NVIDIA GRID 4.2 released (367.92/369.95)

nvidiagrid

Hi All

Its time to update your NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M10, M6, M60 environment.

NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA GRID 4.2 for March 2017.

New in this Release:

  • NVIDIA GRID 4.2 has multiple fixes that improve memory management and NVFBC optimizations that ensure that surface allocations in the Frame Buffer are managed more efficiently to increase stability. The latest release includes frame buffer residency optimizations. Now, during high-memory pressure situations where there is a lack of or high competition for frame buffer, users remain resident-in.
  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Support for Citrix XenServer 7.1
  • Support for the following Linux guest OS versions:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3
    • CentOS 7.3
    • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Important notes – Note: XenServer 7.1 is the last XenServer release supported on GRID K1 and K2. Citrix XenServer 6.2 is no longer supported.

Whats new in vGPU 367.92-369.95

NVIDIA have released a new version of vGPU 367.92-369.95 for NVIDIA GRID  (K1, K2, Tesla M6, M10 and M60 platform)

Included in this release is

  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager versions 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 6.5 SP1
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager versions 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 7
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager versions 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 7.1
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager version 367.92 for VMware vSphere 6.0 Hypervisor (ESXi)
  • NVIDIA GRID Virtual GPU Manager version 367.92 for VMware vSphere 6.5 Hypervisor (ESXi)
  • NVIDIA Windows drivers for vGPU version 369.95
  • NVIDIA Linux drivers for vGPU version 367.92.

Important:

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

Windows Guest OS support in vGPU 369.95

GRID vGPU 369.95 supports following Windows release as a guest OS

  • Microsoft Windowss 7 (32/64bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 8 (32/64bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 10 (32/64bit)
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Linux Guest OS support in vGPU 367.92

GRID vGPU 367.92 supports following Linux distributions as a guest OS only on supported Tesla GPUs
Import: GRID K1/K2 do not support vGPU on Linux guest os.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0-7.3
  • CentOS 7.0-7.3
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Guide – Update existing vGPU GRID Manager (Hypervisor)

GRID vGPU Manager 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 6.5

If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with one of below methodology:

Methodology 1 – the manual way “No GUI”

Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 6.5, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M10 / M6 / M60
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...

The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.

[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot

Methodology 2 – the “GUI” way

Select Install Update… from the Tools menu
 Click Next after going through the instructions on the Before You Start section
 Click Add on the Select Update section and open NVIDIA’s XenServer Supplemental Pack ISO

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-6.5-367.92.x86_64.iso ”

If you have NVIDIA GRID M10/ M6/M60 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-6.5-352.83.x86_64.iso ”

Click Next on the Select Update section
 In the Select Servers section select all the XenServer hosts on which the Supplemental Pack should be installed on and click Next
 Click Next on the Upload section once the Supplemental Pack has been uploaded to all the XenServer hosts
Getting Started
 Click Next on the Prechecks section
 Click Install Update on the Update Mode section
 Click Finish on the Install Update section

After the XenServer platform has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

Validate from putty or XenCenter CLI

run lsmod | grep nvidia

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 367.92, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

GRID vGPU Manager 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 7

If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with one of below methodology:

Methodology 1 – the manual way “No GUI”

Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 7, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-7.0-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M10 / M6 / M60
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.0-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...

The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.

[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot

Methodology 2 – the “GUI” way

Select Install Update… from the Tools menu
 Click Next after going through the instructions on the Before You Start section
 Click Add on the Select Update section and open NVIDIA’s XenServer Supplemental Pack ISO

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-7.0-367.92.x86_64.iso ”

If you have NVIDIA GRID M10/ M6/M60 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.0-352.83.x86_64.iso ”

Click Next on the Select Update section
 In the Select Servers section select all the XenServer hosts on which the Supplemental Pack should be installed on and click Next
 Click Next on the Upload section once the Supplemental Pack has been uploaded to all the XenServer hosts
Getting Started
 Click Next on the Prechecks section
 Click Install Update on the Update Mode section
 Click Finish on the Install Update section

