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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

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

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 1808 released

Citrix have released a new version of Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop 7 1808 is now available for download.

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

Citrix have also changed their release cycle to follow built version + YYMM (Year, Month) and is following Microsoft how they name their release built for Windows OS/Server, which I really like..

This release is the first release that officially supports the upcoming Microsoft Windows Server 2019, so you can test if your applications works. Citrix have always done a great job of having 0day support of next generation Windows Server OS.

Sharefile SSO support in Virtual Delivery Agent for ServerOS and Client OS, this is a HUGE step in SIMPLICITY and something customers are going to love. The ShareFile integration also gives you the open-in option in the workspace service UI.

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).

Another huge benefit for Citrix “XenApp” or “Virtual Apps” Customers is that Server OS VDA now supports NVIDIA NVENC video encoding. This technology is awesome and means that the CPU is no longer used for encoding HDX but Citrix can use NVENC to increase the UX and lower CPU usage and deliver higher FPS. Citrix Virtual Apps 7 1808 requires NVIDIA GRID version, which isn’t released yet to support NVENC.

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

New Product names
New Product versions
New Product editions
Director 1808
Virtual Delivery Agents 1808 for ServerOS and ClientOS
Virtual Delivery Agents 1808 for Desktop OS Core Services
Virtual Delivery Agent 1808 for Linux
Profile Management 1808
Provisioning 1808
Storefront 3.16
Session Recording 1808
Self-service Password Reset 1.1.20
App Layering 4.13
Citrix Hypervisor 7.6
Licensing 11.15.0.0 Build 25000
Workspace App 1808
Smart tools

Deprecation

Citrix SmartScale is now deprecated for current release.
Support for browser content redirection in Internet Explorer 11.
Citrix continues to maintain current support levels as described in XenApp and XenDesktop Servicing Options.

Display adapter priority and monitor creation in Citrix sessions

Citrix have created this very important knowledge article CTX237608 about GPUs in Citrix from release 7.16 and forward.

This article is valid for following Citrix products:

Citrix XenDesktop 7.16 using Microsoft Windows 10
Citrix XenDesktop 7.17 using Microsoft Windows 10
Citrix XenDesktop 7.18 using Microsoft Windows 10

(IDD) Indirect Display Driver model was introduced in Microsoft Windows 10 and Citrix is now using this technology.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/indirect-display-driver-model-overview

I experienced myself an issue with an AMD Radeon WX4100 GPU having a black screen or desktop “freezes” at login and by adding CitrixIDD registry key I got it working. Other GPUs may be impacted so please test. Please be aware that with implementing Citrix IDD you loose vendor specific (control panel) settings, because Citrix bypass the GPU vendor capture APIs and you will have less performance resulting in less FPS. But I have experience myself that performance works amazing with enabling CitrixIDD and it solved my issue with a black screen/desktop that froze.

Update 29 August 2018
Its recommended getting a native driver from the GPU vendor instead of using Citrix IDD to get the best performance the GPU vendors provide via their APi.

Below is relevant for Citrix customers

Connecting with HDX to machines provisioned manually or MCS or PVS to a virtual Microsoft Windows 10 with Citrix Client OS VDA 7.16 and above.
Connecting with HDX using Citrix RemotePC to a physically PC with Microsoft Windows 10 and Citrix Client OS VDA 7.16 and above.