my own VM will have a lot more options. The standard solution offered in the market place is 5x more expensive. :-(

Oh, yes.. and no google drive access. Really? They are both Google products! That’s a deal killer for me.

cperry-goog commented 9 months ago

Thanks for the feedback, we're exploring