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
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.
Mozilla Firefox 40.x Blocks GPU Acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite with Citrix XenApp on Windows 2008R2/2012/2012R2
One of the great things about adding a GPU in a Citrix XenApp environment is that you can allow rich graphics and offload CPU and run your DirectX, OpenGL applications on a XenApp server. In latest version of Mozilla Firefox WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite this have been disabled, so you can’t open webpages that uses these graphics in a Citrix XenApp session.
Symptoms or Error
If you open Mozilla Firefox 40.x and try to open a webGL website like http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water
this will not load anymore cause WebGL is default now disabled in Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox 40.x blocks GPU acceleration for WebGL, Direct2D, DirectWrite in remote sessions on Windows Server operating systems.
To determine what content Firefox is blocking, run Firefox in your XenApp remote session and enter the address about:support into the browser address bar. In the section labelled “Graphics” you will see the following content disabled (as of Firefox version 40.0.3):
Direct2D Enabled Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
DirectWrite Enabled false (6.3.9600.17999)
WebGL Renderer Blocked for your graphics card because of unresolved driver issues.
Solution
The text “Blocked for your graphics card” is misleading as, in this case, it is not the specific graphics card but general Windows Server operating system remote sessions that are blocked. Mozilla’s published advice on how to override the graphics driver blocks also applies to XenApp sessions on workstation operating system (see bottom of this Mozilla Wiki – Blocklisting/Blocked Graphics Drivers).
Enable WebGL in Mozilla Firefox
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting webgl.force-enabled=true will enable WebGL for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Now you can open the WebGL demo and the graphics will work
Enable DirectDraw2D
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting gfx.direct2d.force-enabled=true will enable WebGL for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Enable DirectDraw2D
In Mozilla Firefox entering the address about:config into the address bar and setting gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled=true will enable DirectWrite for XenApp on operating system (Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2)
You can double click on it and then it will become enabled. (with the value=true) and this is user set.
These settings can be change with a policy or with profile management such as RES Workspace Manager or others.
Users should be aware and note the caveats and warnings that Mozilla advises if taking this route to above settings for DirectWrite, Direct2D, WebGL
This issue only affects server operating system (example – Win 2012 R2 and Win 2008 R2) and XenApp.
How to force-enable blocked graphics features
If you would like to forcibly enable a graphics feature that is blocked on your system, follow these instructions. Warning: do this at your own risk. There usually are good reasons why features are blocked.
To force-enable WebGL, go to about:config and set webgl.force-enabled=true.
To force-enable WebGL anti-aliasing, go to about:config and set webgl.msaa-force=true.
To force-enable Layers Acceleration, go to about:config and set layers.acceleration.force-enabled=true.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, to force-enable Direct2D Content Acceleration, go to about:config and set gfx.direct2d.force-enabled=true.
On Android, to force-enable StageFright software decoding, go to about:config and set stagefright.force-enabled=true.
On Windows, you can also spoof your graphics system information to help debug driver blacklisting issues (see bug 604771):
Create spoofed-firefox.bat in the installation folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox)
Set the new values of spoofed variables ending with a command to launch Firefox:
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_WINDOWS_VERSION=60001
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_VENDOR_ID=0x8086
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DEVICE_ID=0x0046
SET MOZ_GFX_SPOOF_DRIVER_VERSION=8.15.10.2302
“C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe” -p -no-remote
Double-click spoofed-firefox.bat and create a profile if required
Click the Firefox button, then select Help, finally Troubleshooting Information and check the Graphics section.
If force-enabling a feature doesn’t work, that probably means that your hardware doesn’t support it. For example, layers acceleration currently requires support for 4Kx4K textures, which rules out some graphics cards, like the Intel G31/G33.
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.
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
