Note: These are instructions on how to set up a serverless (aka offline) setup for CVAT. We usually stick with the web-based app app.cvat.ai which does not require any of these steps.

• Install WSL

  • In PowerShell 

    • Code Block
      wsl --install

  • Install the default distribution of Linux “Ubuntu”

  • Install WSL https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

• AFTER INSTALLING WSL YOU WILL NEED TO RESTART YOUR COMPUTER

• Helpful guide to installing WSL with pictures https://contabo.com/blog/how-to-install-wsl2-on-windows-10/  

• Helpful instructions to install wsl https://yizhang82.dev/set-up-wsl2  

• Another helpful guide on installing WSL and Linux using graphical user interface https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs2043/2024sp/styled-2/  

• Setting up linux user using WSL https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/setup/environment

• Set up Docker for WSL https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/wsl-containers  

• Set up Git on WSL https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/wsl-git  

• NOTE: When you enable WSL and install a Linux distribution, you are installing a new file system, separated from the Windows NTFS C:\ drive on your machine. Aka installing Git on WSL does not install Git in Windows and vise versa

• Install Docker Desktop

  • Use winget again

    • Code Block
      winget install Docker.DockerDesktop

      • You may need to agree to the source agreements again first, just type Y

  • Or install using this link: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/windows-install/  

  • Once installed, open Docker Desktop and click on the cog wheel to access settings

  • Click on Resources in the sidebar

  • Click on WSL Integration on the sidebar

  • Ensure that the box next to “Enable integration with my default WSL distro” is checked

  • Click the toggle for “Enable integration with additional distros:” to turn it on as well for good measure

  • Click “Apply and Restart”

  • Note: for some unknown reason quitting docker desktop does not actually end the program and tasks, you have to end the tasks in task manager to fully shut it down or you need to quit docker from the hidden icons in the taskbar

• Install Git 

  • Use winget

    • Code Block
      winget install Microsoft.Git

  • Or install from this link: https://gitforwindows.org/  

    • For mac https://github.com/git-guides/install-git  

Install Terminal (Optional)

• Install Windows Terminal (nice interface, very customizable, can run PowerShell, WSL, and Ubuntu all at the same time because its a shell emulator)

  • https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1b11hzf/what_is_the_difference_between_windows_terminal/

• Windows Terminal is installed by default in Windows 11

Note: for silent install use msiexec, see more at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/msiexec t

Note to obtain computer specifications

• In PowerShell on Windows 

  Code Block
  command Get-ComputerInfo -Property “os*”

  • Will tell you all the specifications of your operating system

• Or command

  Code Block
  Get-ComputerInfo -Property “osname”

  • Will only tell you the name of the operating system (i.e. Microsoft Windows 11 Pro)

• Windows

  • Run the Linux distribution that was installed (Ubuntu) by searching Ubuntu in the start menu and running it

  • Or search for Terminal in the start menu and right click on it and Select Ubuntu in the dropdown

  • In the window that opens type the following to clone the CVAT source code from the github repository

    • Code Block
      git clone https://github.com/cvat-ai/cvat

  • Change to the cvat directory you just made

    • Code Block
      cd cvat

  • Run docker containers

    • Code Block
      docker compose up -d

  • Create a superuser 

    • Code Block
      sudo docker exec -it cvat_server bash -ic 'python3 ~/manage.py createsuperuser'

      • Input the administrator password when prompted

        •  Note, the characters that you type will NOT show up in the window, when you’re finished typing the password just hit the “enter” key

      • Create a username (default is django) 

        • If you want to use the default just hit enter

      • Input your email when prompted

      • Create a password for your user

        • Note the characters that you enter will not appear in the window

          • Hit enter when done

      • Re-input the password

        • The characters will not appear in the window

Opening CVAT

• Open Google Chrome 

• Go to localhost:8080

• Type your login and password for the superuser and press the login button

SAM installation

• https://github.com/facebookresearch/segment-anything?ref=blog.roboflow.com

• Windows 

  • Bring up CVAT with auto annotation tool

  • Open ubuntu

  • Change to cvat directory

  • Stop any docker containers using docker compose down

  • Run 

    • Code Block
      docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f components/serverless/docker-compose.serverless.yml up -d

  • To stop containers 

    • Code Block
      docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f components/serverless/docker-compose.serverless.yml down

  • Install nuclio

    • https://github.com/nuclio/nuclio#quick-start-steps

    • Important:

      • CHECK WHAT VERSION OF NUCTL IS CALLED FOR IN DOCKER-COMPOSE.SERVERLESS.YML

        • Do this by using the in terminal text editor nano

        • To open a specific file using nano type nano <filepath>

          • To open docker-compose.serverless.yml

            • Code Block
              nano components/serverless/docker-compose.serverless.yml

            • Look at what version number is listed under “image:”

              • In this case it is 1.13.0

          • To close nano press CTRL+X

    • Use wget to pull the specific version of nuclio that matches what is found in docker-compose.serverless.yml

    • wget https://github.com/nuclio/nuclio/releases/download/ <version>/nuctl-<version>-linux-amd64

      • Where <version> is replaced by the number that you need

      • So

        • Code Block
          wget https://github.com/nuclio/nuclio/releases/download/1.13.0/nuctl-1.13.0-linux-amd64

    • Give nuclio the permissions to do a soft link

      • Code Block
        sudo chmod +x nuctl-<version>-linux-amd64 sudo ln -sf $(pwd)/nuctl-<version>-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/nuctl

        • Where <version> is the version you downloaded

          • Code Block
            sudo chmod +x nuctl-1.13.0-linux-amd64

          • Code Block
            sudo ln -sf $(pwd)/nuctl-1.13.0-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/nuctl

    • Deploy a couple functions

      Code Block
      ./serverless/deploy_cpu.sh serverless/openvino/dextr ./serverless/deploy_cpu.sh serverless/openvino/omz/public/yolo-v3-tf

    • Open nuclio dashboard using

      • Localhost:8070

    • Deploy SAM function

      • Code Block
        cd serverless && ./deploy_cpu.sh pytorch/facebookresearch/sam/nuclio/

Starting up CVAT with SAM

• Open docker

  • Optional: close docker window

• Open ubuntu

  • Change to cvat root directory

    • Code Block
      cd cvat

  • If SAM is installed 

    • Run 

      • Code Block
        docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f components/serverless/docker-compose.serverless.yml up -d

    • Then run

      • Code Block
        cd serverless && ./deploy_cpu.sh pytorch/facebookresearch/sam/nuclio/

  • If SAM is not installed

    • Code Block
      docker compose up -d

• Open Chrome

  • Go to localhost:8080

  • Login

• You have now opened CVAT

To stop Docker containers

In ubuntu type

• Code Block
  docker compose down

  or

• Code Block
  docker compose -f docker-compose.yml -f components/serverless/docker-compose.serverless.yml down