Overview

This article describes how to setup a GPU-accelerated graphical desktop on Amazon EC2 instance running Ubuntu Linux with NVIDIA GRID driver, and access it using Amazon DCV high performance remote desktop protocol.

This article applies to Ubuntu on AWS only. Similar articles are available for AL2023 and Windows.

The article installs NVIDIA GRID driver which supports most G instance types. To install NVIDIA Tesla GPU driver, refer to Install NVIDIA GPU driver, CUDA Toolkit, NVIDIA Container Toolkit on Amazon EC2 instances running Ubuntu Linux.

Other install options

• Consider managed EUC (End User Computing) services such as Amazon WorkSpaces
• Use this repository CloudFormation templates to automate setup on AL2023, Ubuntu, Windows or other OSs
• Setup Deep Learning workstation with AWS Deep Learning AMIs
• Install NVIDIA Tesla driver and graphical desktop
• Install desktop environment, NVIDIA GRID driver and Amazon DCV Server from documentation
• Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) with NVIDIA GRID drivers installed are available from AWS MarketPlace

Prerequisites

Verify that the On-Demand Instance quota value for Running On-Demand G and VT instances in your desired AWS Region is equal or greater than your desired instance size vCPUs count. Request a quota increase if otherwise.

Do not proceed until your applied quota value is equal or higher than your desired instance type vCPUs count

Launch EC2 instance

Launch a new EC2 instance with the following attributes

• Ubuntu Server 24.04 LTS or 22.04 LTS
• G7e, G6, G6e, G6f, Gr6, Gr6f, G5 or G4dn EC2 instance type
• Security group that allows inbound TCP and UDP port 8443 from your IP
• More than 15 GB EBS volume size
• EC2 IAM role with AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess managed policy attached for DCV license validation

Connect to the instance as ubuntu

Installation

Run the below commands

Install DKMS and kernel headers

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo apt install -y dkms linux-headers-aws linux-modules-extra-aws unzip gcc make libglvnd-dev pkg-config
sudo apt install -y mesa-utils vulkan-tools clinfo amazon-ec2-utils

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf > /dev/null << EOF
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
EOF

sudo sed -i "s/^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"/&rdblacklist=nouveau/" /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub

Restart your EC2 instance

sudo reboot

Install GNOME desktop and Amazon DCV server

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ubuntu-desktop-minimal
sudo sed -i '/^\[daemon\]/a WaylandEnable=false' /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo sed -i "s/Prompt=lts/Prompt=never/g" /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

cd /tmp
OS_VERSION=$(. /etc/os-release;echo $VERSION_ID | sed -e 's/\.//g')
curl -L -O https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/nice-dcv-ubuntu$OS_VERSION-$(arch).tgz
tar -xvzf nice-dcv-ubuntu$OS_VERSION-$(arch).tgz && cd nice-dcv-*-$(arch)
sudo apt install -y ./nice-dcv-server_*.deb
sudo apt install -y ./nice-dcv-web-viewer_*.deb
sudo apt install -y ./nice-xdcv_*.deb
sudo apt install -y ./nice-dcv-gltest_*.deb
sudo usermod -aG video dcv
sudo systemctl enable dcvserver

USER=ubuntu
sudo sed -i "/^\[session-management\/automatic-console-session/a owner=\"$USER\"\nstorage-root=\"%home%\"" /etc/dcv/dcv.conf
sudo sed -i "s/^#create-session/create-session/g" /etc/dcv/dcv.conf

sudo apt install -y cups
sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin dcv
sudo systemctl enable --now cups

Use of DCV is subject to DCV EULA (end user license agreement)

Install NVIDIA GRID driver

We will install NVIDIA GRID (also known as NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS)) driver. NVIDIA GRID drivers are certified to provide optimal performance for professional visualization applications that render content such as 3D models or high-resolution videos, and provide access to four 4K displays per GPU.

cd /tmp

if (lsb_release -r -s | grep -q 22); then
  if (cat /proc/version | grep -q gcc-12); then
    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-12 12
    sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
  fi
fi

sudo snap install aws-cli --classic
aws s3 cp --recursive s3://ec2-linux-nvidia-drivers/latest/ . --no-sign-request
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*.run
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*.run -s --skip-module-load

echo "options nvidia NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0" | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf

sudo modprobe nvidia
nvidia-smi
sudo nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --connected-monitor=DFP-0,DFP-1,DFP-2,DFP-3

Note that NVIDIA GRID driver is available for AWS customers only. By downloading and installing the software, you are bound by the terms of the NVIDIA GRID Cloud EULA (End User License Agreement).

