NVIDIA vGPU Software v 9.0
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 9.0
NVIDIA have released new drivers for NVIDIA vGPU 9.0 for June 2019 This new-feature branch is supported until June 2020.
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. One of the news is that Alibaba is supporting vGPU in their offerings which is pretty awesome.
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 9.0 is supported with VMware Horizon 7.9 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, 6.2
- NVIDIA vGPU 9.0 is only supported with Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops 7.15, 7.18, 7 1903, 7 1906 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 9.0 and should plan upgrading to XenServer 7.6 or Citrix Hypervisor 8.0
This release includes the following software:
- NVIDIA vGPU Manager version 430.27 for the Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, RHEL KVM, Nutanix AHV
- NVIDIA Windows driver version 431.02
- NVIDIA Linux driver version 430.30
New in this Release:
-
New Features in Release 9.0
- NVIDIA vComputeServer vGPUs for artificial intelligence, deep learning, and high-performance computing workloads
- Error correcting code (ECC) memory support
- Page retirement support
- Peer-to-peer CUDA transfers over NVLinksupport
- Configurable times slices for equal share schedulers and fixed share schedulers
- New configuration parameter to specify host ID of a licensed client
Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 9.0
- Support for Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) as a guest OS
- Support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as a guest OS on Citrix Hypervisor 7.1 cumulative update 2
- Support for the Tesla T4 GPU on Nutanix AHV
- Support for VMware Horizon 7.9
Supported NVIDIA GPUs with vGPU 9.0
- Tesla M6
- Tesla M10
- Tesla M60
- Tesla P4
- Tesla P6
- Tesla P40
- Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB
- Tesla P100 SXM2 16 GB
- Tesla P100 PCIe 12GB
- Tesla V100 SXM2
- Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB
- Tesla V100 PCIe
- Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB
- Tesla V100 32GB
- Tesla V100 FHHL
- Tesla T4
- RTX 6000
- RTX 8000
Supported Hypervisors with NVIDIA vGPU 9.0
- Citrix XenServer Citrix XenServer 7.0,7.1, 7.6, 8.0 (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000)
- VMware vSphere VMware vSphere 6.7 (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) VMware vSphere 6.5 (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) Vmware vSphere 6.0 update3, update 2, update 1, RTM b2494585 (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000)
- Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 (1607, 1709, 1803) Microsoft Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V role (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) note: Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V role supports GPU pass-through over Microsoft Virtual PCI bus. This bus is supported through paravirtualized drivers.
- Microsoft Server 2019 with Hyper-V role Microsoft Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V role (supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) note: Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V role supports GPU pass-through over Microsoft Virtual PCI bus. This bus is supported through paravirtualized drivers.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 7.5, 7.6, 8.0 (vGPU supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 7.2, 7.3,7.4 (Passthrough only supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000) Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 7.0, 7.1 (supported with Tesla M6,M10,M60) Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 (vGPU supported with Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100,T4,RTX5000,RTX8000)
- Nutanix AHV Nutanix AOS Hypervisor (AHV) 5.5, 5.6, 5.8,5.9,5.10
- (supported with Tesla M10, M60, P40, V100, T4) #ECC memory is not supported with T4 and AHV
Supported Cloud Services for vGPU
NVIDIA virtual GPU software is supported on several cloud services with bring your own license (BYOL) licensing and licensing provided by the cloud service.
- Alibaba Cloud
- Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (AWS EC2)
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Microsoft Azure
Alibaba Cloud
NVIDIA vGPU Support
| GPU | Supported Alibaba Cloud ECS Instances | Supported Guest Operating Systems | NVIDIA Licensing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla P4 | ecs.vgn5i-m1.large ecs.vgn5i-m2.xlarge ecs.vgn5i-m4.2xlarge ecs.vgn5i-m8.4xlarge | Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 CentOS 7.x (64-bit) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4/12 SP2 (64-bit) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64-bit) | BYOL |
GPU Pass Through Support
| GPU | Supported Alibaba Cloud ECS Instances | Supported Guest Operating Systems | NVIDIA Licensing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla P4 | ecs.gn5i-c2g1.large ecs.gn5i-c4g1.xlarge ecs.gn5i-c8g1.2xlarge ecs.gn5i-c16g1.4xlarge ecs.gn5i-c16g1.8xlarge ecs.gn5i-c28g1.14xlarge | Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 CentOS 7.x (64-bit) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4/7.5 (64-bit) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4/12 SP2 (64-bit) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64-bit) | BYOL |
