NVIDIA vGPU Software 12

It’s time to plan updating your NVIDIA Enterprise GPUs. NVIDIA vGPU Software 12 is now GA.

NVIDIA vGPU software includes vWS, vCS, vPC, and vApps.

If you got any of followin NVIDIA GPU’s: M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000, A100, A40, RTXA6000.

If you are interested in a quick overview of which NVIDIA enterprise GPU is supporting which hypervisor, Guest os and remoting technology, I highly recommend you check out this link from NVIDIA that provides the NVIDIA vGPU software product support matrix.

NVIDIA vGPU software 12 is supported until January 2022.

NVIDIA vGPU software 12 is a new-feature branch support. If you are looking for Long-Term support branch latest release is 11.x or 8.x

I this article, I am also covering which Public Cloud instance is available with NVIDIA GPUs and which license is BYO or provided by the public cloud provider such as Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA vGPU Certified Servers.

Important note for EUC (Citrix/VMware customers):

  • NVIDIA vGPU 12.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 2006 (8.0), 7.13, 7.12, 7.11, 7.10, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0
  • NVIDIA vGPU 12.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (LTSR) 7.15, 7 1912, (CR) 7 2006, 7 2012

This release includes the following software:

  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 460.32.04 for following hypervisors. (Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM)
  • NVIDIA Windows driver version 461.09
  • NVIDIA Linux driver version 460.32.03

New Features in Release 12.0

  • Support for NVIDIA® GPU Operator
  • Support for NVIDIA®NVSwitch™ on-chip memory fabric
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 12.0

  • Support for the following GPUs:
    • NVIDIA A100 HGX 80GB
    • NVIDIA A40
    • NVIDIA RTX A6000
  • Support for Windows 10 October 2020 Update (20H2) as a guest OS
  • Support for Red Hat CoreOS 4.7 as a guest OS
  • Support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2

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NVIDIA vGPU Software v 10.0

Hi All

Its time to plan updating your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000 with NVIDIA vGPU software 10.0. NVIDIA have released new drivers for vGPU 10.0.

I have in this article also included which Public Cloud instance is available with NVIDIA GPUs and which license is BYO or provided by the public cloud provider such as Alibaba, Azure, AWS, GCP, Alibaba.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA vGPU Certified Servers.

Important:

  • Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1 is not supported with NVIDIA Tesla T4
  • NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.11, 7.10, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
  • NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops 7.15, 7 1808, 7 1903, 7 1906, 7 1909, 7 1912 in HDX 3D Pro mode
  • If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 its no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 10.0 and should plan upgrading to Citrix Hypervisor 8.1

This release includes the following software:

  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 440.43 for the Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM, Nutanix AHV
  • NVIDIA Windows driver version 441.66
  • NVIDIA Linux driver version 440.43

New Features in Release 10.0

  • Support for NVIDIA® GRID™ Virtual PC and GRID Virtual Applications on Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
  • Increase in the maximum number of virtual display heads supported by -1Q, -2B, and -1B4 vGPUs:
    • All -1Q vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
    • All -2B vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
    • All -1B4 vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 1 head.
  • Flexible virtual display resolutions

    Instead of a fixed maximum resolution per head, vGPUs now support a maximum combined resolution based on their frame buffer size. This behavior allows the same number of lower resolution displays to be used as before, but alternatively allows a smaller number of higher resolution displays to be used.

  • Virtual display resolutions greater than 4096×2160
  • 10-bit color
  • Changes to allow cross-branch driver support in future main release branches
    Note: This feature cannot be used until the next NVIDIA vGPU software main release branch is available.

    The purpose of this change is to allow a release of the Virtual GPU Manager from a later main release branch to be used with the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for the guest VMs from the previous branch.

  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 10.0

  • Support for passively cooled Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
  • Support for Tesla V100S PCIe 32GB GPUs
  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 as a guest OS
  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 and CentOS 8.0 as a guest OS
  • Support for Windows 10 November 2019 Update (1909) as a guest OS
  • Support for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops version 7 1912
  • Support for Citrix Hypervisor 8.1
  • Support for VMware Horizon 7.11

Features Deprecated in Release 10.0

The following table lists features that are deprecated in this release of NVIDIA vGPU software. Although the features remain available in this release, they might be withdrawn in a future release. In preparation for the possible removal of these features, use the preferred alternative listed in the table.

