HPE m710x & Citrix – Next generation engineer workstation
Google Chrome 45.x Blocks GPU Acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite with Citrix XenApp on Windows 2008R2/2012/2012R2
Solution: Google Chrome 45.x Blocks GPU Acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite with Citrix XenApp on Windows 2008R2/2012/2012R2
Google Chrome v. 45 have changed their behaviour of their web browser, so they are blacklisting GPUs, which means hardware acceleration is disabled by default in a Remote session this behaviour is seen in Microsoft RDS with RemoteFX, Citrix XenApp 6.5 -> 7.6 with vGPU/GPU pass-through. Behaviour is also seen on Linux environments with Google Chrome.
Issue highlightet in a Citrix XenApp 7.6 (2008R2/2012/2012R2) with GPU
Open Google Chrome and type in chrome://gpu and then you will see if your RDS/XenApp with a GPU is working or not.
With Google Chrome v 45 the default behaviour is now that Google choose to disabling the GPU.
Google Chrome experience with a GPU (Citrix XenDesktop vs Citrix XenApp)
above picture confirms the GPU is not enabled in Google Chrome with RDS/XenApp
interesting is that Multiple Raster Threads in Win7 with a GPU is disable… why lets find out.
This is properly because you haven’t configured the CPU correctly in the hypervisor for the virtual machine.
* hint I did on purpose so you can understand it can be complex to troubleshoot if you don’t configure your environment correctly.
best practices with HDX 3D Pro is 4 vCPU and in XenServer 6.5 you configure it 2:2
Then Multiple Raster Threads works in Win7 after you changed the configuration of the CPU on the Win7 vm.
below picture confirms the GPU is not enabled in Google Chrome with RDS/XenApp in Server 2012R2
Now we have validated that the GPU is blacklisted in RDS/XA with a GPU, lets see if we can fix this.
Performance with a WebGL web app in Google Chrome
CPU is very high when the Google Chrome is running the WebGL application. This is because its using the CPU to do software rasterize of the GPU and this makes your user able to run a webgl application without a GPU, but wait. We actually have a GPU in our RDS/XA server now, why is this not offloading the CPU, thats because Google desided to turn off GPU and blacklist them.
Solution
- Edit Google Chrome link and after the chrome.exe add
–ignore-gpu-blacklist
- Open Google Chrome and run chrome://gpu in the browser
- Check if Hardware acceleration is now working for all functions in Google Chrome
GPU hardware acceleration is now working in RDS/XA with a GPU in Google Chrome and CPU is now offloaded to the GPU as you can see in the below picture.
NVIDIA GRID 2.0
NVIDIA GRID 2.0
NVIDIA have released the next generation of GRID 2.0. GRID 2.0 is based on the Maxwell architecture and the GRID 1.0 (K1/K2) was based on the Kepler architecture. I have been working with the GRID 1.0 technology since 2012 and it have matured alot in its 2 years of history. When the K1/K2 was released they was first working with GPU pass-through and then vGPU got introduced and you could virtualize the GPUs and increase density, which people wanted. Citrix was with their hypervisor the first company that supported NVIDIA GRID 1.0 and they was also the first company integrating vGPU into their Citrix Studio, so companies could easier provisioning machines with either MCS technology or PVS technology. VMware supported GRID 1.0 vGPU technology in 2015 in their hypervisor VMware vSphere 6.0 and fully integrated with their EUC stack VMware View, so companies can fully provisioning machines. The great thing about GRID 2.0 is that there is no need for a conversation when to choose either a K1 or a K2, if you required GPU compute or GPU framebuffer, M60 are being added to the tope end of the range and bringing 2x the performance, and if you have bladeserver’s, you can add the powerfull vGPU technology into the bladeserver’s with the M6.
Please notice that M6 will 0nly be supporting newer architecture of vendors not old platforms.
Maxwell architecture
Maxwell architecture is the new architecture of GPUs and a powerful GPU you might know is the Titan X
New GPUs GRID 2.0 and specifications
In GRID 2.0 NVIDIA now have a GPU for blade servers a MXM single socket, High-end GPU called M6
In GRID 2.0 NVIDIA replaces K1/K2 with the new PCIe 3.0 Dual Socket, Dual High-end GPU called M60
The M60 delivers 4096 CUDA or compute and 16GB GDDR5 memory/framebuffer
The M60 has 6x the h.264 encoders of the K2, and also Maxwell supports 4:4:4 chroma sub sampling, which is great news for encoders.
Certified GRID 2.0 servers
Click the link to see which servers are certified for M60 and M6
http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-certified-servers.html
M6 have following servers supported:
M60 have following servers supported:
vGPU software editions and license
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 software is available in three editions that deliver accelerated virtual desktops to support the needs of your users. These editions include Virtual PC, Virtual Workstation, and Virtual Workstation Extended. GRID perpetual licenses are sold by Concurrent User (CCU).
