Running self-hosted E2B on one local machine #504

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1. Daanish2003

   added

   wayfinder:research

   on Oct 17, 2026
2. Daanish2003

   added a parent issue on Oct 17, 2026

   • Wayfinder: Bot step 5, The Computer #416
3. Daanish2003

   marked this as blocking on Oct 17, 2026

   • Stand up self-hosted E2B locally #505
4. Daanish2003

   self-assigned this

   on Oct 17, 2026
5. Daanish2003 commented on Oct 17, 2026

   

   Daanish2003

   on Oct 17, 2026

   OwnerAuthor

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   Resolution: research findings (facts only, no pick)

   Full write-up, each claim cited, ending in a 20-step draft checklist for #505: docs/research/always-on-agent/e2b-local-self-host.md

   The repo e2b-dev/infra is now e2b-dev/runtime. Its single-machine package is E2B Embed.

   Install paths

   • Docker Compose: the only local path. Two files (compose.yaml, .env) and docker compose up -d --wait. It preflights the host, prepares it, seeds a key and builds base. About 2 min on 8 vCPU / 32 GiB.
   • Terraform (GCP, AWS, Azure) makes one cloud VM. Kubernetes needs one node of a cluster.
   • From source (DEV-LOCAL.md) is for developing E2B itself and is marked "work in progress".

   Host requirements (Compose)

   • Linux x86-64 (tested) or arm64, 4 KiB pages, Ubuntu 24.04 recommended, kernel 6.8+, glibc 2.34+, cgroup v2.
   • /dev/kvm, /dev/net/tun, nbd module; iptables rsync e2fsprogs iproute2.
   • Docker Engine 27+, Compose 2.24+. Privileged, host-PID, host-network containers; the orchestrator runs on the host through nsenter -t 1.
   • 12 GiB RAM recommended (4 GiB is hugepages, about 8 full or 20 idle sandboxes). 20 GiB free disk on /.
   • Plain HTTP, no TLS, no DNS needed. SDK needs ports 3000 and 3002; dashboard 3001. Port 5008 is an unauthenticated control API; keep it private.

   WSL2

   • E2B's DEV-LOCAL.md still says "WSL2: KVM is not supported". Open PR docs(local-dev): document kernel, iptables and userfaultfd prerequisites e2b-dev/runtime#3660 says /dev/kvm works on Windows 11 and the real blocker was the 6.6 WSL kernel.
   • WSL 3.0.3 (stable, 2026-10-09) ships kernel 6.18.54.1. Its config has KVM, NBD, TUN, userfaultfd write-protect and hugetlbfs. So the kernel blocker is gone on current WSL.
   • nestedVirtualization defaults to true on Windows 11. WSL memory defaults to 50% of Windows RAM; set memory= in .wslconfig.
   • Live regression: nestedVirtualization silently disabled: HCS ProcessorCapabilities query fails with 0x8007000D on 26100.9711 (Oct 2026 CU), WSL swallows error microsoft/WSL#41917. The October 2026 update KB5127648 (build .9711) silently turns off nested virtualization on AMD CPUs, so no /dev/kvm. Uninstalling the KB fixed it for reporters. Closed 2026-10-16 with no fix note.
   • No one has reported Embed working or failing on WSL2.

   Templates

   • Template.build(tpl, alias=..., cpu_count=..., memory_mb=...) through the same API, then Sandbox.create(alias). The build runs in a sandbox; no Docker daemon. copy() steps upload through port 5008. Tested SDK line: e2b@2.46.1.

   SDK auth

   • The seed makes one team key per install (e2b_ + 32+ hex). docker compose exec ready cat /run/e2b/sdk.env gives E2B_API_KEY, E2B_API_URL=http://localhost:3000, E2B_SANDBOX_URL=http://localhost:3002. The JS SDK reads those env vars; E2B_DOMAIN is not needed. get_host() returns *.e2b.app, which does not resolve; use E2b-Sandbox-Id / E2b-Sandbox-Port headers on 3002.

   Not verified

   • Any end-to-end Embed run on WSL2.
   • Docker Desktop as the Docker host (the nsenter -t 1 design suggests Docker Engine inside Ubuntu instead).
   • kvm_intel/kvm_amd autoload in WSL; 2048 hugepages in WSL; WSL idle shutdown and memory reclaim effects.
   • Whether the KB5127648 fix has shipped; the owner's CPU vendor, RAM and update level.
   • Port 5432 collision with the owner's other Postgres.
   • Desktop/VNC template on self-host.
6. Daanish2003

   closed this as completedon Oct 17, 2026