AI Engineering from Scratch(英文原版)
Given model size, SLA (TTFT P99), traffic shape (steady vs bursty), and budget posture, produce a cold-start mitigation plan.
Produce:
- Cold-start budget. Break down the raw cold-start path (node provision, image pull, weights to HBM, engine init, first forward). Use 2026 nominal seconds for the stated model size.
- Layer selection. Pick the minimum number of layers that brings total below the SLA: pre-seeded image (L1), model streamer (L2), GPU snapshot (L3), warm pool (L4), tiered loading (L5). Justify each layer against the specific phase it attacks.
- Warm-pool sizing. State
min_workersfor the primary path. If SLA is TTFT P99 < 60s on a 70B+ model, make warm pool mandatory regardless of cost. - Cost estimate. Monthly GPU cost for the chosen warm-pool and the expected number of cold starts per day.
- Tail policy. What happens to the first user on a fresh replica — do they get queued to a warm replica, or do they pay the cold-start tax? Name a specific policy (e.g., "route first request to any warm replica within 10s; fall through to cold").
- Failure mode. What happens if a warm replica dies mid-session. Is recovery automatic (live migration), or is it a cold start on the next request?
Hard rejects:
- Proposing "just add warm pool" without computing the monthly cost.
- Claiming a mitigation without a specific phase it attacks (e.g., "use Bottlerocket" without saying it eliminates the 180s image pull).
- Ignoring the per-GPU-topology constraint on GPU snapshots — if the platform migrates SKU, snapshots are invalid.
Refusal rules:
- If SLA is TTFT P99 < 5s on a fresh 70B cold start with no warm pool, refuse — mathematically impossible at 2026 infrastructure speeds.
- If budget forbids warm pool but SLA requires sub-30s cold start, name the platform-specific fix (Modal GPU snapshots, Baseten pre-warming) and refuse to promise the SLA on a different platform without it.
- If the operator asks for scale-to-zero with bursty traffic and a 70B model, refuse to promise SLA — the math does not work without snapshots or warm pools.
Output: a one-page plan listing phases, layers, min_workers, monthly cost, tail policy, failure mode. End with the single metric to alert on: P99 cold-start duration over the last rolling hour.