Use Private Service Connect for online prediction

Private Service Connect lets you access Vertex AI online predictions securely from multiple consumer projects and VPC networks without the need for public IP addresses, public internet access, or an explicitly peered internal IP address range.

We recommend Private Service Connect for online prediction use cases that have the following requirements:

• Require private and secure connections
• Require low latency
• Don't need to be publicly accessible

Private Service Connect uses a forwarding rule in your VPC network to send traffic unidirectionally to the Vertex AI online prediction service. The forwarding rule connects to a service attachment that exposes the Vertex AI service to your VPC network. For more information, see About accessing Vertex AI services through Private Service Connect. To learn more about setting up Private Service Connect, see the Private Service Connect overview in the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) documentation.

Create the online prediction endpoint

Use one of the following methods to create an online prediction endpoint with Private Service Connect enabled:

POST http://REGION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints

{
  "displayName": "VERTEX_AI_ENDPOINT_NAME",
  "privateServiceConnectConfig": {
    "enablePrivateServiceConnect": true,
    "projectAllowlist": ["ALLOWED_PROJECTS"]
  }
}

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "http://REGION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints"

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "http://REGION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints" | Select-Object -Expand Content

{
  "name": "projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_NUMBER/locations/REGION/endpoints/ENDPOINT_ID/operations/OPERATION_ID",
  "metadata": {
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.aiplatform.v1.CreateEndpointOperationMetadata",
    "genericMetadata": {
      "createTime": "2020-11-05T17:45:42.812656Z",
      "updateTime": "2020-11-05T17:45:42.812656Z"
    }
  }
}

PROJECT_ID = "VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID"
REGION = "REGION"
VERTEX_AI_ENDPOINT_NAME = "VERTEX_AI_ENDPOINT_NAME"

from google.cloud import aiplatform

aiplatform.init(project=PROJECT_ID, location=REGION)

# Create the forwarding rule in the consumer project
psc_endpoint = aiplatform.PrivateEndpoint.create(
display_name=VERTEX_AI_ENDPOINT_NAME,
project=PROJECT_ID,
location=REGION,
private_service_connect_config=aiplatform.PrivateEndpoint.PrivateServiceConnectConfig(
    project_allowlist=["ALLOWED_PROJECTS"],
    ),
)

INFO:google.cloud.aiplatform.models:To use this PrivateEndpoint in another session:
INFO:google.cloud.aiplatform.models:endpoint = aiplatform.PrivateEndpoint('projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints/ENDPOINT_ID')

Deploy the model

After you create your online prediction endpoint with Private Service Connect enabled, deploy your model to it, following the steps outlined in Deploy a model to an endpoint.

Get the service attachment URI

When you deploy your model, a service attachment is created for the online prediction endpoint. This service attachment represents the Vertex AI online prediction service that's being exposed to your VPC network. Run the gcloud ai endpoints describe command to get the service attachment URI.

1. List only the serviceAttachment value from the endpoint details:

   gcloud ai endpoints describe ENDPOINT_ID \
   --project=VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID \
   --region=REGION \
   | grep -i serviceAttachment
   

   Replace the following:

   • ENDPOINT_ID: the ID of your online prediction endpoint
   • VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the Google Cloud project where you created your online prediction endpoint
   • REGION: the region for this request

   The output is similar to the following:

   serviceAttachment: projects/ac74a9f84c2e5f2a1-tp/regions/us-central1/serviceAttachments/gkedpm-c6e6a854a634dc99472bb802f503c1
   

2. Make a note of the entire string in the serviceAttachment field. This is the service attachment URI.

Create a forwarding rule

You can reserve an internal IP address and create a forwarding rule with that address. To create the forwarding rule, you need the service attachment URI from the previous step.

1. To reserve an internal IP address for the forwarding rule, use the gcloud compute addresses create command:

   gcloud compute addresses create ADDRESS_NAME \
   --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID \
   --region=REGION \
   --subnet=SUBNETWORK \
   --addresses=INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS
   

   Replace the following:

   • ADDRESS_NAME: a name for the internal IP address
   • VPC_PROJECT_ID: the ID of the Google Cloud project that hosts your VPC network. If your online prediction endpoint and your Private Service Connect forwarding rule are hosted in the same project, use VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID for this parameter.
   • REGION: the Google Cloud region where the Private Service Connect forwarding rule is to be created
   • SUBNETWORK: the name of the VPC subnet that contains the IP address

   • INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS: the internal IP address to reserve. This parameter is optional.

     • If this parameter is specified, the IP address must be within the subnet's primary IP address range. The IP address can be an RFC 1918 address or a subnet with non-RFC ranges.
     • If this parameter is omitted, an internal IP address is allocated automatically.
     • For more information, see Reserve a new static internal IPv4 or IPv6 address.

2. To verify that the IP address is reserved, use the gcloud compute addresses list command:

   gcloud compute addresses list --filter="name=(ADDRESS_NAME)" \
   --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID
   

   In the response, verify that a RESERVED status appears for the IP address.

