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Setup EC2 for Docker with GPU

Follow these steps closely to render videos on EC2 in a Docker container.
These steps are opinionated, but specify a reference that works.

A word of warning: Deviating from the instructions, like:

  • choosing a different AMI
  • choosing a different Docker base
  • choosing something else than EC2
  • choosing a different host machine

may lead to the GPU not working. In this case, it is hard to debug.
We recommend to first follow these instructions and make changes once you have a working setup.

Setup EC2 for Docker with GPU​

Follow the instructions for GPUs on EC2 . You can skip installing Chrome, Node.js and cloning the repo to render a video.

Install NVIDIA Container toolkit:

Add keyring
bash
curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list
sudo apt-get update
Add keyring
bash
curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg
curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list
sudo apt-get update
Install toolkit
bash
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit
Install toolkit
bash
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit

Install Docker: 

Add Docker's official GPG key
bash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
Add Docker's official GPG key
bash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
Add keyring
bash
echo "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
Add keyring
bash
echo "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
Install Docker
bash
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
Install Docker
bash
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Configure Docker to use the NVIDIA runtime 

Configure the NVIDIA container runtime
bash
sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
sudo systemctl restart docker
Configure the NVIDIA container runtime
bash
sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

Create two files, Dockerfile and entrypoint.sh . You can for example create them using the nano ./file-to-create command. Use Ctrl X to save and quit. 

Dockerfile
bash
FROM node:20-bookworm
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl gnupg git
RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
# Clone the repo
RUN git clone https://github.com/remotion-dev/gpu-scene.git
WORKDIR /gpu-scene
RUN npm install
# Copy the entrypoint script into the image
COPY entrypoint.sh .
CMD ["sh", "./entrypoint.sh"]
Dockerfile
bash
FROM node:20-bookworm
RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get install -y curl gnupg git
RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
# Clone the repo
RUN git clone https://github.com/remotion-dev/gpu-scene.git
WORKDIR /gpu-scene
RUN npm install
# Copy the entrypoint script into the image
COPY entrypoint.sh .
CMD ["sh", "./entrypoint.sh"]
entrypoint.sh
bash
#!/bin/bash
npx remotion render --gl=angle-egl Scene out/video.mp4
entrypoint.sh
bash
#!/bin/bash
npx remotion render --gl=angle-egl Scene out/video.mp4

Build the container and run a sample render: 

bash
sudo docker build . -t remotion-docker-gpu
sudo docker run --gpus all --runtime=nvidia -e "NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all" remotion-docker-gpu
bash
sudo docker build . -t remotion-docker-gpu
sudo docker run --gpus all --runtime=nvidia -e "NVIDIA_DRIVER_CAPABILITIES=all" remotion-docker-gpu

Debugging​

Use the npx remotion gpu command to get the output of chrome://gpu to verify that the GPU is working.

See also​