Installing the Amazon DCV Server on Amazon EC2 Mac instances - Amazon DCV
Using an unattended installationUsing the wizardConfiguring Privacy and Security settings
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Installing the Amazon DCV Server on Amazon EC2 Mac instances

You can use an installation wizard to install the Amazon DCV server on an Amazon EC2 Mac instance. To install with the installation wizard, you need to have interactive GUI access. The wizard guides you through a series of steps that show how to customize your Amazon DCV server installation. Alternatively, you can use the command line to perform an unattended installation. This uses default settings to automate the installation procedure. To perform unattended installations, System Integrity Protection (SIP) must be disabled.

Note

Amazon DCV server for macOS is only supported on Amazon EC2 Apple silicon instances.

Using an unattended installation

Amazon DCV can install and activate the server software automatically. This is called an "unattended installation". By default, an unattended installation enables Amazon DCV server auto-start. An example Amazon Machine Image creation automation can be found in the aws-samples Github within the dcv-samples repository.

To install the Amazon DCV server on Amazon EC2 Mac instance using an unattended installation

  1. Launch and connect to the server that you intend to install the Amazon DCV server on.

  2. Confirm System Integrity Protection (SIP) is disabled.

  3. Download the Amazon DCV server installer from the Amazon DCV website.

    Note

    The Amazon DCV server is available only in a 64-bit version and supported on 64-bit ARM Amazon EC2 instances.

  4. Download the packages from the Amazon DCV download website.

    $ wget https://d1uj6qtbmh3dt5.cloudfront.net/nice-dcv-server-macos-arm64.dist.pkg

  5. Run the unattended installer with the following command:

    $ sudo installer -pkg nice-dcv-server-2025.0-version_number-macos-arm64.dist.pkg -target /

Using the wizard

Use the Amazon DCV server installation wizard for a guided installation.

To install the Amazon DCV server on Amazon EC2 Mac instances using the wizard

  1. Launch and connect to the server on which to install the Amazon DCV server.

  2. Download the Amazon DCV server installer from the Amazon DCV website.

    Note

    The Amazon DCV server is available only in a 64-bit version and supported on 64-bit ARM Amazon EC2 instances.

    Tip

    The latest packages page of the download website contains links that always point to the newest available version. You can use these links to automatically retrieve the newest Amazon DCV packages.

  3. Run nice-dcv-server-2025.0-version_number-macos-arm64.dist.pkg.

  4. On the Introduction screen, choose Continue.

  5. On the Installation Type screen, check the package check boxes, and then choose Continue.

  6. Choose Install.

  7. Click Allow when prompted during installation.

Configuring Privacy and Security settings

After installing the Amazon DCV server, you must configure macOS Privacy and Security settings to allow Amazon DCV to access system features.

To configure Privacy and Security settings for Amazon DCV

  1. Open System Settings and navigate to Privacy and Security.

  2. Under Accessibility, select the checkbox next to DCV Server to allow access. If DCV Server is not listed, drag /Applications/DCV Server.app to the allowed list and then select the checkbox.

  3. Under Screen & System Audio Recording, select the checkbox next to DCV Server to allow access. If DCV Server is not listed, drag /Applications/DCV Server.app to the allowed list and then select the checkbox

  4. Reboot the machine to apply the changes:

    $ sudo reboot

  5. After reboot, ensure you have a valid Amazon DCV license. For licensing information, see Step 2: License the Amazon DCV Server.

  6. Reconnect using VNC and create a Amazon DCV console session:

    $ sudo dcv create-session --type console --owner ec2-user console

  7. Click Allow when prompted for Microphone access.

  8. Click Allow when prompted for 

    dcvagentlauncher

    access.

  9. When prompted for Remote Control access, click Open System Settings, enable the setting, and choose Quit & Reopen.

  10. You can now connect using the Amazon DCV Client.