management api.md
For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending .md to page URLs; this page is available as Markdown.
Management API
The Dedicated Endpoint Management API lets you create and manage Dedicated Instance deployments programmatically. You can use it to check model support, select compatible hardware, create deployments, poll status, update replica counts, pause, resume, and delete deployments.
For first-time model and hardware selection, start in the Parasail UI when possible. The UI surfaces compatibility and hardware recommendations that are easier to validate visually before automating the same flow through the API.
If you did not create the dedicated endpoint with the API, you can find the deployment_id from the Parasail SaaS platform URL. For example, if your deployment status page is https://www.saas.parasail.io/dedicated/33665, then the deployment_id is 33665. You can then use this ID for the API commands below.
Base URLs
- Control API (for managing deployments):
https://api.parasail.io/api/v1 - OpenAI-compatible inference API (for inference requests):
https://api.parasail.io/v1
Authentication
All requests to the Control API must include a Bearer token in the header. For example:
import httpx
api_key = "<YOUR_PARASAIL_API_KEY>"
control_base_url = "https://api.parasail.io/api/v1"
headers = {
"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
}
client = httpx.Client(base_url=control_base_url, headers=headers)
Recommended Dedicated Model API Flow
Given the large set of combinations of model types and hardware instances, the recommended process for using the Dedicated API follows the UI flow and leverages our performance/memory models and hardware compatibility checkers to ensure smooth operation. The recommended flow is:
- Check model compatibility with our
/dedicated/supportendpoint. - Retrieve a list of supported hardware for that model with our
/dedicated/devicesendpoint. This will include multi-GPU configurations that leverage parallelism. - Within that list, set
selectedtoTruefor the desired configurations. - Submit (
POST) a deployment payload (including your selecteddeviceConfigs) to/dedicated/deployments. - Use
/dedicated/deploymentsendpoints to monitor, update, pause, resume, and delete deployments.
1. Checking Model Compatibility
The /dedicated/support endpoint can be used to query whether a model is supported. The modelName parameter can either be a Hugging Face ID like Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct or a Hugging Face URL like https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct. Use the engine query parameter (for example VLLM) when needed.
params = {
"modelName": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct",
"engine": "VLLM",
"modelAccessKey": "" # HF token for privately hosted models
}
# Make the request
response = client.get("/dedicated/support", params=params)
if response.status_code == 200:
data = response.json()
if data.get("supported") is True:
print("✅ Model is supported.")
else:
reason = data.get("errorMessage", "No reason provided.")
print(f"❌ Model not supported: {reason}")
else:
print(f"❌ Request failed with status code {response.status_code}: {response.text}")
This step is optional, but is a useful sanity check for API-based flows to ensure the IDs are entered correctly.
2. Retrieving Supported Hardware
The first step to creating a new dedicated deployment is to select a supported hardware configuration. The /dedicated/devices endpoint returns valid hardware configurations and their availability. These configurations can be either single GPUs or multiple GPUs with parallelism enabled (tensor, expert, or sequence). The selected flag is set to false when returned from /dedicated/devices. The recommended flow is to flip selected to true for your desired configurations, then pass that array to the create deployment endpoint (see next section).
The entire structure does not need to be passed to the create dedicated instance endpoint. The required flag shows the parameters that are needed, though it is recommended to ensure compatibility by first calling /dedicated/devices and flipping selected to true.