Configure password

Configure a strong ubuntu password

sudo passwd ubuntu

Start X Windows and DCV server

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target && sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
sudo systemctl restart dcvserver

Alternatively, restart your EC2 instance.

Optional: GPU-accelerated container workloads

Besides GPU-accelerated graphics, you may want to run GPU-accelerated container workloads.

Install Docker and NVIDIA Container Toolkit

DISTRO=$(. /etc/os-release;echo $ID$VERSION_ID | sed -e 's/\.//g')
curl -L -O https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$DISTRO/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt install -y ./cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb

sudo apt update 

sudo apt install -y docker.io
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu
sudo systemctl enable docker

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install -y nvidia-container-toolkit
sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

Refer to Install NVIDIA GPU driver, CUDA Toolkit, NVIDIA Container Toolkit on Amazon EC2 instances running Ubuntu Linux for more details including CUDA toolkit and other NVIDIA software installation.

Connect to Ubuntu using DCV client

Download and install native client from https://www.amazondcv.com/.

Connect your macOS , Windows or Linux client to EC2 instance public IP address. Login as ubuntu.

While you can connect using web browser client, native clients provide better user experience with additional features such as QUIC UDP transport protocol, multi-channel audio, and up to four 4K displays support.

Using Amazon DCV

Refer to DCV User Guide for usage guidance, e.g. transferring files.

EC2 Install Script

You can use the below as install script (or user data) to install NVIDIA GRID driver, docker with NVIDIA Container Toolkit, and Amazon DCV server on a new Ubuntu 24.04 or 22.04 GPU instance preferably with latest updates applied and with at least 15 GB storage.

#!/bin/bash
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get autoremove -y

sudo apt-get install -y dkms linux-headers-aws linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-modules-extra-aws linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r) unzip gcc make libglvnd-dev pkg-config
sudo apt-get install -y mesa-utils vulkan-tools clinfo amazon-ec2-utils

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf > /dev/null << EOF
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
EOF

sudo sed -i "s/^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\"/&rdblacklist=nouveau/" /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub

sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-desktop-minimal
sudo sed -i '/^\[daemon\]/a WaylandEnable=false' /etc/gdm3/custom.conf
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo sed -i "s/Prompt=lts/Prompt=never/g" /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

cd /tmp

OS_VERSION=$(. /etc/os-release;echo $VERSION_ID | sed -e 's/\.//g')
curl -L -O https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/nice-dcv-ubuntu$OS_VERSION-$(arch).tgz
tar -xvzf nice-dcv-ubuntu$OS_VERSION-$(arch).tgz && cd nice-dcv-*-$(arch)
sudo apt-get install -y ./nice-dcv-server_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./nice-dcv-web-viewer_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./nice-xdcv_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./nice-dcv-gltest_*.deb
sudo usermod -aG video dcv
sudo systemctl enable dcvserver

USER=ubuntu
sudo sed -i "/^\[session-management\/automatic-console-session/a owner=\"$USER\"\nstorage-root=\"%home%\"" /etc/dcv/dcv.conf
sudo sed -i "s/^#create-session/create-session/g" /etc/dcv/dcv.conf

sudo apt-get install -y cups
sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin dcv
sudo systemctl enable --now cups

cd /tmp

if (lsb_release -r -s | grep -q 22); then
  if (cat /proc/version | grep -q gcc-12); then
    sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-12 12
    sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
  fi
fi

sudo snap install aws-cli --classic
aws s3 cp --recursive s3://ec2-linux-nvidia-drivers/latest/ . --no-sign-request
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*.run
KERNEL_VERSION=$(ls -a /lib/modules | sort -V -r | head -n 1)

if (! uname -r | grep -q $KERNEL_VERSION ); then
  sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*.run -s --kernel-source-path=/lib/modules/$KERNEL_VERSION/build --kernel-name=$KERNEL_VERSION --skip-module-load
  sudo dkms autoinstall
else 
  sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64*.run -s --skip-module-load
fi
echo "options nvidia NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0" | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf

sudo modprobe nvidia
nvidia-smi
sudo nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --connected-monitor=DFP-0,DFP-1,DFP-2,DFP-3

sudo apt-get install -y docker.io
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu
sudo systemctl enable docker

DISTRO=$(. /etc/os-release;echo $ID$VERSION_ID | sed -e 's/\.//g')
curl -L -O https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/$DISTRO/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt-get install -y ./cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit
sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target && sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
sudo systemctl restart dcvserver

sudo reboot

Do set ubuntu user password before using.