Citrix Hypervisor 8.1

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 (aka XenServer)

I am very excited about this release because now Citrix is supporting the new AMD latest Rome CPU and support multiple NVIDIA vGPU and guest UEFI secure boot. The Citrix Hypervisor platform has been updated to use Xen hypervisor version 4.13. Lots of new features 🙂

What is new in Citrix Hypervisor 8.1

Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 provides the following new features and enhancements

Guest UEFI boot and Secure Boot
Multiple vGPU
Citrix Hypervisor – Performance improvements
Changes to guest operating system support
Changes to processor support
Citrix Hypervisor Conversion Manager console capabilities are now included in XenCenter
Update to Xen hypervisor
PVS accelerator optimised for Citrix Hypervisor 8.1

Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 is a Current Release (CR). The Current Release model allows customers to consume new features at the earliest possible juncture. A Current Release contrasts with the Long Term Service Release (XenServer 7.1 LTSR), which guarantees stability in terms of the feature set.

Citrix Hypervisor 8.1 is available in the following editions:

Premium Edition (previously Enterprise Edition)
Standard Edition
Express Edition (previously Free Edition)

NVIDIA vGPU Software 7.0

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100 with vGPU software 7.0

The brand “GRID” is now vGPU (Virtual GPU Software) software, in my previously articles I wrote GRID and now its branded vGPU.

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 for October 2018.

This release is a major release and include the fully support for VMware vSphere vMotion support for VMs that are configured with vGPU. Another major news is support for Multiple vGPU in a single VM and to a big surprise its supported with Nutanix AHV from 5.5 -> 5.9 + RHEL KVM 5.6-> 5.7. NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 now support Windows 10 (1803), Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6, CentOS 7.6, vGPU support for NVIDIA frame buffer capture metrics from the hypervisor and guest VMs and support for NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) containers, NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 supports NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 10 For more information about NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit, see CUDA Toolkit 10.0 Documentation. NVENC support for RDSH in Citrix Virtual Apps (aka XenApp).

The big advantage of Citrix XenMotion and VMware vMotion support for vGPU is customers can keep their servers healthy and run patches and upgrade environment easier without end user disruption or data loss. Customers can also run mixed workloads using same infrastructure by repurposing hosts that run VDI during the day to run HPC and other compute workloads at night. Please be aware in current release XenMotion and vMotion is only supported to move VM across host with same NVIDIA GPU type.

Important:

NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (aka XenDesktop) 7.15, 7.17, 7.18, 7 1808 in HDX 3D Pro mode
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 is no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 7.0
If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 its no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 7.0 and should plan upgrading to XenServer 7.5 or 7.6.
Customer using Citrix XenServer 7.2, 7.3 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.0 & 6.1
Customer using Citrix XenServer 7.4 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.0 & 6.1 & 6.2
Customers using Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1, 7.5, 7.6 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 7.0
Customers using Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1 isn’t supported with XenMotion with vGPU

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 410.68 for the Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM, Nutanix AHV
NVIDIA Windows driver version 411.81
NVIDIA Linux driver version 410.71

NVIDIA vGPU 6.3

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100 with vGPU 6.3

The brand “GRID” is now vGPU (Virtual GPU Software), in my previously articles I wrote GRID and now its branded vGPU.

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA vGPU 6.3 for October 2018.

NVIDIA vGPU 6.3 now support VMware Horizon 7.6 and Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 1808 (aka XenApp/XenDesktop) + Citrix Hypervisor (aka XenServer) 7.6

Important:

NVIDIA vGPU 6.3 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
NVIDIA vGPU 6.3 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (aka XenDesktop) 7.15, 7.17, 7.18, 7 1808 in HDX 3D Pro mode
If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 its no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.3 and should plan upgrading to XenServer 7.5 or 7.6.
Customers using Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.0
Customer using Citrix XenServer 7.2, 7.3 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.0 & 6.1
Customer using Citrix XenServer 7.4 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.0 & 6.1 & 6.2
Customers using Citrix XenServer 7.5 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 6.2

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 390.94 for the Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere
NVIDIA Windows driver version 392.05
NVIDIA Linux driver version 390.96

NVIDIA GRID 6.2

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100 with GRID 6.2

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA GRID 6.2 for July 2018.

This release is great as NVIDIA released a 4GB framebuffer for vPC licenses, so customers before couldn only run a framebuffer up to 2GB (in GRID 6.1) before GRID 6.0 max FB was 1GB. This is now this is increased to 4GB with the new -2B4 vGPU type that is available for all licenses. Another great thing for cutomers is support for latest Windows 10 1803 and support for VMware Horizon 7.5 and Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp 7.18 + Citrix XenServer 7.5

#Update October 2018 – Windows 10 1803 is not supported with GRID 6.2

Important:

If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2 or XenServer 7.3 its no longer supported with NVIDIA GRID 6.2 and should plan upgrading to XenServer 7.4 or 7.5.
Customers using Citrix XenServer 7.0 or 7.1 is supported with NVIDIA GRID 6.0
NVIDIA GRID 6.2 is only supported with Citrix XenDesktop 7.15, 7.17, 7.18 in HDX 3D Pro mode

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager version 390.72 for the Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere, Huawei UVP
NVIDIA Windows driver version 391.81
NVIDIA Linux driver version 390.75

NVIDIA GRID 6.0 released

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60 environment or start using the new TESLA P4, P6, P40, P100, V100 with GRID 6.0

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA GRID 6.0 for March 2018.

This release is great as NVIDIA released a 2GB framebuffer for vPC licenses, so customers before couldn only run a framebuffer up to 1GB and now this is increased to 2GB with the new -2B vGPU type that is available for all licenses. Another great thing for cutomers is support for latest Windows 10 fall creators upsdate 1709.

This release includes the following software:

NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager version 390.42 for the Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere, Huawei UVP
NVIDIA Windows driver version 391.09
NVIDIA Linux driver version 390.42