Windows Images
Objective: Learn the various features and enhancements in Windows images provided by CoreWeave Cloud.
Overview: CoreWeave offers a variety of operating system base images, enhanced to run on CoreWeave Cloud, via our vd-images namespace. This guide details the Windows specific ones.
Windows images on CoreWeave cloud use Cloudbase-Init, a Windows implementation of Canonical's cloud-init.
By default, we enable the following plugins (executed sequentially):
When creating a new Virtual Server on CoreWeave cloud, instance specific information such as user account information and SSH keys are automatically passed through as Cloud-Init Userdata. When deploying a new Virtual Server, one has the ability to add additional information via Userdata as well.
cloudInit: |
write_files:
- encoding: b64
content: JFBTVmVyc2lvblRhYmxlIHwgT3V0LUZpbGUgQzpcdGVzdC50eHQ=
path: C:\test.ps1
permissions: '0644'
runcmd:
- 'Powershell.exe -File C:\test.ps1'
Within the Virtual Server deployment form, switch to the YAML tab:
Towards the bottom of the page, a commented out cloudInit section will be pre-populated. Uncomment to add custom user data:
For more information on what be added via native cloudInit Userdata, view the Cloudbase Solutions documentation here.
There are several CoreWeave init scripts included in our base Windows image, that can be enabled via cloudInit Userdata.
Samba shares (Or any SMB/CIFS compliant share) can be added via cloudInit, to be mounted to the first available drive letter, at initial user login.
Using an example from a Samba instance hosted via CoreWeave Cloud Apps, we can derive the following information:
Using our share information, we can populate the cloudInit
key: value pairs: cloudInit: |
SmbMounts:
- share: vol01
server: fil01.tenant-orgname-namespace.coreweave.cloud
username: gaben
password: hunter2
- share: vol02
server: fil01.tenant-orgname-namespace.coreweave.cloud
username: gaben
password: hunter2
By default, available drive letters are randomized and the first available one is selected per share.
Drive letters can be manually specified by adding, E.G:
Drive: ZCoreWeave Windows images support Parsec Teams. To enroll a Parsec Teams machine, add the following when deploying a VS:
cloudInit: |
ParsecTeams:
ComputerKey: key_generated_from_parsec_admin_panel
TeamId: parsec_team_id
# Use EITHER Group ID or EMail or User ID
GroupId: parsec_group_id
UserId: parsec_user_id
EMail: parsec_user_email
If a Parsec machine is assigned to an EMail that isn't part of the Team, the machine will be made available to them after they've been invited and accepted the invitation.
If none of
GroupId, UserId, or EMail is provided, the machine will be added to the Parsec Team unassigned.For more information on Parsec Teams and where to obtain your enrollment key, please visit Parsec's documentation.
When enrolling a Parsec Teams machine, Boolean values
Parsec: true and EDID: true will also need to be added to your manifest.All CoreWeave Windows images are pre-loaded with Chocolatey package manager. On non Server editions of Windows, WinGet is included as well.
Software specified via cloudInit will be installed automatically at initial user logon:
cloudInit: |
Choco_Install:
- googlechrome
- firefox
WinGet_Install:
- Discord.Discord
- Microsoft.VisualStudioCode
Windows images include scripts that can detect user activity (E.G, moving the mouse, keyboard inputs). When enabled, it can detect a specified period of no user input, and automatically shutdown. A prompt along with a 5 minute grace period when the timer threshold is reached. Adding the following will prompt the user after 10 minutes of no activity, and shutoff automatically after an additional 5 minutes if the prompt is not acknowledged:
cloudInit: |
shutoff_on_idle: 10
This feature should be combined with
RunStrategy: RerunOnFailure via vm.Spec to prevent the instance from automatically powering back on once shutoff.Additionally, boolean flag
Autologon should be set to true, as the idle tracker runs within the user context.The CoreWeave Cloud UI adds a Readiness Probe to Windows Virtual Servers, to better communicate when start-up procedures have completed. Windows images include a simple TCP listener on port
1337 to communicate with the Kubernetes API. The port Windows listens on can be changed via Cloud-Init:# Port used to evaluate Readiness
readinessProbePort: 1234
# If disableReadinessProbe is true, readiness probes will be disabled, enabled by default
disableReadinessProbe: false
cloudInit: |
readinessProbePort: 1234
Note
readinessProbePort must also be set in the YAML section of the Virtual Server deployment, outside of the cloudInit block.
Setting readinessProbePort in the cloudInit block to 0 will disable the listener in Windows.Certain applications in Windows, like Parsec, can disrupt idle an inactivity timers. This can mean that despite setting a lock screen or screensaver timer, they never engage when a Parsec session (or other application) is active.
