Docker Compose Deployment#

This section describes how to deploy and configure FTMS using Docker Compose with configurable settings and optional airgapped support. This approach provides a simplified deployment alternative compared to Kubernetes-based deployments.

Overview#

The FTMS Docker Compose setup provides a multi-container deployment of FTMS with the following features:

  • Minimal Setup: Only requires NGC API keys, Docker, and a NVIDIA GPU enabled machine.

  • Configurable Settings: All configuration managed through environment variables and config files

  • Airgapped Support: Support for airgapped deployments of FTMS.

  • Easy Management: Simple scripts for starting, stopping, and managing services

  • Job Orchestration: Same job orchestration as Kubernetes-based deployments

  • AutoML Support: Same AutoML support as Kubernetes-based deployments

Note

Docker Compose currently does not support multi node deployments. For multi node capabilities, please refer to the Kubernetes-based option of deploying FTMS.

Architecture#

The following diagram depicts the high-level architecture of FTMS when deployed using Docker Compose in either airgapped or internet connected mode.

FTMS Docker Compose Architecture

Components#

  1. TAO API App: Exposes REST endpoints, validates requests, resolves model/dataset metadata, and persists state. Reads/writes to MongoDB.

  2. TAO Workflow: Orchestrates workflows, manages job state, and handles job execution by checking for pending jobs from MongoDB.

  3. TAO Job: A short-lived container launched by the workflow service to execute training and other actions. Pulls its container image from a registry, pulls datasets/pretrained models, and uploads checkpoints/logs.

  4. MongoDB: Database backend. Stores job state, workflow state, and other metadata. More information at MongoDB.

  5. SeaweedFS: (Optional) Local storage solution for airgapped environments. Natively supports AWS S3 CLI. More information at SeaweedFS.

  6. AWS S3/Azure Blob Storage: (Optional) Remote storage solution for non airgapped environments.

  7. NGC Registry: (Optional) NVIDIA Container registry for pulling container images.

Prerequisites#

Refer to Microservices Setup to install the prerequisites for Docker Compose deployment.

Deployment Steps#

  1. Clone the FTMS tao_tutorials repository.

    git clone https://github.com/NVIDIA/tao_tutorials.git

  2. Navigate to the tao_tutorials/setup/tao-docker-compose repository.

    cd tao_tutorials/setup/tao-docker-compose

  3. Edit secrets.json

    {
   "ngc_api_key": "nvapi-xxx",
   "ptm_api_key": "your-legacy-api-key"
}

    Note

    • Both keys can be generated from NGC

    • ngc_api_key: Your NGC Personal API Key (starts with nvapi-). Required for authentication and scoped for downloading models from your NGC organization

    • ptm_api_key: NGC Legacy API Key. Required for downloading models from across NGC organizations.

API Endpoints#

The FTMS API endpoints are available at:

{base_url}/api/v1/{ngc_org_name}/

Note

  • base_url: http://localhost:8090 (or your configured NGINX_HTTP_PORT at config.env)

  • ngc_org_name: The name of the NGC organization.

Quick Start#

Default Setup (FTMS only)#

./run.sh up

With SeaweedFS Storage#

./run.sh up-all

With Custom Settings#

./run.sh up-all --airgapped

Configuration#

Settings File: config.env#

All settings are controlled through the config.env file. Key configurable options are:

  • AIRGAPPED_MODE: Enable/disable airgapped mode (true/false)

  • PTM_PULL: Enable/disable pretrained models pull (true/false)

  • PYTHON_VERSION: Python version for main services (e.g., 3.12)

  • DEBUG_MODE: Enable debug mode (true/false)

  • DEPLOYMENT_MODE: Deployment mode (PROD/DEV)

  • SEAWEEDFS_ENABLED: Enable SeaweedFS integration (true/false)

Available Commands#

  • ./run.sh up - Start FTMS services (PTM pull based on config)

  • ./run.sh up-all - Start all services (including SeaweedFS)

  • ./run.sh down - Stop all services (including all profiles)

  • ./run.sh restart - Restart services

  • ./run.sh logs - Show service logs

  • ./run.sh status - Show service status

  • ./run.sh config - Show current configuration

Note

The down command automatically stops all services including those in profiles (SeaweedFS, PTM) to ensure a clean shutdown regardless of how services were started.

Services#

FTMS API Services#

  • mongodb: Database backend

  • tao_api_app: Main FTMS API application (http://localhost)

  • tao_api_workflow: Workflow management service

  • nginx: Reverse proxy

Pretrained Model Service (Optional)#

The pretrained model service downloads pretrained models from NGC and makes them available to the FTMS API. This service is disabled when using airgapped mode.

  • tao_api_pretrained_models: Pretrained models initialization (enabled via PTM_PULL setting)

SeaweedFS Services (Optional)#

The SeaweedFS service provides a local storage solution for the FTMS API. This service is required when using airgapped mode.

Airgapped Workflow#

Docker Compose is compatible with airgapped deployments. Please refer to Airgapped Deployment for more details.

Next Steps#

Once you have completed the Docker Compose setup, you can interact with the FTMS API using a tutorial notebook where we will use AutoML hyper parameter optimization to find the best model for object detection.

On this page