Sample AWS CloudFormation templates to provision Windows or Linux Amazon EC2 instances with GUI (graphical user interface) running Amazon DCV server. Includes option to install GPU drivers.
Amazon DCV is a high-performance remote visualisation protocol that enables users to securely connect to remote desktops in the cloud from any device. To use, install a desktop environment and desktop manager (Linux), install DCV server software, and remotely connect to the server using web browser (screenshot below) or native client.
DCV client do not require a license while DCV server requires licensing. A license is not required for DCV server on Amazon EC2 if they can access Amazon S3 endpoint for license verification.
The CloudFormation templates provision EC2 instances running DCV server with the following features:
- GNOME desktop environment (Linux)
- Web browser client
- Adaptable display resolution
- QUIC UDP transport protocol
- Copy and Paste
- File transfer
- Audio
- Printing
- Webcam redirection (Windows DCV server)
- USB remotization (Windows client)
- Virtual or console session (Linux)
- NVIDIA GRID, Gaming, Tesla or AMD GPU driver installation (optional: Windows and some Linux distros)
- Specify DCV server TCP and UDP listen ports
- Static, public IPv4 address with Elastic IP (optional)
- gp3 or gp2 volume type with option to specify volume size
- AWS Systems Manager Session Manager browser-based terminal access
- EC2 Instance Connect browser-based SSH (Linux)
- Fleet Manager Remote Desktop browser-based RDP (Windows)
- AWS CLI v2 with partial mode auto-prompt
- Amazon CloudWatch agent
- EC2 IAM role for DCV license verification, Systems Manager, CloudWatch agent, and AWS X-Ray
- Allow inbound port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) traffic for web hosting (optional)
- AWS Backup data protection
See cfn section for deployment instructions.
The official DCV site provides a CloudFormation template that allows the deployment of EC2 instances with DCV pre-installed and fully configured for internal testing. Refer to Announcing updates to NICE DCV AWS CloudFormation Templates for information.
To include DCV in your EC2 Image Builder pipeline, refer to Announcing the NICE DCV Amazon-managed component for EC2 Image Builder.
For manual installation instructions, refer to Amazon DCV Administrator Guide.
DCV installation scripts are available from the following re:Post community articles:
- How do I install GUI (graphical desktop) on Amazon EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2 (AL2)?
- How do I install GUI (graphical desktop) on Amazon EC2 instances running RHEL/Rocky Linux 8/9?
- How do I install GUI (graphical desktop) on Amazon EC2 instances running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (SLES 15)?
- How do I install GUI (graphical desktop) on Amazon EC2 instances running Ubuntu Linux?
See CONTRIBUTING for more information.
This library is licensed under the MIT-0 License. See the LICENSE file.
Usage indicates acceptance of DCV EULA and license agreements of all software that is installed on the EC2 instance. Some operating systems are not supported by DCV. Refer to documentation site for information.