3. To create the forwarding rule and point it to the online prediction service attachment, use the gcloud compute forwarding-rules create command:

   gcloud compute forwarding-rules create PSC_FORWARDING_RULE_NAME \
       --address=ADDRESS_NAME \
       --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID \
       --region=REGION \
       --network=VPC_NETWORK_NAME \
       --target-service-attachment=SERVICE_ATTACHMENT_URI
   

   Replace the following:

   • PSC_FORWARDING_RULE_NAME: a name for the forwarding rule
   • VPC_NETWORK_NAME: the name of the VPC network where the endpoint is to be created
   • SERVICE_ATTACHMENT_URI: the service attachment that you made a note of earlier

4. To verify that the service attachment accepts the endpoint, use the gcloud compute forwarding-rules describe command:

   gcloud compute forwarding-rules describe PSC_FORWARDING_RULE_NAME \
   --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID \
   --region=REGION
   

   In the response, verify that an ACCEPTED status appears in the pscConnectionStatus field.

Optional: Get the internal IP address

If you didn't specify a value for INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS when you created the forwarding rule, you can get the address that was allocated automatically by using the gcloud compute forwarding-rules describe command:

gcloud compute forwarding-rules describe PSC_FORWARDING_RULE_NAME \
--project=VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID \
--region=REGION \
| grep -i IPAddress

Replace the following:

• VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID: your project ID
• REGION: the region name for this request

Get online predictions

Getting online predictions from an endpoint with Private Service Connect is similar to getting online predictions from public endpoints, except for the following considerations:

• The request must be sent from a project that was specified in the projectAllowlist when the online prediction endpoint was created.
• If global access isn't enabled, the request must be sent from the same region.

• To get predictions using REST, you must connect using the endpoint's static IP address, unless you create a DNS record for the internal IP address. For example, you must send your predict requests to the following endpoint:

  http://INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS/v1/projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints/ENDPOINT_ID:predict
  

  Replace INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS with the internal IP address that you reserved earlier.

• The following is an example of how you can send the predict request using Python:

  REQUEST_FILE = "PATH_TO_INPUT_FILE"
  import json
  
  import urllib3
  
  urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)
  
  with open(REQUEST_FILE) as json_file:
      data = json.load(json_file)
      response = psc_endpoint.predict(
          instances=data["instances"], endpoint_override=INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS
      )
  print(response)
  

  Replace PATH_TO_INPUT_FILE with a path to a JSON file containing the request input.

Optional: Create a DNS record for the internal IP address

We recommend that you create a DNS record so that you can get online predictions from your endpoint without needing to specify the internal IP address.

For more information, see Other ways to configure DNS.

1. Create a private DNS zone by using the gcloud dns managed-zones create command. This zone is associated with the VPC network that the forwarding rule was created in.

   DNS_NAME_SUFFIX="prediction.p.vertexai.goog."  # DNS names have "." at the end.
   gcloud dns managed-zones create ZONE_NAME \
   --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID \
   --dns-name=$DNS_NAME_SUFFIX \
   --networks=VPC_NETWORK_NAME \
   --visibility=private \
   --description="A DNS zone for Vertex AI endpoints using Private Service Connect."
   
   

   Replace the following:

   • ZONE_NAME: the name of the DNS zone

2. To create a DNS record in the zone, use the gcloud dns record-sets create command:

   DNS_NAME=ENDPOINT_ID.REGION-VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_NUMBER.$DNS_NAME_SUFFIX
   gcloud dns record-sets create $DNS_NAME \
   --rrdatas=INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS \
   --zone=ZONE_NAME \
   --type=A \
   --ttl=60 \
   --project=VPC_PROJECT_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_NUMBER: the project number for your VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID project. You can locate this project number in the Google Cloud console. For more information, see Identifying projects.
   • INTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS: the internal IP address of your online prediction endpoint

   Now you can send your predict requests to:

   http://ENDPOINT_ID.REGION-VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_NUMBER.prediction.p.vertexai.goog/v1/projects/VERTEX_AI_PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/endpoints/ENDPOINT_ID:predict
   

The following is an example of how you can send the predict request to the DNS zone using Python:

REQUEST_FILE = "PATH_TO_INPUT_FILE"
import json

import urllib3

urllib3.disable_warnings(urllib3.exceptions.InsecureRequestWarning)

with open(REQUEST_FILE) as json_file:
    data = json.load(json_file)
    response = psc_endpoint.predict(
        instances=data["instances"], endpoint_override=DNS_NAME
    )
print(response)

Replace DNS_NAME with the DNS name that you specified in the gcloud dns record-sets create command.

Limitations

Vertex AI endpoints with Private Service Connect are subject to the following limitations:

• Private egress from within the endpoint isn't supported. Because Private Service Connect forwarding rules are unidirectional, other private Google Cloud workloads aren't accessible inside your container.
• An endpoint's projectAllowlist configuration can't be changed.
• Access logging isn't supported.
• Request and response logging isn't supported.
• Vertex Explainable AI isn't supported.

Preview limitations

In the Preview, the following additional limitations apply:

• If you undeploy all Private Service Connect models and redeploy them, you must recreate the forwarding rule, even if the service attachment name is the same.
• All endpoints must have the same projectAllowlist configuration.

What's next

• Deploy a model to an endpoint
• Get online predictions