Deploy Confidential Virtual Machines

This page is for Confidential Virtual Machines, version Dev (default). For other versions, use one of these documentation indexes: - Dev (default): https://docs.nvidia.com/confidential-computing/virtual-machines/dev/llms.txt

This guide provides the steps to configure a system for Confidential Computing with NVIDIA Hopper and Blackwell GPUs, from the BIOS through GPU attestation in the guest. For the trusted components, threats, and protection limits behind these steps, refer to Trust and Threat Model.

Complete the following sections in order, or start with the section for your persona:

1. Configuring the Hardware: Configure the BIOS for TDX or SEV-SNP.
2. Configuring the Host: Prepare the host OS and the hypervisor.
3. Configuring the GPUs: Bind the GPUs to VFIO and set the GPU mode.
4. Creating a Confidential VM: Create and launch a CVM with the GPUs attached. Skip this section if you already have a VM orchestration flow.
5. Configuring the Guest: Install and configure the NVIDIA driver in the CVM.
6. Attesting the GPU: Verify the configuration, attest the GPU, and enable the GPU to accept work.

Conventions

In the command examples, lines that start with $ are commands to run, and lines that start with # are comments. Lines without a prefix are command output. Some examples omit output that doesn’t matter unless the command reports an error.

The host examples store downloads and scripts in the /shared directory. You can use a different directory if you change the paths in the commands.