After the XenServer platform has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

Validate from putty or XenCenter CLI

run lsmod | grep nvidia

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 367.92, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

GRID vGPU Manager 367.92 for Citrix XenServer 7.1

If you have a NVIDIA GRID K1, K2, M6, M60 vGPU GRID manager installed in Citrix XenServer. Upgrade with one of below methodology:

Methodology 1 – the manual way “No GUI”

Upgrading an existing installation of the NVIDIA driver on Citrix XenServer 7.1, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-7.1-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M10 / M6 / M60
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.1-367.92.x86_64.rpm 
Preparing packages for installation...

The recommendation from NVIDIA is to shutdown all VMs using a GPU. The machine does continue to work during the update, but since you need to reboot the XenServer itself, it’s better to gracefully shutdown the VMs. So after your VMs have been shutdown and you upgraded the NVIDIA driver, you can reboot your host.

[root@localhost ~]# xe host-disable
[root@localhost ~]# xe host-reboot

Methodology 2 – the “GUI” way

Select Install Update… from the Tools menu
 Click Next after going through the instructions on the Before You Start section
 Click Add on the Select Update section and open NVIDIA’s XenServer Supplemental Pack ISO

If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-xenserver-7.1-367.92.x86_64.iso ”

If you have NVIDIA GRID M10/ M6/M60 select following file:

“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.1-352.83.x86_64.iso ”

Click Next on the Select Update section
 In the Select Servers section select all the XenServer hosts on which the Supplemental Pack should be installed on and click Next
 Click Next on the Upload section once the Supplemental Pack has been uploaded to all the XenServer hosts
Getting Started
 Click Next on the Prechecks section
 Click Install Update on the Update Mode section
 Click Finish on the Install Update section

After the XenServer platform has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

Validate from putty or XenCenter CLI

run lsmod | grep nvidia

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 367.92, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

GRID vGPU Manager 367.92 for VMware vSphere 6.0

To update the NVIDIA GPU VIB, you must uninstall the currently installed VIB and install the new VIB.

To uninstall the currently installed VIB:

  1. Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
  2. Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
  3. Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
  4. Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
  5. Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
  6. Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
  7. Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
  8. Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_367.92-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M10 / M6 / M60 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_367.92-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585.vib

After the ESXi host has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

[root@lesxi ~]# vmkload_mod -l | grep nvidia 
Preparing packages for installation...

Validate

run nvidia-smi

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 367.92, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

GRID vGPU Manager 367.92 for VMware vSphere 6.5

To update the NVIDIA GPU VIB, you must uninstall the currently installed VIB and install the new VIB.

To uninstall the currently installed VIB:

  1. Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
  2. Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
  3. Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
  4. Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
  5. Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
  6. Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
  7. Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
  8. Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA GRID K1 / K2 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-VMware_ESXi_6.5_Host_Driver_367.92-1OEM.650.0.0.2494585.vib
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M10 / M6 / M60 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~] esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.5_Host_Driver_367.92-1OEM.650.0.0.2494585.vib

After the ESXi host has rebooted, verify that the GRID package installed and loaded correctly by checking for the NVIDIA kernel driver in the list of kernel loaded modules.

[root@lesxi ~]# vmkload_mod -l | grep nvidia 
Preparing packages for installation...

Validate

run nvidia-smi

Verify that the NVIDIA kernel driver can successfully communicate with the GRID physical GPUs in your system by running the nvidia-smi command, which should produce a listing of the GPUs in your platform:

Check driver version is 367.92, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.

Update existing vGPU Driver (Virtual Machine)

When the hypervisor vGPU GRID manager is updated next is updating the Virtual Machines vGPU driver.