Deprecated Feature Preferred Alternative
-1B4 vGPU types -1B vGPU types
-2B4 vGPU types -2B vGPU types

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NVIDIA vGPU Software v 8.0

Hi All

Its time to plan updating your NVIDIA TESLA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000 with NVIDIA vGPU software 8.0

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA vGPU 8.0 for April 2019

NVIDIA vGPU 8.0 is a MAJOR release with many new software features + support for the new RTX6000 and RTX8000 GPUs, which are NVIDIA flagship for Real Time Raytracing. The great thing is now they have vGPU capabilities, which is a BIG NEWS.

I have in this article also included which Public Cloud instance is available with NVIDIA GPUs and which license is BYO or provided by the public cloud provider such as Azure, AWS, GCP.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA GRID Certified Servers.

Important:

  • Citrix XenServer 7.5 is not supported with vGPU 8.0
  • Citrix XenServer 7.0, 7.1 is not supported with NVIDIA Tesla T4
  • NVIDIA vGPU 8.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
  • NVIDIA vGPU 8.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (aka XenDesktop) 7.15, 7.17, 7.18, 7 1808, 7 1903 in HDX 3D Pro mode
  • VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5 is no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 8.0
  • If you are a customer using XenServer 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 its no longer supported with NVIDIA vGPU 8.0 and should plan upgrading to XenServer 7.6 or upcoming Citrix Hypervisor 8.0
  • 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 7.0, 7.1, 7.6 is supported with NVIDIA vGPU 8.0
  • 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 418.66 for the Citrix XenServer, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM, Nutanix AHV
  • NVIDIA Windows driver version 425.31
  • NVIDIA Linux driver version 418.70

New in this Release:

  • Support for the following GPUs:
    • Quadro RTX 6000
    • Quadro RTX 8000
  • Support for the following OS releases as a guest OS:
    • Windows 10 October 2018 Update (1809)
    • Windows Server 2019
  • Support for Windows Server 2019 with Hyper-V role
  • New -1B4 virtual GPU types (4K resolution/1monitor on 1GB FB)
  • Support for multiple vGPUs of the following types in a single VM:
    • RTX6000-24Q
    • RTX8000-48Q
    • Above is valid for hypervisor
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM
      • Red Hat Virtualization RHV 4.2
  • vGPU migration with ESX & XenMotion support on the following GPUs: 
    • Tesla M6
    • Tesla V100 SXM2
    • Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB
    • Tesla V100 PCIe
    • Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB
    • Tesla V100 FHHL
    • Quadro RTX 6000
    • Quadro RTX 8000
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Security updates

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Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktop 7 1903 released

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 1903 which is now available for download.

Citrix Virtual Apps (former name: XenApp) Citrix Virtual Desktop (former name: XenDesktop)

Microsoft Windows Server 2019 & Windows 10 1809 is supported with this release.

Another great thing is that now “infrastructure components for Citrix” can be installed on Microsoft Windows ServerCore, which means a minimum OS and only install what is required, no GUI just raw performance, something which a lot of service providers, customers are going to like. This is important for scalability and automation and having best TCO running a Citrix infrastructure. Citrix director & delivery controller now works and is supported on ServerCore (WS2012r2/WS2016/WS2019).

Citrix raises the bar of for user experience and new product release of following technologies:

  • Director 1903
  • Virtual Delivery Agents 1903 for ServerOS and ClientOS
  • Virtual Delivery Agents 1903 for Desktop OS Core Services
  • Virtual Delivery Agent 1903 for Linux
  • Provisioning 1903
  • Storefront 1903
  • Session Recording 1903
  • App Layering 1903
  • Workspace App 1903 for Windows
  • Workspace App 1903 for Mac
  • Workspace App 1903 for Linux
  • Workspace App 1903 for Chrome
  • Workspace App 1903.1 for Android
  • Workspace App 1903 for iOS
  • Workspace App 1903 for Windows Store

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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

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