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 (CCU) stands for ConCurrent User. So basically, per running VM as regardless of whether the user is connected to the VM or not, the VM is connected to the GPU and so consumes a license
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 software is much more than a “driver”. While the software package does include a guest driver for Windows and Linux, it also includes the NVIDIA GRID vGPU manager for VMware vSphere and Citrix XenServer, as well as the license server and M6/M60 mode switching utility.
NVIDIA Tesla M6 and M60 profiles are specific to the M6 and M60. There will be similar profiles as to what NVIDIA had on K1 and K2 (512 MB through 4 GB), all with twice the number of users on M6/ M60 compared to K1/K2. Plus, there is an additional 8 GB profile on M6/M60 which also adds support for CUDA, which wasn’t available on K1/K2.
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 is Maxwell only. If you are an existing customer K1/K2 are unchanged and will remain as a parallel option.
The NVIDIA GRID 2.0 solution
Summary
GA of NVIDIA GRID 2.0 (M60 and M6) will be 15 September 2015.
To get NVIDIA GRID 2.0 if you are a Citrix customer you need:
Server hardware that supports NVIDIA GRID 2.0 +NVIDIA GPU M60 or M6 + NVIDIA vGPU Software license + Citrix XenDesktop or XenApp License (XenServer is included in XD/XA licenses)
To get NVIDIA GRID 2.0 if you are a VMware customer you need:
Server hardware that supports NVIDIA GRID 2.0 +NVIDIA GPU M60 or M6 + NVIDIA vGPU Software license + VMware Horizon license (Horizon includes vSphere for Desktop)
If you are a Citrix customer that wants to run on VMware vSphere you need:
Server hardware that supports NVIDIA GRID 2.0 + NVIDIA GPU M60 or M6 + NVIDIA vGPU Software license + Citrix XenDesktop or XenApp License + VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus license or vSphere for Desktop license
Source
NVIDIA GRID YouTube Channel
NVIDIA GRID on LinkedIn
Follow NVIDIAGRID on Twitter
Citrix License FAQ regarding vGPU
Vmware License FAQ regarding vGPU
NVIDIA GRID vGPU 346.68-348.27
NVIDIA GRID vGPU 346.68-348.27
NVIDIA have released a new GRID Virtual GPU Manager 346.68 for Citrix XenServer 6.5 and VMware vSphere 6.
NVIDIA have in this release also released Windows drivers for vGPU 348.27
Important:
The GRID Virtual GPU Manager 346.68 is not updated in this release, its only the Windows drivers for vGPU 348.27
If you have GRID Virtual GPU Manager 346.68 installed in either XenServer or VMware you only need to update your VMs.
The GRID vGPU Manager and Windows guest VM drivers must be installed together.
Older VM drivers will not function correctly with this release of GRID vGPU Manager. Similarly, older GRID vGPU Managers will not function correctly with this release of Windows guest drivers.
What is fixed in Windows driver for vGPU 348.27 VM using Citrix XenServer 6.5
What is fixed in Windows drivers for vGPU 348.27 VM using VMware vSphere 6
Source
Download NVIDIA GRID vGPU 346.68-348.27 for Citrix XenServer 6.5 here
Download NVIDIA GRID vGPU 346.68-348.27 for VMware vSphere 6 here
Best of NVIDIA GTC 2015
NVIDIA GTC 2015
Hi All
After a succesfull NVIDIA GTC (gpu technology conference) in San Jose, March 2015. It was amazing all the brain gathered in one place, at NVIDIA GTC 2015, I had so many great conversations with friends, partners and there was one sentence I thought through “try to imagine what could you do for the world if we tried to build 1 thing with all this brain power in joined forces” . NVIDIA is doing amazing things and this year it was all about “Deep Learning” and “NVIDIA GRID”. Google was part of the keynote and it was very interesting seeing how far AI is evolving, Elon Musk the guy behind Tesla, Space-X was also on stage.
NVIDIA GRID was big this year and all the vendors, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Cisco, Supermicro, Citrix, Vmware and such was there. There was tonz of success stories and best practices. So amazing to learn all the best on GPU enabled application/desktop using either Citrix or VMware, this is the conference to learn from people that are early adapters, the best of the best. If you feel missed out come next year and you understand what I mean. This conference is very different compared to other conferences. This is here it all happens, all industries meet and make a fusion across GPU’s. If you missed this year GTC, I highly recommend you go to the next year GTC which takes place in April 4-8th, 2016 in Silicon Valley
I have captured some of the best moments
Great meeting Lakeside Software and seeing they had the “print” of the case study I did with Magnar Johnsen we did for Firstpoint client AIBEL.
I meet for the first time the CEO and founder of NVIDIA Jen-Hsun Huang, he is a very inspiring person.
Another great friend was Fred Devoir from Textron “the man in the middle” and another great friend and fellow CTP, Dane Young.
Fred Devoir had two sessions at GTC, I highly recommend you watch them both.
If you attended and could see all the sessions or you couldn’t join GTC, now all 500 sessions are available for the public. #AMAZING, thank you NVIDIA for this.
