# Setting up a Custom Instance on Microsoft Azure for Training (works with the ML-Agents toolkit v0.3)

This page contains instructions for setting up a custom Virtual Machine on Microsoft Azure so you can running ML-Agents training in the cloud.

1. Start by
   [deploying an Azure VM](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/linux/quick-create-portal)
   with Ubuntu Linux (tests were done with 16.04 LTS).  To use GPU support, use
   a N-Series VM.
2. SSH into your VM.
3. Start with the following commands to install the Nvidia driver:

   ```sh
   wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/tesla/375.66/nvidia-diag-driver-local-repo-ubuntu1604_375.66-1_amd64.deb

   sudo dpkg -i nvidia-diag-driver-local-repo-ubuntu1604_375.66-1_amd64.deb

   sudo apt-get update

   sudo apt-get install cuda-drivers

   sudo reboot
   ```

4. After a minute you should be able to reconnect to your VM and install the
   CUDA toolkit:

   ```sh
   wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1604/x86_64/cuda-repo-ubuntu1604_8.0.61-1_amd64.deb

   sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-ubuntu1604_8.0.61-1_amd64.deb

   sudo apt-get update

   sudo apt-get install cuda-8-0
   ```

5. You'll next need to download cuDNN from the Nvidia developer site.  This
   requires a registered account.

6. Navigate to [http://developer.nvidia.com](http://developer.nvidia.com) and
   create an account and verify it.

7. Download (to your own computer) cuDNN from [this url](https://developer.nvidia.com/compute/machine-learning/cudnn/secure/v6/prod/8.0_20170307/Ubuntu16_04_x64/libcudnn6_6.0.20-1+cuda8.0_amd64-deb).

8. Copy the deb package to your VM:

   ```sh
   scp libcudnn6_6.0.21-1+cuda8.0_amd64.deb <VMUserName>@<VMIPAddress>:libcudnn6_6.0.21-1+cuda8.0_amd64.deb
   ```

9. SSH back to your VM and execute the following:

   ```console
   sudo dpkg -i libcudnn6_6.0.21-1+cuda8.0_amd64.deb

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda/lib64/:/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
   . ~/.profile

   sudo reboot
   ```

10. After a minute, you should be able to SSH back into your VM.  After doing
    so, run the following:

    ```sh
    sudo apt install python-pip
    sudo apt install python3-pip
    ```

11. At this point, you need to install TensorFlow.  The version you install
    should be tied to if you are using GPU to train:

    ```sh
    pip3 install tensorflow-gpu==1.4.0 keras==2.0.6
    ```

    Or CPU to train:

    ```sh
    pip3 install tensorflow==1.4.0 keras==2.0.6
    ```

12. You'll then need to install additional dependencies:

    ```sh
    pip3 install pillow
    pip3 install numpy
    ```

13. You can now return to the
    [main Azure instruction page](Training-on-Microsoft-Azure.md).