I created an ec2 instance in aws to install prefect and followed the installation process, and then wen to the host guide to initialize the service with prefect server start, but prefect command is not found, which means is not installed, I installed docker and sqlite, python3 is already installed by default, but I installed pip. What's the problem, am I doing something grown ?

Did you follow some tutorial or guide? If so, please share the steps. Alternatively, perhaps you installed prefect in a virtual environment? If so, then prefect must be run via that same venv. i.e.

/path/to/my/venv/bin/prefect agent start

I followed the installation guide from the official site and I tried it at my local and with an ec2 instance, when I try to start the service doesn't recognize prefect as a command

Could you please a provide link to the official docs you've followed? 🤔

It’s probably just not in your path

sure, here is the link https://docs.prefect.io/2.10.18/getting-started/installation/ and also screenshots from the documentation and my ec2 instance

It doesn’t look like it’s installed

would this be the path you talking about?

I don't know about AWS Ubuntu image, but one from official docker hub (

:22.04

) installs prefect just fine out of the box 🤷 spin up the container

docker run --rm -it --name prefect-ubuntu ubuntu:22.04

install

apt update
apt install python3 python3-pip
pip install -U prefect

prefect is in path

# which prefect
/usr/local/bin/prefect

Yes , prefect was installed to .local/bin for that user . You can call the full path as it’s shown there, or update your path to include that directory , or move it

If you are fine with it installed under Ubuntu user like that, then you can run it with

$ ~/.local/bin/prefect version

🤷

I think is kind of better to built my own docker image just following the steps @jpuris posted, is that right @Christopher Boyd, or would it be better to use an instance?

Please don't take my example running Ubuntu in container 😄 I only did it to try to reproduce EC2 environment. There is a prefect docker image you can use. Take a look at https://hub.docker.com/r/prefecthq/prefect

To add - it’s up to you . To me this is just a simple $PATH issue , nothing is broken

in fact its a POC, I tried to run the docker image but didn't understand if ot was ok just by

docker run -d -p 4200:4200 prefecthq/prefect

I'm not sure.. We rely entirely on prefect cloud for the server. Tho, if I am not mistaken, it by default runs local sqlite db and if you want to use a proper db, one would need to point it to a running postgresql db cluster edit: RDS would be a viable option in production setup. For POC you can roll your own local postgres or container, if you want to externalise the db

If you installed (or used an image) it comes with SQLite as jpuris mentioned. You can point to a Postgres instance if you want , following the prefect server docs - sizing and config is up to you

well this is nice, now a new issue arise jajaja

That’s an unfortunate bug on start, it should be fine

ok

Personally , I hear this question a lot - I can direct you to our product advocates who can give a much better description of value than I can but I’ll say that for the money , Cloud is a very good proposition . You absolutely can roll your own , but you’ll need to consider: Support Maintainability Uptime Patching Database maintenance Cost of both the infra to setup and run that The development / time cost to set it up and configure it

image.png

I think what we tend to see is some users setting up a dev environment with prefect server just to test and dev , but then prefect cloud for work

besides maintainability, support and stress free is there any limitation between the hosted version vs cloud? Are they the same but obviously cloud would be hassle free or they have different features?

They’d be able to help answer and demonstrate better but yes there are some differences here - https://docs.prefect.io/2.10.18/host/#differences-between-a-prefect-server-and-prefect-cloud

thanks man, you rock, don't forget to mention @jpuris for his contribution and advice