Skip to content

Installation

To use the open-source version of dstack (which is self-hosted to use your own cloud accounts or data centers), go ahead and set up the server.

To use dstack Sky (a managed service that allows you to use either GPUs via marketplace, or connect to your own cloud accounts or data centers), proceed to dstack Sky.

Set up the server

Configure backends

Before starting the dstack server, create ~/.dstack/server/config.yml and configure a backend for each cloud account that you'd like to use.

projects:
  - name: main
    backends:
      - type: aws
        creds:
          type: access_key
          access_key: AIZKISCVKUKO5AAKLAEH
          secret_key: QSbmpqJIUBn1V5U3pyM9S6lwwiu8/fOJ2dgfwFdW

Go to the server/config.yml reference for details on how to configure backends for AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI, Lambda, TensorDock, Vast.ai, RunPod, CUDO, Kubernetes, etc.

Start the server

Once the ~/.dstack/server/config.yml file is configured, proceed to start the server:

$ pip install "dstack[all]" -U
$ dstack server

Applying ~/.dstack/server/config.yml...

The admin token is "bbae0f28-d3dd-4820-bf61-8f4bb40815da"
The server is running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/
$ docker run -p 3000:3000 \
    -v $HOME/.dstack/server/:/root/.dstack/server \
    dstackai/dstack

Applying ~/.dstack/server/config.yml...

The admin token is "bbae0f28-d3dd-4820-bf61-8f4bb40815da"
The server is running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/

For more details on how to deploy dstack using Docker, check its Docker repo.

By default, dstack stores its state in ~/.dstack/server/data using SQLite. To use a database, set the DSTACK_DATABASE_URL environment variable.

Once the dstack server is up, feel free to use the CLI or API to work with it.

Set up the CLI

To point the CLI to the dstack server, configure it with the server address, user token and project name:

$ pip install dstack
$ dstack config --url http://127.0.0.1:3000 \
    --project main \
    --token bbae0f28-d3dd-4820-bf61-8f4bb40815da

Configuration is updated at ~/.dstack/config.yml

This configuration is stored in ~/.dstack/config.yml.

Add on-prem servers

If you'd like to use dstack to run workloads on your on-prem servers, see on-prem fleets command.

dstack Sky

Set up the CLI

If you've signed up with dstack Sky , open the project settings, and copy the dstack config command to point the CLI to the project.

Then, install the CLI on your machine and use the copied command.

$ pip install dstack
$ dstack config --url https://sky.dstack.ai \
    --project peterschmidt85 \
    --token bbae0f28-d3dd-4820-bf61-8f4bb40815da

Configuration is updated at ~/.dstack/config.yml

Configure backends

By default, dstack Sky uses the GPU from its marketplace, which requires a credit card to be attached in your account settings.

To use your own cloud accounts, click the settings icon of the corresponding backend and specify credentials:

What's next?

  1. Check the server/config.yml reference on how to configure backends
  2. Follow quickstart
  3. Browse examples
  4. Join the community via Discord