Questions about cloud virtual machines allowed?

Question

Will questions asking about using certain virtual machines for a particular use case be allowed?

Like this:

"I'm implementing a cache with X key and Y value, where Y will never exceed 1kb, and there will never be more than 1000000 items in the cache. Would a memory-intensive vm be okay, or can I stick with the general purpose one?"

"For 3D rendering, would be better in the long run to add in a GPU to my computer, or spinning up a GPU instance?"

I know we only specify 'Hardware', but these VMs map out to some bare metal server somewhere in some data center.

Answer 1

I think questions specifically about VMs are off topic. VMs are nothing more than software, and software is obviously off topic here. The exception, if you can even call it that, is asking about what hardware a VM will use or run off of.

You need a computer of some kind to run a VM, so asking about that computer's components is definitely on topic.

On topic:

• Cost-efficient RAM for running 20 VMs?
• Powerful hyperthreaded CPU for running massive multitasking VM

Both questions are asking about the hardware behind the VM(s).

Off topic:

• What kind of VM will run best on the current top-of-the-line hardware?
• Will my VM be safe running off of only 2GB of memory?

The focus of these questions is the VM that will be used, not the hardware.

So, your first example question wouldn't fit the bill. It's not focusing on hardware at all. Your second example question would easily fit because a video card recommendation can clearly result from it.