This page describes the workstation configuration parameters that provide support for boosting your workstations. Specifying a boost configuration temporarily allows your workstation to use a more powerful set of resources on demand, including VM type, GPUs, boot disk size, and nested virtualization. For example, a team may need a more powerful workstation with GPUs attached for certain applications. By specifying a boost configuration in the workstation config, workstations created as a part of this config can be started using the boost configuration when running applications requiring GPUs. In the API, these parameters are collectively referred to as the
[`BoostConfig`](https://docs.cloud.google.com/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig).[`BoostConfig`](https://docs.cloud.google.com/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig).

## Creating a boost configuration

To create a workstation config that includes a boost configuration, run the following `gcloud` CLI command:

```
    gcloud beta workstations configs create WORKSTATION_CONFIG_ID \
        --cluster=WORKSTATION_CLUSTER_ID \
        --region=LOCATION \
        --project=PROJECT_ID \
        --boost-config=id=BOOST_CONFIG_ID,machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE,accelerators=ACCELERATORS,enable-nested-virtualization=ENABLE_NESTED_VIRTUALIZATION,boot-disk-size=BOOT_DISK_SIZE,pool-size=POOL_SIZE
```

Replace the following:

- `PROJECT_ID`: the ID of the project that contains the workstation configuration.
- `LOCATION`: the location of the workstation cluster.
- `WORKSTATION_CLUSTER_ID`: the name workstation cluster that contains the workstation configuration.
- `WORKSTATION_CONFIG_ID`: the name of the workstation configuration to be created.
- `BOOST_CONFIG_ID`: The ID to be used for the boost configuration.
- `MACHINE_TYPE`: The type of machine that boosted VM instances will use (for example,`e2-standard-4`).
- `ENABLE_NESTED_VIRTUALIZATION`: Whether to enable nested virtualization.
- `ACCELERATORS`: A list of the type and count of accelerator cards attached to the boost instance.
- `BOOT_DISK_SIZE`: The size of the boot disk for the VM in gigabytes (GB).
- `POOL_SIZE`: The number of boost VMs that the system should keep idle.

See [Boost Config API reference](https://docs.cloud.google.com/workstations/docs/reference/rest/v1/projects.locations.workstationClusters.workstationConfigs#boostconfig) for more information about each parameter and their defaults.

## Starting a boosted workstation

If the workstation config includes a boost configuration, when starting a workstation, users can choose to use a VM provisioned under the `BoostConfig` by passing the `boost config id` in the start request. If no `boost config id` is provided in the start request, the system will choose a VM from the pool provisioned under the default config.

To boost a specific workstation, run the following `gcloud` CLI command:

```
    gcloud beta workstations start WORKSTATION_ID \
        --boost=BOOST_CONFIG_ID
```

Replace the following:

- `WORKSTATION_ID`: the name workstation to start.
- `BOOST_CONFIG_ID`: The ID matching the boost configuration to boost up to.