Cost-Effective AI Lab for education institutes with SyncHPC

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping every industry and educational institutions are stepping up to ensure students are ready for the AI-driven future. But setting up an AI lab that balances cost, performance, and scalability isn’t easy.
Here’s how a leading education institute partnered with Syncious to build a cost-optimized AI Lab using the SyncHPC platform empowering researchers with real-world AI and machine learning capabilities.

The Vision: Cost-Effective and Student-Friendly AI Infrastructure

The institute aimed to build a modern AI lab with the following requirements:

Support for 100 concurrent users
Access to AI modules and workflows aligned with the curriculum
Flexible usage of CPU, RAM, and GPU resources as per the policy
Built-in scalability for future upgrades to high-end GPUs
cost optimization using NVIDIA L40s cards instead of H100/H200
vGPUs-enabled VDI sessions on Linux machines
Kubernetes-based architecture supporting both VDI machines with vGPU or submit ML training jobs on SyncHPC

Solution Architecture: Powered by SyncHPC

Hardware Setup:

Management Nodes with HA: Couple of standard servers with required specifications
Worker Node: Few servers with 4x NVIDIA L40s GPUs and NVIDIA vWS licenses

Software Stack:

SyncHPC Platform License for 100 users
NVIDIA vGPU License for vCS and/or vWS.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Rocky Linux on each server

Solution with SyncHPC : How SyncHPC Delivered

Deploy

Setup 1 Management Node with Rocky or RHEL and then run SyncHPC VDI installation scripts for KVM and SyncHPC-Infra VMs. For HA, 2 such nodes can be configured.
There will be 2 SyncHPC components: 1. Infra – For Infrastructure and Virtualization Management. This is typically managed by Infra Admins (Network, Storage, etc.), 2. VDI – For VDI management. This will be managed by VDI admins. Both of these components will be running a VMs on Management node.
SyncHPC-Infra provisions the VDI infrastructure with storage and network configuration. It will also add the Worker nodes as KVM hosts for VDI management.
The Infra admin creates SyncHPC-VDI VM. Then, the VDI admin can use this component create/manage mutliple VMs and Users.
Virtual Machines with vGPUs for 100 users are created and configured for users.
All the VMs will use pre-configured AI image provided by SyncHPC.

Manage

As discussed, the Infra admin uses SyncHPC-Infra for storage, network, etc configuration.
The VDI admin uses SyncHPC-VDI for VMs/User management. It also controls the security components.
IT team can monitor and configure usage restrictions on users based on resources
This helps to optimize resources and allocate to multiple users
It also helps to get analytics of past usage and forecast future requirements

Access

SyncHPC provides a web-browsed VM Desktop interface for users. It will be used as AI Workspace by them.
VDI admin can select the choice of protocol for VDI access like VNC, DCV, RDP or HP Anyware.
Each user can get a VDI session with vGPUs from the NVIDIA cards

User Workflow – vGPU-Enabled VDI Sessions

User connects to the Linux/Windows based Workspace with specific CPU/RAM and vGPUs
User can access this workspace for AI experimentation, analysis and Visualization
For example, users use the workspace to run AI experiments, local ML training withing the workspace, Visual Graphs, 3D images/Videos, etc.

Benefits

Each user gets his/her own AI Workspace
User can run medium size problems with less cost
User can built their own environments inside the workspace easily

Challenges

Less Scalable
Maximum available recourses per user are limited

Key Features

Optimum GPU Performance and Allocation: Delivering top-tier GPU performance
Enterprise-Grade Security: Prioritize data security with enterprise-grade security measures to protect sensitive information and processes
Shared User Storage: Easy migration across VMs
Usage Analytics: Provides top management with valuable insights for future planning
Centralized Management: Full remote admin control, enabling them to monitor, configure, and troubleshoot AI recourses

Conclusion

This real-world deployment showcases how SyncHPC are helping educational institutes leap into the AI era affordably, scalable, and effective.

Interested in building a similar AI Lab or that suits your requirements for your institution?
Reach out to Syncious today!