/dedicated/devices returns an array of structures with the following parameters:
DeviceConfigs structure
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
device |
string | Yes | Device ID. |
count |
integer | Yes | Number of GPUs in the configuration. Parasail chooses the parallelism strategy for multi-GPU configurations. Use multiple replicas for data parallelism. |
displayName |
string | No | Human-readable hardware name shown in the UI. |
cost |
float | No | Estimated hourly cost for the full hardware configuration. |
estimatedSingleUserTps |
float | No | Estimated output tokens per second for a single user. This estimate may be out of date; do not rely on it for capacity planning. |
estimatedSystemTps |
float | No | Estimated total output tokens per second for the configuration. This estimate may be out of date; do not rely on it for capacity planning. |
recommended |
boolean | No | Whether Parasail recommends this configuration for the model. |
limitedContext |
boolean | No | Whether the full model context may exceed available memory. If true, reduce context length with contextLengthOverride. |
available |
boolean | No | Whether the hardware is currently available for the account and requested count. This field reflects a single replica. |
selected |
boolean | Yes | Set to true on the configuration you want the scheduler to consider when creating the deployment. |
Here is example code to retrieve supported hardware, look for a desired configuration, and flip the selected flag to true when it is found:
def get_and_select_device_config(client: httpx.Client, model_name: str, desired_device: str, desired_count: int) -> list[dict]:
params = {
"engine": "VLLM",
"modelName": model_name,
"modelAccessKey": ""
}
response = client.get("/dedicated/devices", params=params)
if response.status_code != 200:
raise RuntimeError(f"Request failed: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")
devices = response.json()
matched = False
for d in devices:
d["selected"] = d.get("device") == desired_device and d.get("count") == desired_count
matched = matched or d["selected"]
if not matched:
raise ValueError(f"No matching device config for {desired_device} x{desired_count}")
return devices
devices = get_and_select_device_config(
client,
model_name="Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct",
desired_device="H100SXM",
desired_count=2
)
3. Creating a Deployment
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
deploymentName |
string | Yes | Unique deployment name. Use lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes. |
modelName |
string | Yes | Hugging Face model ID, such as Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct. |
deviceConfigs |
array | Yes | Device configuration array from /dedicated/devices, with one or more entries marked selected: true. |
replicas |
integer | Yes | Number of replicas to run. |
scaleDownPolicy |
string | No | Autoscaling policy, such as NONE or TIMER. |
scaleDownThreshold |
integer | No | Idle threshold in milliseconds before scale-down when using a timer policy. |
draftModelName |
string | No | Advanced draft model setting. |
engine |
string | No | Inference engine. Defaults to VLLM. |
engineTask |
string | No | Engine task mode. Defaults to AUTO. |
contextLengthOverride |
integer | No | Advanced override for context window length. |
modelAccessKey |
string | No | Hugging Face token for private models. |
Use the POST /dedicated/deployments endpoint to create a new model deployment. The response includes an id for future operations (status checks, updates, etc.). After the model is created, poll the status to monitor the transition from STARTING to ONLINE before the endpoint accepts requests. This model also appears on your dedicated status page in the platform UI.
This uses the devices struct from the previous example:
# Example: Creating a deployment
deployment_config = {
"deploymentName": "myqwen",
"modelName": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct",
"engine": "VLLM", # Optional (defaults to VLLM)
"deviceConfigs": devices,
"replicas": 1,
# Optional parameters:
# "scaleDownPolicy": "TIMER",
# "scaleDownThreshold": 3600000,
}
response = client.post("/dedicated/deployments", json=deployment_config)
if response.status_code == 200:
deployment_data = response.json()
deployment_id = deployment_data["id"]
print(f"Created deployment with ID: {deployment_id}")
else:
print(f"Failed to create deployment: {response.status_code}, {response.text}")
Response Body Example:
{
"id": 12345,
"deploymentName": "myqwen",
"modelName": "Qwen/Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct",
"status": {
"status": "STARTING",
"statusMessage": "Deployment is being created"
},
"externalAlias": "myorganization-myqwen",
...
}
- id: Unique numeric identifier for the deployment.
- status.status: Current state of the deployment (for example,
STARTING,ONLINE). - externalAlias: The string used to reference your model via OpenAI-compatible calls.
4. Getting Deployment Status
Use the GET /dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id} endpoint to retrieve the details of your deployment, including its status.
deployment_id = 12345 # from creation step or UI
response = client.get(f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}")
if response.status_code == 200:
status_data = response.json()
model_status = status_data["status"]["status"] # for example "ONLINE", "OFFLINE"
model_identifier = status_data["externalAlias"] # alias for OpenAI API calls
print(f"Deployment status: {model_status}")
print(f"OpenAI model identifier: {model_identifier}")
else:
print(f"Failed to get deployment: {response.status_code}, {response.text}")
Key fields in the response:
status["status"]: The overall state of the deployment.externalAlias: The string you use in OpenAI Chat/Completion requests (model=).
Below are the possible values for status["status"]:
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| ONLINE | Deployment is active and ready to serve requests. |
| STARTING | Deployment is in the process of starting up. |
| STOPPING | Deployment is in the process of shutting down. |
| OFFLINE | Deployment is not running and must be resumed to accept requests. |
| ERROR | Deployment entered an error state and needs investigation. |
| UNKNOWN | Deployment state is unknown (for example, stale or missing data). |
5. Updating a Deployment
To change the configuration of an existing deployment (for example, number of replicas):
- GET the current deployment (as above).
- Modify the returned JSON structure to include your updated parameters.
- PUT the entire updated JSON back to the same endpoint (
/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}).
Example: Scaling up the replicas
# 1. Fetch the current deployment
deployment_id = 12345
response = client.get(f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}")
current_deployment = response.json()
# 2. Modify the "replicas" field (for example, from 1 to 2)
current_deployment["replicas"] = 2
# 3. Send the updated deployment object
update_response = client.put(
f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}",
json=current_deployment
)
if update_response.status_code == 200:
updated_deployment_data = update_response.json()
print("Deployment updated successfully.")
print(f"New replica count: {updated_deployment_data['replicas']}")
else:
print(f"Failed to update deployment: {update_response.status_code}, {update_response.text}")
6. Pausing and Resuming a Deployment
You may want to pause a deployment to reduce costs. Pausing puts the deployment into an OFFLINE state and stops billing. When ready, you can resume it to bring it back ONLINE. When the resume command is sent, you will need to poll the status to monitor for the transition from STARTING to ONLINE before the endpoint will accept requests.
