Table of contents

Managing Pods

Learn how to monitor, control, and manage your running pods.

Viewing Pods

Navigate to Compute > Pods to see all pods in the current project.

Pod List View

The list shows:

  • Name: Pod identifier
  • Status: Current state (Running, Stopped, etc.)
  • Image: Container image being used
  • Resources: GPU, CPU, memory allocation
  • Age: Time since creation
  • Cost: Current hourly rate

Filtering and Sorting

  • Filter by status (Running, Stopped, All)
  • Filter by project
  • Search by pod name

Pod Actions

Start a Pod

For stopped pods:

  1. Find the pod in the list
  2. Click the Start button (play icon)
  3. Wait for status to change to Running

Billing resumes when the pod starts.

Stop a Pod

To pause a running pod:

  1. Click the Stop button (pause icon)
  2. Confirm the action
  3. Pod enters Stopped state

Benefits of stopping:

  • Billing pauses immediately
  • Pod configuration is preserved
  • Can be restarted later

Note: Ephemeral storage may be lost when stopping. Use NFS volumes for persistent data.

Restart a Pod

To restart without stopping:

  1. Click the Restart button
  2. Container will stop and start again

Useful for applying configuration changes or recovering from issues.

Delete a Pod

To permanently remove a pod:

  1. Click the Delete button (trash icon)
  2. Confirm the deletion
  3. Pod and its ephemeral storage are removed

Warning: Deletion is permanent. Ensure you’ve saved any important data.

Monitoring

Pod Details

Click on a pod to view detailed information:

Overview

  • Full configuration details
  • Creation time
  • SSH connection string
  • Jupyter URL (if enabled)

Stats Real-time metrics:

  • CPU usage percentage
  • Memory usage
  • GPU utilization
  • GPU memory usage
  • Network I/O

Logs View container output:

  • Real-time log streaming
  • Search within logs
  • Download logs

Billing Information

Each pod detail page shows:

  • Current hourly rate
  • Total cost since creation
  • Cost breakdown by resource type

Scaling Pods

For pods configured with replicas:

  1. Go to pod details
  2. Click Scale
  3. Enter new replica count
  4. Confirm

Each replica runs independently and is billed separately.

Bulk Operations

To manage multiple pods:

  1. Select pods using checkboxes
  2. Use bulk action buttons (Stop All, Delete Selected)

Pod Health

Podstack monitors pod health automatically:

IndicatorMeaning
GreenHealthy, running normally
YellowWarning, may need attention
RedError, intervention required

Check logs for details when health is degraded.

Best Practices

Cost Management

  • Stop pods when not actively using them
  • Delete pods when work is complete
  • Use templates for reproducible deployments

Data Persistence

  • Mount NFS volumes for important data
  • Don’t rely on ephemeral storage for critical files
  • Back up data before deleting pods

Resource Optimization

  • Right-size GPU, CPU, and memory
  • Monitor actual usage vs. allocation
  • Reduce resources if over-provisioned

Next Steps

Learn about Connecting to Pods for SSH, terminal, and notebook access.