NICE DCV Remote Desktop Deployment Guide For CentOS 7.x

NICE DCV is a high-performance remote display protocol that provides a secure way to deliver remote desktops and application streaming in both Linux and Windows enviroment created by NICE - an AWS Company.

Test Enviroment

• EC2 Instance
  • Region：cn-north-1(Beijing)
  • Instance Type: g4dn.xlarge
  • AMI ID: ami-088b61f50b18f807e
  • OS Version: CentOS Linux release 7.8.2003 (Core)
  • EBS Volume(Type): 256GB(gp2)
  • Instance IAM Role: AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess(for EC2)
  • GPU Details
    • Product Name: NVIDIA Tesla T4

Related Resources

• NICE DCV: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/dcv/index.html
• Install NVIDIA Driver for EC2 Linux: https://docs.amazonaws.cn/en_us/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/install-nvidia-driver.html
• NICE DCV Client Download Link: https://download.nice-dcv.com/

Deploy

• Install GNOME env and desktop manager

  sudo yum groupinstall "GNOME Desktop"
  sudo yum upgrade
  sudo reboot
  

• Configure X server

  sudo systemctl get-default
  sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
  sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
  ps aux | grep X | grep -v grep
  

  if works well, it should get output like this:

  root      1891  0.0  0.7 277528 30448 tty7     Ssl+ 10:59   0:00 /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -background none -verbose -auth /run/gdm/auth-for-gdm-wltseN/database -seat seat0 vt7
  

• Install the glxinfo Utility

  sudo yum install glx-utils
  

• Install NVIDIA Drivers for Linux

  • sudo yum install -y gcc
    sudo yum install -y make
    sudo yum update -y
    sudo reboot
    

  • After reboot

    sudo yum install -y gcc kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
    

  • Add nouveau to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf blacklist file

    cat << EOF | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
    blacklist vga16fb
    blacklist nouveau
    blacklist rivafb
    blacklist nvidiafb
    blacklist rivatv
    EOF
    

  • Edit the /etc/default/grub file and add the following line:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rdblacklist=nouveau"
    

  • Rebuild the Grub Configuration

    sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
    

  • Download the GRID driver installation utility

    aws s3 cp --recursive s3://ec2-linux-nvidia-drivers/g4/latest/ . --region us-east-1 --no-sign-request
    

  • Add permission to driver installation utility that you just downloaded

    sudo chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64\*.run
    

    ⚠️ WARNING
    If the below installation error shows: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before installing centos,restart the gdm by sudo systemctl restart gdm.service

  • Run the self-install script as follows to install the GRID driver

    sudo /bin/sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64\*.run
    

  • sudo reboot
    

  • If nothing gose wrong,the response for the following command lists the installed version of the NVIDIA driver and details about the GPUs

    nvidia-smi -q | head
    

• Verify OpenGL Software Rendering

  • Make sure that the X server is running, and use the following command:

    • sudo DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep "X.*\-auth" | grep -v grep | sed -n 's/.*-auth \([^ ]\+\).*/\1/p') glxinfo | grep -i "opengl.*version"
      

      The following shows example output if OpenGL software rendering is available:

    • OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 17.0.5
      OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
      OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.5
      OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
      OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 17.0.5
      OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
      

• Install and Configure NVIDIA Drivers

  •   nvidia-xconfig --preserve-busid --enable-all-gpus
    

  ⚠️ WARNING
  Make sure that your server does not have the legacy /etc/X11/XF86Config file. If it does, nvidia-xconfig updates that configuration file instead of generating the required /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Run the following command to remove the legacy XF86Config file: sudo rm -rf /etc/X11/XF86Config*

• (Optional) Check if /etc/X11 has the right permission,if not,chmod it

  sudo chmod +x /etc/X11
  

• Restart X server

  sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
  sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
  

• To verify that OpenGL hardware rendering is available

  • sudo DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep "X.*\-auth" | grep -v grep | sed -n 's/.*-auth \([^ ]\+\).*/\1/p') glxinfo | grep -i "opengl.*version"
    

  • The following shows example output if OpenGL hardware rendering is available.

    OpenGL core profile version string: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 390.75
    OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
    OpenGL version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.75
    OpenGL shading language version string: 4.60 NVIDIA
    OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.2 NVIDIA 390.75
    OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.20
    

• Install the NICE DCV Server

  • sudo rpm --import https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/NICE-GPG-KEY
    wget https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/2020.0/Servers/nice-dcv-2020.0-8428-el7.tgz
    tar -xvzf nice-dcv-2020.0-8428-el7.tgz
    cd nice-dcv-2020.0-8428-el7
    sudo yum install nice-dcv-server-2020.0.8428-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
    sudo yum install nice-xdcv-2020.0.296-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
    

  • (optional)sudo yum install nice-xdcv-2020.0.296-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
    (optional)sudo yum install nice-dcv-gl-2020.0.759-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
    (optional)sudo yum install nice-dcv-simple-external-authenticator-2020.0.87-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
    

• Post-Installation Checks

  • Please make sure that your instance has enabled security group rule for port 8843

  • Verify dcv user can access the X server

    • sudo DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=$(ps aux | grep "X.*\-auth" | grep -v grep | sed -n 's/.*-auth \([^ ]\+\).*/\1/p') xhost | grep "SI:localuser:dcv$"
      

    • If the command returns SI:localuser:dcv, the dcv user can access the X server,if not,restart the X Server

      sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
      sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
      

  • Run sudo dcvgldiag for test purpose

  • Start NICE DCV Server on Linux

    • sudo systemctl start dcvserver
      sudo systemctl enable dcvserver
      

• Managing NICE DCV Sessions

  • Setting linux user ec2-user password

    sudo passwd ec2-user**
    

  • Example commond for create a console session named sample-session for user ec2-user

    • sudo dcv create-session --type=console --owner ec2-user sample-session
      

Connect with NICE DCV Client

• Download the NICE DCV Client: https://download.nice-dcv.com/

• Enter the EC2 instance host / ip, and linux user, password

  ⚠️ WARNING
  If connection failed, check if the firewalld service in CentOS is enabled, if it does, disable it or allow port 8834

Screenshots