# Pause the deployment
deployment_id = 12345
pause_response = client.post(f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}/pause")
if pause_response.status_code == 200:
print("Deployment paused successfully.")
else:
print(f"Failed to pause: {pause_response.status_code}, {pause_response.text}")
# Resume the deployment
resume_response = client.post(f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}/resume")
if resume_response.status_code == 200:
print("Deployment resumed successfully.")
else:
print(f"Failed to resume deployment: {resume_response.status_code}, {resume_response.text}")
7. Using the Deployed Model via OpenAI-Compatible API
Once your deployment is ONLINE, you can send inference requests using the Chat API at https://api.parasail.io/v1. Use the externalAlias as the model parameter in your OpenAI calls.
Example using the OpenAI Python client:
from openai import OpenAI
openai_client = OpenAI(api_key=api_key, base_url="https://api.parasail.io/v1")
# Assume you fetched this alias from /dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}
model_identifier = "parasail-custom-model-id"
response = openai_client.chat.completions.create(
model=model_identifier,
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's the capital of France?"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
Note: The model_identifier is the externalAlias from the deployment status.
8. Deleting a Deployment
To permanently delete an endpoint, send the DELETE request.
deployment_id = 12345
delete_response = client.delete(f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment_id}")
if delete_response.status_code == 200:
print("Deployment deleted successfully.")
else:
print(f"Failed to delete deployment: {delete_response.status_code}, {delete_response.text}")
Example Python Code
import httpx
import openai
from pydantic import BaseModel
from typing import Optional
import os
import time
from dotenv import load_dotenv
# Load environment variables
env_path = os.path.expanduser("~/dev/parasail/.env")
if os.path.exists(env_path):
load_dotenv(env_path)
api_key = os.environ["PARASAIL_API_KEY"]
control_base_url = "https://api.parasail.io/api/v1"
chat_base_url = "https://api.parasail.io/v1"
class deviceConfig(BaseModel):
device: str
count: int
displayName: Optional[str] = None
cost: Optional[float] = None
estimatedSingleUserTps: Optional[float] = None
estimatedSystemTps: Optional[float] = None
recommended: Optional[bool] = None
limitedContext: Optional[bool] = None
available: Optional[bool] = None
selected: bool
class CreateModelStruct(BaseModel):
deploymentName: str
modelName: str
replicas: int
deviceConfigs: list[deviceConfig]
engine: Optional[str] = "VLLM"
engineTask: Optional[str] = "AUTO"
scaleDownPolicy: Optional[str] = None # NONE, TIMER, INACTIVE
scaleDownThreshold: Optional[int] = None # time in ms
draftModelName: Optional[str] = None
contextLengthOverride: Optional[int] = None
modelAccessKey: Optional[str] = None
def check_compatibility(parasail_client: httpx.Client, model_name: str):
params = {
"modelName": model_name,
"engine": "VLLM",
"modelAccessKey": "", # HF token for privately hosted models
}
response = parasail_client.get("/dedicated/support", params=params)
if response.status_code == 200:
data = response.json()
if data.get("supported") is True:
print("✅ Model is supported.")
else:
reason = data.get("errorMessage", "No reason provided.")
