Enabling GPU access with Compose

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Compose services can define GPU device reservations if the Docker host contains such devices and the Docker Daemon is set accordingly. For this, make sure to install the prerequisites if you have not already done so.

The examples in the following sections focus specifically on providing service containers access to GPU devices with Docker Compose. You can use either docker-compose or docker compose commands.

Use of service runtime property from Compose v2.3 format (legacy)

Docker Compose v1.27.0+ switched to using the Compose Specification schema which is a combination of all properties from 2.x and 3.x versions. This re-enabled the use of service properties as runtime to provide GPU access to service containers. However, this does not allow to have control over specific properties of the GPU devices.

services:
  test:
    image: nvidia/cuda:10.2-base
    command: nvidia-smi
    runtime: nvidia

Enabling GPU access to service containers

Docker Compose v1.28.0+ allows to define GPU reservations using the device structure defined in the Compose Specification. This provides more granular control over a GPU reservation as custom values can be set for the following device properties:

  • capabilities - value specifies as a list of strings (eg. capabilities: [gpu]). You must set this field in the Compose file. Otherwise, it returns an error on service deployment.
  • count - value specified as an int or the value all representing the number of GPU devices that should be reserved ( providing the host holds that number of GPUs).
  • device_ids - value specified as a list of strings representing GPU device IDs from the host. You can find the device ID in the output of nvidia-smi on the host.
  • driver - value specified as a string (eg. driver: 'nvidia')
  • options - key-value pairs representing driver specific options.

Note

You must set the capabilities field. Otherwise, it returns an error on service deployment.

count and device_ids are mutually exclusive. You must only define one field at a time.

For more information on these properties, see the deploy section in the Compose Specification.

Example of a Compose file for running a service with access to 1 GPU device:

services:
  test:
    image: nvidia/cuda:10.2-base
    command: nvidia-smi
    deploy:
      resources:
        reservations:
          devices:
          - driver: nvidia
            count: 1
            capabilities: [gpu, utility]

Run with Docker Compose:

$ docker-compose up
Creating network "gpu_default" with the default driver
Creating gpu_test_1 ... done
Attaching to gpu_test_1    
test_1  | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
test_1  | | NVIDIA-SMI 450.80.02    Driver Version: 450.80.02    CUDA Version: 11.1     |
test_1  | |-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
test_1  | | GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
test_1  | | Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
test_1  | |                               |                      |               MIG M. |
test_1  | |===============================+======================+======================|
test_1  | |   0  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:1E.0 Off |                    0 |
test_1  | | N/A   23C    P8     9W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
test_1  | |                               |                      |                  N/A |
test_1  | +-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
test_1  |                                                                                
test_1  | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
test_1  | | Processes:                                                                  |
test_1  | |  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
test_1  | |        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
test_1  | |=============================================================================|
test_1  | |  No running processes found                                                 |
test_1  | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
gpu_test_1 exited with code 0

If no count or device_ids are set, all GPUs available on the host are going to be used by default.

services:
  test:
    image: tensorflow/tensorflow:latest-gpu
    command: python -c "import tensorflow as tf;tf.test.gpu_device_name()"
    deploy:
      resources:
        reservations:
          devices:
          - capabilities: [gpu]
$ docker-compose up
Creating network "gpu_default" with the default driver
Creating gpu_test_1 ... done
Attaching to gpu_test_1
test_1  | I tensorflow/stream_executor/platform/default/dso_loader.cc:48] Successfully opened dynamic library libcudart.so.10.1
.....
test_1  | I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1402]
Created TensorFlow device (/device:GPU:0 with 13970 MB memory) -> physical GPU (device: 0, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:1e.0, compute capability: 7.5)
test_1  | /device:GPU:0
gpu_test_1 exited with code 0

On machines hosting multiple GPUs, device_ids field can be set to target specific GPU devices and count can be used to limit the number of GPU devices assigned to a service container. If count exceeds the number of available GPUs on the host, the deployment will error out.

$ nvidia-smi   
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 450.80.02    Driver Version: 450.80.02    CUDA Version: 11.0     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:1B.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   72C    P8    12W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   1  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:1C.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   67C    P8    11W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   2  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:1D.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   74C    P8    12W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   3  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:1E.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   62C    P8    11W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

To enable access only to GPU-0 and GPU-3 devices:

services:
  test:
    image: tensorflow/tensorflow:latest-gpu
    command: python -c "import tensorflow as tf;tf.test.gpu_device_name()"
    deploy:
      resources:
        reservations:
          devices:
          - driver: nvidia
            device_ids: ['0', '3']
            capabilities: [gpu]

$ docker-compose up
...
Created TensorFlow device (/device:GPU:0 with 13970 MB memory -> physical GPU (device: 0, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:1b.0, compute capability: 7.5)
...
Created TensorFlow device (/device:GPU:1 with 13970 MB memory) -> physical GPU (device: 1, name: Tesla T4, pci bus id: 0000:00:1e.0, compute capability: 7.5)
...
gpu_test_1 exited with code 0
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