Overview

Pre-warmed encoder pools, are a collection of idle encoding resources which can be immediately acquired by starting encodings that are configured to take resources from such a pool. If an encoding takes a resource from a pool, this pool automatically provisions additional encoding resources to maintain its target size at any time.

Why would I use that? - It allows you to optimize the total turn around time of your workflow by basically removing the queue time for an encoding. When properly configured for your use-case, your encoding queue time drops down ~0 to a few seconds consistently. This way you can achieve a continuous throughput as a dedicated pool of encoding resources is exclusively available to your Bitmovin Account.

Key Features

Create a pool of pre-warmed encoding resources - Pools refill automatically and maintain a minimum number of always available encoding resources.
Dynamically scale pre-warmed encoder pools on demand - Changing demand or peaks in you Encoding flow can be addressed by dynamically adapting the number of available encoding resources.
Schedule the availability of pre-warmed encoder pools - If you only want to have them pre-warmed, e.g. during your business hours or other specific time frames where you know you would need them, you can schedule the start and stop of a pool ahead of time.
Works with Cloud Connect for AWS, GCP, and Azure - Create pre-warmed encoder pools in your own connected cloud infrastructure.

Requirements

Open API SDK v1.168+ (dynamicPool since v1.177.0+)
As running pools generate costs even if not utilized, they have to be enabled by our team.

Known Limitations

The following limitations exist:

only one pre-warmed encoder pool can be assigned to the start-request for an encoding
At the moment, pre-warmed encoder pools can be used for VoD encoding workflows only
Pool status - At the moment, it only reflects if a pool has been STARTED or STOPPED. The readiness of a pool to be used by encodings, can't be determined automatically yet. In general, after starting a pool, depending on the cloud provider and region, it can take ~ 5 minutes before it is ready to use.
targetPoolSize is limited to the number of available encoding slots to your Bitmovin Account.

Create a Pool

Required Pool Configuration Properties:

encoderVersion - An explicitly defined encoder version OR STABLE tag (recommended) for this pool. Only encodings that are configured to use the same encoder version can take resources from this pool.
cloudRegion - An explicitly defined cloud region of a cloud provider for this pool. Only encodings that are configured to use the cloud region can take resources from this pool.
targetPoolSize - The number of encoding resources the pool has to keep available at all times. If one is taken from the pool, it "refill"s a new one automatically.
diskSize - (500GB|1000GB|2000GB) available to the encoding resource. The appropriate size depends on the use-case you are dealing with. E.g. when processing mainly small input files with a typical encoding profile, 500GB are usually sufficient. Workflows creating big progressive Outputs or dealing with RAW or Mezzanine files should use 1000GB or more.

Optional Pool Configuration Properties:

dynamicPool - Set a minimum targetPoolSize of encoding resources, the number of encoding resources will increase and decrease on demand.
gpuEnabled - Use hardware-acceleration (GPU) in a pool's encoding resources.

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

PrewarmedEncoderPool poolToCreate = new PrewarmedEncoderPool();
poolToCreate.setName("Fast-Track Encodings");
poolToCreate.setDescription("Use for encodings that have to be done immediately");
poolToCreate.setEncoderVersion("STABLE");
poolToCreate.setCloudRegion(CloudRegion.AWS_EU_WEST_1);
poolToCreate.setDiskSize(PrewarmedEncoderDiskSize.GB_500);
poolToCreate.setTargetPoolSize(1);

//optional properties
poolToCreate.setDynamicPool(true);
poolToCreate.setGpuEnabled(true);

PrewarmedEncoderPool createdPool = bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.create(poolToCreate);

Start a Pool

Once created, you can start a pool by issuing the start API Call:

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.start(createdPool.getId());

Wait for Pool to be Up and Running

As mentioned in "Known Limitations", only STARTED and STOPPED is available to reflect the status of a pool right now. Therefore, its recommended to wait for a few minutes (~5min) before the pool is ready to use, after being started.

Check the status of a Pool

As its an asynchronous process, you can check the status of a pool accordingly like this:

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.get(createdPool.getId());

Its either STOPPED, or STARTED. As mentioned at "Known Limitations", the readiness of a pool to be used by encodings, can't be determined automatically yet. In general, after starting a pool, depending on the cloud provider and region, it can take ~ 5 minutes before it is ready to use.

Start an Encoding using a Pool

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

Encoding encoding = new Encoding();
encoding.setEncoderVersion("STABLE");
encoding.setCloudRegion(CloudRegion.AWS_EU_WEST_1);

...
//your encoding configurations...
...

//Start an Encoding with StartEncodingRequest Configuration
Scheduling scheduling = new Scheduling();
scheduling.setPrewarmedEncoderPoolIds(array.asList(createdPool.getId()));
StartEncodingRequest startEncodingRequest = new StartEncodingRequest();   

startEncodingRequest.setScheduling(scheduling);
bitmovinApi.encodings.start(encoding.getId(), startEncodingRequest);

Stop a Pool

If a pool is no longer needed at the moment, you can stop using the stop API call. Once issued, the pool immediately starts to gracefully de-provision all its idle encoding resources.

Hint: Already running encodings, using resources from a stopping pool, will continue to run and its resources will be de-provisioned as soon as they have successfully finished.

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.stop(retrieved.getId());

Delete a Pool

If a pool is no longer needed, it can be deleted. A pool has to be STOPPED first, before it can be deleted.

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.delete(createdPool.getId());

Schedule the START/STOP for a pool

Required Properties:

action - (START|STOP) Determines if the pool shall be started or stopped
triggerDate - The date and time in the future (at least a full minute) the action shall be executed at. The scheduling time is on a per-minute basis, so seconds and milliseconds are not respected by the scheduling.

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

Schedule the Start of a Pool

Date poolStartDate = new DateTime(2020, 11, 20, 9, 0, 0).toDate();

PrewarmedEncoderPoolSchedule poolSchedule = new PrewarmedEncoderPoolSchedule();
poolSchedule.setAction(PrewarmedEncoderPoolAction.START);
poolSchedule.setTriggerDate(poolStartDate);

PrewarmedEncoderPoolSchedule createdPoolSchedule =
bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.schedules.create(
createdPool.getId(), poolSchedule);

Schedule the Stop of a Pool

Date poolStopDate = new DateTime(2020, 11, 20, 17, 0, 0).toDate();

PrewarmedEncoderPoolSchedule poolSchedule = new PrewarmedEncoderPoolSchedule();
poolSchedule.setAction(PrewarmedEncoderPoolAction.STOP);
poolSchedule.setTriggerDate(poolStopDate);

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.schedules.create(
retrieved.getId(), poolSchedule);

Delete a scheduled START/STOP of a Pool

Bitmovin API SDK for Java Example: (API-Reference | Github)

bitmovinApi.encoding.infrastructure.prewarmedEncoderPools.schedules.delete(createdPool.getId(),createdPoolSchedule.getId());