This behavior can be overridden via cloudInit. For Parsec or Teradici, only the application name is required. For other applications, specify the executable name:
cloudInit: |
DisplayRequestsOverride:
- Parsec
- Teradici
- chrome.exe
Some Userdata features can be enabled with Boolean values
true or false.CoreWeave Cloud supports Teradici PCoIP on both Linux and Windows. Adding the following will install the graphics agent on initial logon, pointed to our licensing server:
cloudInit: |
Teradici: true
Teradici should not be combined with either Parsec or Virtual Display options below.
Many applications on Windows require a display connected to GPU in order to render on it. Adding the below value will attach a virtual 4k monitor to all available outputs, and disconnect the built-in VNC display:
cloudInit: |
EDID: true
When the Virtual Display is enabled, Windows will only output to the attached GPU, making the built-in VNC terminal inaccessible. Connecting via
virtctl vnc will result in one of the blank screens below:
For serial console access (Windows Special Admin Console), use
virtctl console instead.CoreWeave strongly recommends Parsec for remote access on Windows GPU instances. Adding the following will install Parsec on initial logon:
cloudInit: |
EDID: true
Parsec: true
Parsec requires the use of a Virtual Display, and thus must always be installed alongside
EDID: true.This flag configures the user account created for automatic logon.
cloudInit: |
Autologon: true
There are several modifications made to a vanilla Windows instance in order to optimize for use on CoreWeave Cloud. Depending on one's use case, these can be disabled or modified.
By default, when the root disk of a Windows image is expanded, Windows will automatically expand the root disk partition to use all of the available space. Additionally, any new block volumes mounted to a Windows instance will automatically be initialized and partitioned as GPT, and formatted as NTFS.
Via Windows Apps and Features, the default behavior can be modified:
Selecting "Modify" will prompt for an action to perform when it is detected that the root disk can be expanded. The default action of
ReSize will expand the root disk. NewPartition will create a new partition with the unallocated space, and automatically assign a drive letter. Entering no value will disable any automatic action.
Changing the default action to "NewPartition"
After selecting the desired re-size disk option, an additional prompt appears to set an action for newly detected RAW disks. Automatic formatting can be enabled or disabled with
true or false.
Disabling auto RAW disk format
Instance power-off based on interactive user input can be configured via cloudInit when an instance is initially deployed. Once an instance has already been deployed, this feature is also configurable via Windows Apps and Features:
Modifying will prompt for an integer value in minutes to configure auto-shutoff, or set to 0 to disable:
In order to ensure system stability and predictability, native Windows Update is disabled by default on CoreWeave instances. Instead, through custom scripts, updates are applied as follows:
- Windows Defender updates are applied daily at 3AM UTC, or as soon as possible if missed
- These are silent and do not require reboots
- On the second Wednesday of the month (one day after Patch Tuesday), at 3AM UTC, or as soon as possible if missed:
- PSWindowsUpdate module is updated
- On non-Server OS, WinGet is updated (if applicable)
- All Windows Updates are applied silently, without forcing reboot
- If there is a pending reboot and no user is logged in, the system is rebooted to finish applying patches
- If there is a pending reboot and a user logged in, the user is presented with a GUI prompt notifying them of pending system patches requiring a reboot
- Each day at 3AM UTC, the system is again checked for pending reboots. If there is a user logged in, they are notified and asked to reboot. If there is no user logged in, the system will be automatically rebooted.
There are no user configurable options for CoreWeave Windows Update. To revert to the default Windows Update behavior, simply uninstall from Windows Apps and Features:
When launching a new PowerShell session, users are presented with some helpful system stats:
To disable this functionality, simply delete the profile:
rm "$env:SystemRoot\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1" -Force -Verbose
Included in CoreWeave Windows Images is a PowerShell module that provides functions for useful tasks and automation; moreover, some of the Cloud-Init Userdata features rely on the CoreWeave PowerShell module.
The CoreWeave PowerShell Module is a system-wide module - as all Windows Images on CoreWeave Cloud use at minimum PowerShell version 5.1, the module will be automatically imported when any of its functions are called.
To manually import the CoreWeave Module:
Import-Module CoreWeave -WarningAction SilentlyContinue
This function matches and returns properties of the currently attached NVIDIA GPU. If there is not a valid driver installed and Windows cannot identify the attached GPU, the PCI ID will attempt to be matched instead. The output from this function is formatted for use in automating NVIDIA driver downloads.
