Implementation:Interpretml Interpret Powerlift AzureContainerInstance

Knowledge Sources	Interpretml Interpret
Domains	Benchmarking, Cloud_Infrastructure, Azure
Last Updated	2026-02-07 12:00 GMT

Overview

Azure Container Instance executor that runs Powerlift benchmark trials on remote Azure Container Instances using multiprocessing-based asynchronous submission.

Description

The AzureContainerInstance class extends the Executor base class to provision and run benchmark trials on Azure Container Instances (ACI). It manages the full lifecycle of remote execution:

• Credential management -- Accepts Azure tenant ID, subscription ID, client ID, and optionally a client secret or credential object for authentication.
• Container configuration -- Configurable number of cores (default 4), memory (default 16 GB), Docker image (default mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:3.12), and number of simultaneous instances.
• Asynchronous submission -- Uses Python's multiprocessing.Pool to dispatch work to the run_azure_process function in the powerlift.run.azure_ci module asynchronously.
• Resource management -- Supports optional resource URIs for granting contributor permissions, configurable max undead containers (for error tolerance during initialization), and automatic deletion on completion.
• Wheel support -- Can distribute custom Python wheel files to the container environment.

Each call to submit() generates a new random batch ID and delegates to the remote process runner via the multiprocessing pool.

Usage

Use this executor when you need to run Powerlift benchmarks at scale on Azure Container Instances. It is suitable for CPU-bound workloads that do not require persistent VM infrastructure. Requires Azure credentials and a pre-existing resource group.

Code Reference

Source Location

• Repository: Interpretml_Interpret
• File: python/powerlift/powerlift/executors/azure_ci.py

Signature

class AzureContainerInstance(Executor):
    def __init__(
        self,
        store: Store,
        azure_tenant_id: str,
        subscription_id: str,
        azure_client_id: str,
        credential=None,
        azure_client_secret: Optional[str] = None,
        resource_group: str = "powerlift_rg",
        shell_install: Optional[str] = None,
        pip_install: Optional[str] = None,
        wheel_filepaths: Optional[List[str]] = None,
        n_instances: int = 1,
        num_cores: int = 4,
        mem_size_gb: int = 16,
        image: str = "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:3.12",
        docker_db_uri: Optional[str] = None,
        resource_uris: Optional[List[str]] = None,
        max_undead: int = 20,
        delete_on_complete: bool = True,
    ): ...

    def submit(self, experiment_id, timeout=None): ...
    def join(self): ...
    def cancel(self): ...
    def delete_credentials(self): ...

Import

from powerlift.executors.azure_ci import AzureContainerInstance

I/O Contract

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
store	Store	Yes	Store instance that houses trials and provides the database URI
azure_tenant_id	str	Yes	Azure tenant ID for authentication
subscription_id	str	Yes	Azure subscription ID
azure_client_id	str	Yes	Azure client ID for service principal
credential	object	No	Azure credential object (alternative to client_secret)
azure_client_secret	str	No	Azure client secret for service principal authentication
resource_group	str	No	Azure resource group name (default: "powerlift_rg")
n_instances	int	No	Maximum number of containers to run simultaneously (default: 1)
num_cores	int	No	CPU cores per container (default: 4)
mem_size_gb	int	No	RAM in GB per container (default: 16)
image	str	No	Docker image for containers (default: "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:3.12")
docker_db_uri	str	No	Database URI override for container use
resource_uris	List[str]	No	Azure resources to grant contributor access to
max_undead	int	No	Maximum containers allowed to remain alive on init error (default: 20)
delete_on_complete	bool	No	Whether to delete containers after completion (default: True)
wheel_filepaths	List[str]	No	Wheel files to install in the container environment

Outputs

Name	Type	Description
join() return	List	List of results from completed container executions

Usage Examples

from powerlift.bench.store import Store
from powerlift.executors.azure_ci import AzureContainerInstance

store = Store("postgresql://user:pass@host/db")

executor = AzureContainerInstance(
    store=store,
    azure_tenant_id="your-tenant-id",
    subscription_id="your-subscription-id",
    azure_client_id="your-client-id",
    azure_client_secret="your-client-secret",
    n_instances=4,
    num_cores=4,
    mem_size_gb=16,
)

executor.submit(experiment_id=1, timeout=3600)
results = executor.join()

Related Pages

• Interpretml_Interpret_Powerlift_Executor -- Abstract base class that AzureContainerInstance extends
• Interpretml_Interpret_Powerlift_RunAzureCI -- The remote process runner that this executor delegates to
• Interpretml_Interpret_Powerlift_AzureVMInstance -- Alternative Azure executor using full VMs instead of containers
• Interpretml_Interpret_Powerlift_BicepAzureContainerInstance -- Bicep-based alternative for ACI provisioning
• Interpretml_Interpret_Powerlift_Schema -- Database schema models used by the Store