This is a guide to setting up a 3D workstation in the cloud with Ubuntu 22.04 Linux for running application like Blender, Maya, Nuke, etc…

I also have a dedicated guide for Rocky 9 here if Ubuntu is not your thing.

Prerequisites⌗

This guide assumes you already have an EC2 instance with an Nvidia GPU running Ubuntu 20.04 or higher.

Getting started⌗

Update the system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Note: It’s a good idea to give the system a reboot after the update so it can load any kernel updates.

Install the AWS CLI. We will need it later for downloading software from S3.

sudo apt install -y awscli

Desktop Environment Installation⌗

Next step is installing a desktop environment. This is the hardest part of the set up, not because it’s difficult but you have to choose which desktop environment you want to use.

Installing GDM⌗

Nice DCV only supports GDM so regardless of your chosen desktop environment GDM needs to be used for login.

sudo apt install gdm3 -y
sudo systemctl enable gdm

Currently Nvidia and Nice DCV don’t fully support Wayland so we need to disable it in GDM.

sudo sed '/WaylandEnable=false/s/^#//' -i /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

Installing a Desktop Environment⌗

Gnome

sudo apt install -y ubuntu-desktop

MATE

sudo apt install -y ubuntu-mate-desktop

Make sure to select gdm3 as the default display manager.

KDE

sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop -y

Others

There are many other great desktop enviornments out there so don’t be affraid to experiment!

Here is a guide on installing the Pantheon desktop enviornment from Elementary OS. If you are looking for a more Apple Mac like experience on Linux give it a try.

Nvidia drivers⌗

Disable the Nouveau open source driver so it can’t conflict with the proprietary Nvidia driver.

echo "blacklist nouveau" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
echo 'omit_drivers+=" nouveau "' | sudo tee /etc/dracut.conf.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

Install dependencies⌗

Install DKMS so the driver doesn’t break every time the kernel is updated.

sudo apt install -y dkms

Some 3D graphics software requires libglvnd to work, so lets install it so it can be enabled in the driver.

sudo apt install -y libglvnd0

Install build tools + headers to compile the driver kennel module

sudo apt-get install -y gcc make linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Download Nvidia driver⌗

There are a few options for getting the Nvidia driver. You can download directly from Nvidia’s website, however this might not always work depending on the instance type you are using. The best option is to get the driver direct from AWS, that way you know it will work correctly with EC2.

Here is a guide to downloading the driver direct from AWS

Install Nvidia driver⌗ 

chmod u+x NVIDIA*.run
sudo ./NVIDIA*.run -s --dkms --install-libglvnd

Enable multiple-monitor support.

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

Nice DCV Installation⌗

First we need to download Nice DCV by going to the Nice DCV website and grabbing the download URL.

Then use wget command to download Nice DCV from the URL we got from the website like below.

wget https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/2023.1/Servers/nice-dcv-2023.1-16220-ubuntu2204-x86_64.tgz

Extract the tar file.

tar zxvf nice-dcv-*.tgz

Change into the extracted directory using cd.

Install all the components for the Nice DCV server.

sudo apt install -y ./nice-*.deb

Install USB drivers.

sudo dcvusbdriverinstaller

When asked if you want to install the USB kernel module choose yes by pressing y then enter.

Do you want to install the kernel module and enable USB remotization? [y|n]

Make sure to use DKMS pressing y then enter.

Do you want to use DKMS to install the kernel module? [y|n]

Install pulseaudio-utils for audio support.

sudo apt install pulseaudio-utils

If the firewall is enabled add the following rules to allow Nice DCV.

sudo ufw allow 8443/tcp
sudo ufw allow 8443/udp

Autostart DCV console session as current user.

sudo sed '/create-session = true/s/^#//' -i /etc/dcv/dcv.conf
sudo sed -i "s/#owner = \"\"/owner = \"$USER\"/" /etc/dcv/dcv.conf

Add the dcv user to the video group.

sudo usermod -aG video dcv

Start the Nice DCV Server service.

sudo systemctl enable dcvserver

Set the system to boot into graphical mode.

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

Login⌗

Don’t forget to set a password so you can log in.

sudo passwd $USER

Give the system one final reboot. Once started back up you can remote in using Nice DCV and use the system.

Optional extras⌗

App store stuff

I find Ubuntu’s snaps to be slow and there are less options for apps. So I like to add flatpaks for more apps!

sudo apt install flatpak
sudo apt install gnome-software
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak