> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/cvat-ai/cvat/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Self-Hosted Installation Overview

> Compare deployment options and understand the architecture of CVAT self-hosted installations

CVAT offers flexible deployment options to suit different infrastructure requirements, from local development to enterprise-scale production environments.

## Deployment Options

### Docker Compose

**Best for**: Small to medium teams, development, testing, and quick deployments

**Pros**:

* Simple setup with minimal configuration
* Easy to run on a single machine
* Quick deployment (5-10 minutes)
* Ideal for evaluation and proof-of-concept
* Lower resource requirements

**Cons**:

* Limited scalability
* No built-in high availability
* Manual scaling of components

**Requirements**:

* Docker Engine 20.10+
* Docker Compose 2.x
* 4GB RAM minimum (8GB recommended)
* 2 CPU cores minimum (4 recommended)
* 50GB disk space

[Learn more →](/self-hosted/installation/docker-compose)

### Kubernetes with Helm

**Best for**: Production environments, enterprise deployments, auto-scaling needs

**Pros**:

* Horizontal scaling and load balancing
* High availability and fault tolerance
* Resource management and optimization
* Rolling updates with zero downtime
* Cloud-native deployment

**Cons**:

* More complex setup and maintenance
* Requires Kubernetes expertise
* Higher infrastructure overhead

**Requirements**:

* Kubernetes 1.23+
* Helm 3.x
* kubectl configured
* Persistent storage provider
* Ingress controller (optional but recommended)

[Learn more →](/self-hosted/installation/kubernetes)

### AWS Deployment

**Best for**: Cloud deployments with GPU support for auto-annotation

**Pros**:

* Elastic infrastructure
* GPU instance support (P3 instances)
* Integration with AWS services (S3, RDS, EFS)
* Managed database options

**Cons**:

* Cloud costs
* AWS-specific configuration

[Learn more →](/self-hosted/installation/aws-deployment)

## Architecture Overview

CVAT's self-hosted architecture consists of several key components:

### Core Services

**CVAT Server** (`cvat/server`)

* Django-based API server
* Handles authentication, authorization, and business logic
* Runs on port 8080
* Manages task creation, annotation, and exports

**CVAT UI** (`cvat/ui`)

* React-based frontend application
* Serves the web interface on port 8000
* Provides annotation tools and project management UI

**Reverse Proxy** (Traefik)

* Routes traffic to appropriate services
* Handles SSL/TLS termination
* Load balancing and service discovery
* Default port: 8080 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS)

### Data Layer

**PostgreSQL** (postgres:15-alpine)

* Primary relational database
* Stores users, projects, tasks, and metadata
* Port: 5432

**Redis** (redis:7.2.11-alpine)

* In-memory cache for session management
* Job queue for background tasks
* Port: 6379

**Kvrocks** (apache/kvrocks:2.12.1)

* Redis-compatible on-disk storage
* Caches media chunks and temporary data
* Port: 6666

**ClickHouse** (clickhouse/clickhouse-server:23.11-alpine)

* Analytics and event logging
* Stores user actions and system events
* Port: 8123

### Worker Services

CVAT uses multiple worker processes to handle background tasks asynchronously:

* **cvat\_worker\_import**: Handles dataset and annotation imports (2 processes)
* **cvat\_worker\_export**: Processes annotation exports (2 processes)
* **cvat\_worker\_annotation**: Manages annotation operations (1 process)
* **cvat\_worker\_webhooks**: Sends webhook notifications (1 process)
* **cvat\_worker\_quality\_reports**: Generates quality analytics (1 process)
* **cvat\_worker\_chunks**: Processes video/image chunks (2 processes)
* **cvat\_worker\_consensus**: Handles consensus annotation calculations (1 process)
* **cvat\_worker\_utils**: Notifications and cleaning tasks (1 process)

### Analytics Stack

**Vector** (timberio/vector:0.26.0-alpine)

* Log aggregation and forwarding
* Sends events to ClickHouse
* Port: 8282

**Grafana** (grafana/grafana-oss:10.1.2)

* Analytics dashboard
* Visualizes user activity and system metrics
* Accessible at `/analytics`

### Security & Policy

**Open Policy Agent** (openpolicyagent/opa:1.12.2)

* Policy-based access control
* Dynamic permission evaluation
* Port: 8181

## Data Flow

1. **User Request**: Browser → Traefik → CVAT UI/Server
2. **Authentication**: Server → PostgreSQL (user validation)
3. **Session Management**: Server → Redis (session cache)
4. **Data Processing**: Server → Workers (background jobs)
5. **Media Storage**: Server → Shared volumes → Kvrocks cache
6. **Analytics**: Server → Vector → ClickHouse → Grafana
7. **Authorization**: Server → OPA → Decision

## Storage Requirements

### Docker Volumes

* **cvat\_db**: PostgreSQL data (\~1-5GB depending on usage)
* **cvat\_data**: Media files and datasets (varies greatly, plan for 100GB+)
* **cvat\_keys**: Authentication keys and secrets (\~1MB)
* **cvat\_logs**: Application logs (\~1-10GB)
* **cvat\_inmem\_db**: Redis persistence (\~100MB-1GB)
* **cvat\_cache\_db**: Kvrocks cache (10-50GB)
* **cvat\_events\_db**: ClickHouse analytics (\~5-20GB)

### Kubernetes Storage

* Backend PVC: 20Gi (default, configurable)
* Kvrocks PVC: 100Gi (default, configurable)
* PostgreSQL PVC: Based on Bitnami chart settings

## Network Ports

| Service         | Internal Port | External Port | Protocol |
| --------------- | ------------- | ------------- | -------- |
| Traefik         | 8080          | 8080          | HTTP     |
| Traefik (HTTPS) | 8443          | 443           | HTTPS    |
| CVAT Server     | 8080          | -             | HTTP     |
| CVAT UI         | 8000          | -             | HTTP     |
| PostgreSQL      | 5432          | -             | TCP      |
| Redis           | 6379          | -             | TCP      |
| Kvrocks         | 6666          | -             | TCP      |
| ClickHouse      | 8123          | -             | HTTP     |
| OPA             | 8181          | -             | HTTP     |
| Vector          | 8282          | -             | HTTP     |
| Grafana         | 3000          | -             | HTTP     |

## Environment Variables

Key environment variables for configuration:

* `CVAT_HOST`: Hostname for accessing CVAT (default: `localhost`)
* `CVAT_VERSION`: Docker image version (default: `dev`)
* `CVAT_POSTGRES_HOST`: PostgreSQL hostname
* `CVAT_REDIS_INMEM_HOST`: Redis hostname
* `CVAT_REDIS_ONDISK_HOST`: Kvrocks hostname
* `ALLOWED_HOSTS`: Django allowed hosts
* `CVAT_ANALYTICS`: Enable analytics (0 or 1)
* `CVAT_BASE_URL`: Base URL for the application

## Next Steps

Choose your deployment method:

* [Docker Compose Installation →](/self-hosted/installation/docker-compose)
* [Kubernetes with Helm →](/self-hosted/installation/kubernetes)
* [AWS Deployment →](/self-hosted/installation/aws-deployment)