I have in this blogpost made it easy to find all the great sessions about NVIDIA GRID
Learn the best of the best about NVIDIA GRID implementations:
If you want to Watch the session I did at NVIDIA GTC click here
Click the sessions with the “blue” link and the recorded session will start.
Citrix sessions
Gunnar Berger, CTO from Citrix
S5872 – Worlds Collide: What Happens When VDI Meets GPU?
Derek Thorslund, Director of Product Management, HDX, Citrix Systems
Mayunk Jain, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, Citrix Systems
S5390 – Citrix HDX 3D Virtualization: Six Years of Remoting 3D Apps
Roland Wartenberg Director Global SAP Alliance, Citrix
David Cruickshank Sr. Director, Strategy and Operations, SAP Co-Innovation Lab, SAP Labs
S5377 – Running SAP 3D Visual Enterprise Using Citrix and NVIDIA – What about Performance?
Erik Bohnhorst, SR. GRID Solution Architect from NVIDIA
Ronald Grass, SR. Systems Engineer from Citrix
S5393 – Evolution of an NVIDIA GRID™ Deployment
Citrix customer success stories:
Success story – Ford Motor Company
Chip Charnley, Technical Expert from Ford Motor Company
S5206 – So You Want to Deploy High Resolution Graphics Desktop Virtualization
Success story – Roger Williams University
George Thornton, VP of Engineering from Logical Front
Jim Galib IT Director from Roger Williams University
Ryan Tiebout, System Operations Manager from Rogers Williams University
S5225 – University’s Desktop Virtualization Delivers Graphics-Intense Apps on Any Device
Success story – Duke University
G Allan Johnson Charles E Putman Professor of Radiology,Physics, and Engineering from Duke University
S5558 – Publishing Medical Image Studies with NVIDIA GRID™
Success story – Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering
Florian Becker Sr. Director, Strategic Alliances, Lakeside Software
Didier Contis Director Technology Services, Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering
Success story – Textron
Fred Devoir Sr. Architect, Textron Inc.
Randall Siggers Solutions Architect, Textron Inc.
Success story – The Kanavel Group
Garrett Taylor CIO, The Kanavel Group
S5620 – Implementing NVIDIA GRID with XenDesktop: A Technical Deep Dive
VMware sessions
Mark Margevicius Director, EUC Strategy, VMWare
Banit Agrawal Senior Performance Engineer, VMware
Luke Wignall GRID Performance Engineering Manager, NVIDIA
Lan Vu Performance Engineer, VMware
S5385 – Benchmarking 3D workloads at scale on NVIDIA GRID with Horizon View 6 using View Planner
Jeff Weiss NVIDIA GRID SA Manager, NVIDIA
Luke Wignall GRID Performance Engineering Manager, NVIDIA
S5405 – VMware Horizon 6 and NVIDIA vGPU: Installation and Configuration Best Practices
VMware customer success stories
Success story – Jacobs Engineering
Jeff Weiss NVIDIA GRID SA Manager, NVIDIA
Randall Siggers Solutions Architect, Textron Inc.
Ali Rizvi PLM Support Analyst, Bell Helicopter
S5345 – VMware Horizon 6 View with NVIDIA GRID: A Practical Discussion of a Real-World Deployment
Success story – USC Information Sciences Institute
John Paul Walters Project Leader, USC Information Sciences Institute
S5323 – Achieving Near-Native GPU Performance in the Cloud
Download PDF of presentation
Success story – HDR Inc
Clint Pearson IT Infrastructure Systems Lead, HDR, Inc.
Jeremy Korell IT Infrastructure Systems Lead, HDR, Inc.
S5414 – GPU-Enabled VDI and Rendering at Architecture and Engineering Firm HDR
Vendors (HP, Cisco, Lakeside Software)
System Integrators of NVIDIA GRID
System Integrators success stories of NVIDIA GRID
Success story – Poppelgaard.com
Thomas Poppelgaard, Technology Evangelist from Poppelgaard.com
S5445 – Building the Best User Experience with Citrix XenApp & NVIDIA® GRID™
Success story – PQR
Jits Langedijk, Senior Consultant from PQR
Success story – IMSCAD
Adam Jull CEO, IMSCAD
S5219 – Delivering Production Deployments Using Virtualization and NVIDIA GRID™
Success story – Wipro
Michael Harwood Citrix Architect, Wipro Limited
S5283 – Remote Visualization in Healthcare
Panel discussions
Aivars Apsite, Technology Strategist, Metro Health
Cedric Courteix, Partner Alliance Architect, VMware
Clint Pearson, IT Systems Lead, HDR Inc.
John Meza, Performance Engineering Team Lead, Esri
S5542 – Scaling Out Virtual GPU with NVIDIA GRID and VMware Horizon
NVIDIA sessions about Citrix & VMware
Jason Southern Senior Solution Architect, NVIDIA
Manvender Rawat GRID Applied Engineer, NVIDIA
Jason K Lee GRID Applied Engineer, NVIDIA
S5560 – Scalability Testing for Virtualized GPU Environments