  • 369.95_grid_win8_win7_32bit_international.exe
  • 369.95_grid_win8_win7_server2012R2_server2008R2_64bit_international.exe
  • 369.95_grid_win10_32bit_international.exe
  • 369.95_grid_win10_server2016_64bit_international.exe
  • NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-367.92-grid.run (only available with M10/M6/M60)

The vGPU driver for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 is available with NVIDIA GRID vGPU download. This is available for both K1/K2/M10/M6/M60

The vGPU driver for Linux is only available for vGPU with following Tesla GPU M10/M6/M60

Update your Golden Images and reprovisioning the new virtual machines with updated vGPU drivers, if you have stateless machines update vGPU drivers on each.

#HINT – Express upgrade of drivers is the recommended option according to the setup. If you use the “Custom” option, you will have the option to do a “clean” installation. The downside of the “clean installation” is that it will remove all profiles and custom settings. The pro of using the clean installation option is that it will reinstall the complete driver, meaning that there will be no old driver files left on the system. I most of the time recommends using a “Clean” installation to keep it vanilla 🙂

#HINT (Citrix XenDesktop 7.6-7.11 customers)

The NVIDIA GRID API provides direct access to the frame buffer of the GPU, providing the fastest possible frame rate for a smooth and interactive user experience. If you install NVIDIA drivers before you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, NVIDIA GRID is enabled by default.

To enable NVIDIA GRID on a VM, disable Microsoft Basic Display Adapter from the Device Manager. Run the following command and then restart the VDA: Montereyenable.exe -enable -noreset

If you install NVIDIA drivers after you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, NVIDIA GRID is disabled. Enable NVIDIA GRID by using the Montereyenable tool provided by NVIDIA.

To disable NVIDIA GRID, run the following command and then restart the VDA: Montereyenable.exe -disable -noreset

#HINT (Citrix XenDesktop 7.12/7.13 customers)

The NVIDIA GRID API provides direct access to the frame buffer of the GPU, providing the fastest possible frame rate for a smooth and interactive user experience. If you install NVIDIA drivers before you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, NVIDIA GRID is enabled by default.

To enable NVIDIA GRID on a VM, disable Microsoft Basic Display Adapter from the Device Manager. Run the following command and then restart the VDA: NVFBCEnable.exe -enable -noreset

If you install NVIDIA drivers after you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, NVIDIA GRID is disabled. Enable NVIDIA GRID by using the NVFBCEnable tool provided by NVIDIA.

To disable NVIDIA GRID, run the following command and then restart the VDA: NVFBCEnable.exe -disable -noreset

Source

GRID K1/K2 – sources

Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 6.5 for GRID K1 / K2 here

Download vGPU 352.83-354.80 for XenServer 7.0 for GRID K1 / K2 here

Download vGPU 367.92-369.95 for XenServer 7.1 for GRID K1 / K2 here

Download vGPU 367.92-369.95 for vSphere 6 for GRID K1 / K2 here

Download vGPU 367.92-369.95 for vSphere 6.5 for GRID K1 / K2 here

Tesla M10/M6/M60 – sources

vGPU Grid Manager + Drivers are only available to customers and NVIDIA NPN partners for M10/M6/M60.

Download if you are a NPN partner

Download if you are a GRID M10, M6, M60 customer

vGPU 367.92-369.95 for XenServer 6.5 for Tesla M10 / M6 / M60

vGPU 367.92-369.95 for XenServer 7 for Tesla M10 / M6 / M60

vGPU 367.92-369.95 for XenServer 7.1 for Tesla M10 / M6 / M60

vGPU 367.92-396.95 for vSphere 6 for Tesla M10 / M6 / M60

vGPU 367.92-396.95 for vSphere 6.5 for Tesla M10 / M6 / M60

Other Sources

NVIDIA blog – https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2017/03/10/nvidia-grid-march-2017/

Comments (2)

  • Note that on XenServer 7.1, installing VDA 7.13 also works to enable vGPUs running XenDesktop 7.11 even using the newer “NvFBCEnable.exe -enable -noreset” command. Tested with an M60 using various profiles.

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