raise ValueError(f"❌ Model not supported: {reason}")
else:
raise RuntimeError(
f"❌ Request failed with status code {response.status_code}: {response.text}"
)
def get_and_select_device_config(
parasail_client: httpx.Client,
model_name: str,
desired_device: str,
desired_count: int,
) -> list[dict]:
params = {"engine": "VLLM", "modelName": model_name, "modelAccessKey": ""}
response = parasail_client.get("/dedicated/devices", params=params)
if response.status_code != 200:
raise RuntimeError(f"Request failed: {response.status_code} - {response.text}")
devices = response.json()
matched = False
for d in devices:
d["selected"] = (
d.get("device") == desired_device and d.get("count") == desired_count
)
matched = matched or d["selected"]
if not matched:
raise ValueError(
f"No matching device config for {desired_device} x{desired_count}"
)
return devices
def create_deployment(
parasail_client: httpx.Client, deployment: CreateModelStruct
) -> dict:
response = parasail_client.post(
"/dedicated/deployments", content=deployment.model_dump_json()
)
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to create deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
return response.json()
def update_deployment(parasail_client: httpx.Client, deployment: dict) -> dict:
assert deployment["id"] is not None, "Deployment ID must be set for update"
response = parasail_client.put(
f"/dedicated/deployments/{deployment['id']}", json=deployment
)
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to update deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
return response.json()
def pause_deployment(parasail_client: httpx.Client, id: int) -> dict:
response = parasail_client.post(f"/dedicated/deployments/{id}/pause")
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to pause deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
def resume_deployment(parasail_client: httpx.Client, id: int) -> dict:
response = parasail_client.post(f"/dedicated/deployments/{id}/resume")
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to resume deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
def get_deployment(parasail_client: httpx.Client, id: int) -> dict:
response = parasail_client.get(f"/dedicated/deployments/{id}")
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to get deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
return response.json()
def is_deployment_offline(parasail_client: httpx.Client, id: int) -> bool:
deployment = get_deployment(parasail_client, id)
return deployment["status"]["status"] == "OFFLINE"
def delete_deployment(parasail_client: httpx.Client, id: int) -> None:
response = parasail_client.delete(f"/dedicated/deployments/{id}")
assert (
200 <= response.status_code < 300
), f"Failed to delete deployment: {response.status_code} {response.text}"
def wait_for_status(
parasail_client: httpx.Client,
id: int,
status: str = "ONLINE",
timeout_minutes: int = 20,
) -> None:
start_time = time.time()
timeout_seconds = timeout_minutes * 60
while True:
deployment = get_deployment(parasail_client, id)
current_status = (
deployment["status"]["status"] if "status" in deployment else "UNKNOWN"
)
if current_status == status:
print(f"Deployment reached target status: {status}")
return
elif current_status == "STARTING" or current_status == "STOPPING":
elapsed_minutes = (time.time() - start_time) / 60
print(
f"Deployment status: {current_status} (elapsed time: {elapsed_minutes:.1f} minutes)"
)
else:
raise ValueError(f"Unexpected deployment status: {current_status}")
if time.time() - start_time > timeout_seconds:
raise TimeoutError(
f"Deployment status did not change to {status} within {timeout_minutes} minutes"
)
time.sleep(30)
def test_deployment(
parasail_client: httpx.Client, openai_client: openai.Client, id: int
) -> None:
deployment = get_deployment(parasail_client, id)
assert "status" in deployment, "Deployment status is None"
assert (
deployment["status"]["status"] == "ONLINE"
), f"Deployment is not online: {deployment['status']['status']}"
chat_completion = openai_client.chat.completions.create(
model=deployment["externalAlias"],
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's the capital of New York?"}],
)
assert len(chat_completion.choices) == 1, "No chat completion choices returned"
assert chat_completion.choices[0].message.content, "Empty chat completion response"
def main():
# Setup clients
model_name = "RedHatAI/Qwen2-72B-Instruct-FP8"
parasail_client = httpx.Client(
base_url=control_base_url,
headers={
"Authorization": "Bearer " + api_key,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
)
openai_client = openai.Client(api_key=api_key, base_url=chat_base_url)
check_compatibility(parasail_client, model_name)
devices = get_and_select_device_config(
parasail_client,
model_name=model_name,
desired_device="H100SXM",
desired_count=2,
)
# Create deployment configuration
deployment_config = CreateModelStruct(
deploymentName="scripting-example-deployment-3",
modelName=model_name,
deviceConfigs=devices,
replicas=1,
)
deployment = None
try:
print("Creating deployment...")
deployment = create_deployment(parasail_client, deployment_config)
print(f"Created deployment with ID: {deployment['id']}")
print("\nWaiting for deployment to come online.")
wait_for_status(parasail_client, deployment["id"], status="ONLINE")
print("\nTesting deployment with 1 replica...")
test_deployment(parasail_client, openai_client, deployment["id"])
print("Initial deployment tests passed successfully")
pause_deployment(parasail_client, deployment["id"])
wait_for_status(parasail_client, deployment["id"], status="OFFLINE")
resume_deployment(parasail_client, deployment["id"])
wait_for_status(parasail_client, deployment["id"], status="ONLINE")
deployment = get_deployment(parasail_client, deployment["id"])
print("\nUpdating deployment to 2 replicas...")
deployment["replicas"] = 2
deployment = update_deployment(parasail_client, deployment)
print("Waiting for deployment to scale up...")
wait_for_status(parasail_client, deployment["id"], status="ONLINE")
print("\nTesting deployment with 2 replicas...")
test_deployment(parasail_client, openai_client, deployment["id"])
print("Scaled deployment tests passed successfully")
except Exception as e:
print(f"Error: {e}")
finally:
if deployment:
print("\nCleaning up - deleting deployment...")
delete_deployment(parasail_client, deployment["id"])
print("Deployment deleted")
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()