Get-nVidiaDeviceDriverParameters
VERBOSE: After matching, GPU is NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, type is Quadro, series is Quadro RTX Series, product is Quadro
RTX 4000, OS is Windows Server 2022, Current driver is 516.25
Name Value
---- -----
ProductType Quadro
ProductSeries Quadro RTX Series
Product Quadro RTX 4000
OperatingSystem Windows Server 2022
RunningDriverVersion 516.25
This function automates downloading drivers from NVIDIA. This function has many parameters, each of which include argument completers:
Syntax
Download-nVidiaDisplayDriver [-ProductType] <string> [-ProductSeries] <string> [-Product] <string> [-OperatingSystem] <string> [-Language] <string> [[-DCH] <bool>] [[-RunningDriverVersion] <string>] [-Force ] [<CommonParameters>]
Argument Completers
The easiest way to use this function is to combine with Get-nVidiaDeviceDriverParameters. The returned output will be the location of the downloaded driver file:
PS C:\> $Parameters = Get-nVidiaDeviceDriverParameters
VERBOSE: After matching, GPU is NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, type is Quadro, series is Quadro RTX Series, product is Quadro RTX 4000, OS is Windows Server 2019
PS C:\> Download-nVidiaDisplayDriver @Parameters -Language 'English (US)'
VERBOSE: Target driver version is 516.25
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\1\516.25-nvidia-rtx-winserv-2016-2019-2022-64bit-international-dch-whql.exe
This function installs a downloaded NVIDIA driver file. If no path is provided, it will attempt to match and download the correct driver.
Setup will be ran directly and silently if it is detected that there is an attached NVIDIA GPU device. If no NVIDIA GPU device is detected, drivers will be manually added to the Windows Driver Store via
pnputil.Synopsis
Install-nVidiaDisplayDriver [[-DriverPath] <string>] [-CleanInstall] [-ForceInstall] [<CommonParameters>]
-ForceInstall will force the installation of the same or older driver version. -CleanInstall will wipe existing driver configurations.The easiest way to use this function is to run it directly, allowing auto-match of the attached NVIDIA GPU. If you're already running the latest driver, no action will be taken:
PS C:\> Install-nVidiaDisplayDriver
Transcript started, output file is C:\Logs\InstallnVidiaDisplayDriver.LOG
VERBOSE: After matching, GPU is NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000, type is Quadro, series is Quadro RTX Series, product is Quadro RTX 4000, OS is Windows Server 2022, Current driver is 516.25 VERBOSE: Target driver version is 516.25
VERBOSE: Target driver 516.25 is less than or equal to running driver 516.25 and Force flag was not passed, we're not
gonna download anything
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\Logs\InstallnVidiaDisplayDriver.LOG
0
In the event new drivers are installed, a reboot is required, but not enforced.
This function is called when
Autologon: true. The -Action parameter will either enable or disable automatic logon, with $true or $false respectively.Synopsis
Configure-AutoLogon [[-InputObject] <pscredential>] [-Action] <bool> [<CommonParameters>]
The easiest way to use this function is to combine with
Get-Credential:Configure-AutoLogon -Action:$true -InputObject (Get-Credential)
This function is called by the Parsec Teams Cloud-Init feature. If an instance was not enrolled at the time of deployment, enrollment can be completed silently using this function.
Synopsis
Enroll-ParsecTeamMachine [[-APIHost] <string>] [-ComputerKey] <string> [-TeamID] <string> [[-AppRuleID] <string>] [[-GuestAccess] <bool>] [[-UserID] <int>] [[-GroupID] <int>] [[-EMail] <string>] [[-BinPath] <string>] [<CommonParameters>]
Synopsis
Invoke-SilentMSI [-Action] <string> [[-MSI] <string>] [[-InstallerArgs] <string[]>] [<CommonParameters>]
PS C:\> Start-BitsTransfer -Source https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v7.2.4/PowerShell-7.2.4-win-x64.msi -Destination $env:TEMP
PS C:\> Invoke-SilentMSI -Action Install -MSI "$env:TEMP\PowerShell-7.2.4-win-x64.msi" -InstallerArgs @('ADD_FILE_CONTEXT_MENU_RUNPOWERSHELL=1','ADD_EXPLORER_CONTEXT_MENU_OPENPOWERSHELL=1','ENABLE_PSREMOTING=1','REGISTER_MANIFEST=1')
Transcript started, output file is C:\Logs\PowerShell7-x647.2.4.0.LOG
VERBOSE: Beginning installation of PowerShell 7-x64 7.2.4.0
VERBOSE: PowerShell 7-x64 7.2.4.0 has completed with exit code 0: ERROR_SUCCESS
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\Logs\PowerShell7-x647.2.4.0.LOG
0
A given MSI can also be uninstalled using the same function:
PS C:\> Invoke-SilentMSI -Action Remove -MSI "$env:TEMP\PowerShell-7.2.4-win-x64.msi"
Transcript started, output file is C:\Logs\PowerShell7-x647.2.4.0.LOG
VERBOSE: Beginning REMOVAL of PowerShell 7-x64 7.2.4.0
VERBOSE: PowerShell 7-x64 7.2.4.0 REMOVAL has completed with exit code 0: ERROR_SUCCESS
Transcript stopped, output file is C:\Logs\PowerShell7-x647.2.4.0.LOG
0
Last modified 7mo ago