| Tesla P100 | ecs.gn5-c4g1.xlarge ecs.gn5-c8g1.2xlarge ecs.gn5-c4g1.2xlarge ecs.gn5-c8g1.4xlarge ecs.gn5-c28g1.7xlarge ecs.gn5-c8g1.8xlarge ecs.gn5-c28g1.14xlarge ecs.gn5-c8g1.14xlarge | ||
| Tesla T4 | ecs.gn6i-c4g1.xlarge ecs.gn6i-c8g1.2xlarge ecs.gn6i-c16g1.4xlarge ecs.gn6i-c24g1.6xlarge ecs.gn6i-c24g1.12xlarge ecs.gn6i-c24g1.24xlarge ecs.gn6i-c32g1.8xlarge ecs.gn6i-c48g1.12xlarge ecs.gn6i-c72g1.18xlarge | ||
| Tesla V100 | ecs.gn6v-c8g1.2xlarge ecs.gn6v-c8g1.8xlarge ecs.gn6v-c8g1.16xlarge |
Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (AWS EC2)
| GPU | Supported AWS EC2 Instances | Supported Guest Operating Systems | NVIDIA Licensing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla M60 | g3.4xlarge g3.8xlarge g3.16xlarge g3s.xlarge | Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64-bit) | Provided by AWS |
| Tesla M60 | g3.4xlarge g3.8xlarge g3.16xlarge g3s.xlarge | Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) Ubuntu 14.04 LTS/16.04 LTS/18.04 LTS (64-bit) | BYOL |
| Tesla V100 | P3.2xlarge P3.8xlarge P3.16xlarge |
Related AWS EC2 Documentation
Linux Accelerated Computing Instances Windows Accelerated Computing Instances
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
| GPU | Supported GCP Instances | Supported Guest Operating Systems | NVIDIA Licensing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla P4 | Any predefined machine type Any custom machine type that can be created in a zone | Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS/18.04 LTS (64-bit) | Provided by GCP |
| Tesla P100 | |||
| Tesla T4 | |||
| Tesla P4 | Any predefined machine type Any custom machine type that can be created in a zone | Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS/18.04 LTS (64-bit) | BYOL |
| Tesla P100 | |||
| Tesla T4 | |||
| Tesla V100 |
Related GCP Documentation
NVIDIA and Google Cloud Platform GPUs on Compute Engine
Microsoft Azure
Only GPU pass through is supported on Microsoft Azure.
GPU Pass Through Support
| GPU | Supported Microsoft Azure VM Sizes | Supported Guest Operating Systems | NVIDIA Licensing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla M60 | NV6 NV12 NV24 NV6s_v2 NV12s_v2 NV24s_v2 | Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (64-bit) | Provided by Microsoft Azure |
| Tesla M60 | NV6 NV12 NV24 NV6s_v2 NV12s_v2 NV24s_v2 | Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 1607, 1709 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows 10 Microsoft Windows 8.1 Microsoft Windows 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x (64-bit) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS/18.04 LTS (64-bit) | BYOL |
| Tesla P40 | ND6s ND12s ND24s | ||
| Tesla P100 | NC6s_v2 NC12s_v2 NC24s_v2 | ||
| Tesla V100 | NC6s_v3 NC12s_v3 NC24s_v3 |
Related Microsoft Azure Documentation
GPU optimized virtual machine sizes NVIDIA GPU Driver Extension for Windows NVIDIA GPU Driver Extension for Linux Install NVIDIA GPU drivers on N-series VMs running Windows Install NVIDIA GPU drivers on N-series VMs running Linux
Related NVIDIA Knowledge Base Articles
Known issue: Microsoft Azure Linux image fails to acquire an NVIDIA virtual GPU software license
Supported Hypervisor with migration of vGPU across hypervisors
- XenMotion with vGPU is supported with Citrix XenServer 7.6
- vMotion with vGPU is supported with VMware vSphere 6.7 CU2
Supported VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) releases:
- Release 6.7 U2 and compatible updates support vMotion with vGPU and suspend-resume with vGPU.
- Release 6.7 supports only suspend-resume with vGPU.
- Releases earlier than 6.7 do not support any form of vGPU migration.
Supported guest OS releases: Windows and Linux
This release of NVIDIA vGPU software provides support for the following NVIDIA GPUs on Citrix XenServer, running on validated server hardware platform
- Tesla M6
- Tesla M10
- Tesla M60
- Tesla P4
- Tesla P6
- Tesla P40
- Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla P100 SXM2 16 GB (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla P100 PCIe 12GB (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla V100 SXM2 (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla V100 PCIe (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla V100 FHHL (XenMotion with vGPU is not supported.)
- Tesla T4
- RTX6000
- RTX8000
Quadro Virtual Workstation on Microsoft Azure
Supported Microsoft Azure VM Sizes
This release of Quadro Virtual Workstation is supported with the Microsoft Azure VM sizes listed in the table. Each VM size is configured with a specific number of NVIDIA GPUs in GPU pass through mode.
NCv2 Series VM Sizes
| VM Size | NVIDIA GPU | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| NC6 v2 | Tesla P100 | 1 |
| NC12 v2 | Tesla P100 | 2 |
| NC24 v2 | Tesla P100 | 4 |
NCv3 Series VM Sizes
| VM Size | NVIDIA GPU | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| NC6 v3 | Tesla V100 | 1 |
| NC12 v3 | Tesla V100 | 2 |
| NC24 v3 | Tesla V100 | 4 |
ND Series VM Sizes
| VM Size | NVIDIA GPU | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| ND6 | Tesla P40 | 1 |
| ND12 | Tesla P40 | 2 |
| ND24 | Tesla P40 | 4 |
Note: If an attempt is made to use Quadro Virtual Workstation with an unsupported VM size, a warning is displayed at console login time that the VM size is unsupported.
Guest OS Support
Quadro Virtual Workstation is available on Microsoft Azure images preconfigured with a choice of 64-bit Windows releases and Linux distributions as a guest OS.
Windows Guest OS Support
Quadro Virtual Workstation is available on Microsoft Azure VMs preconfigured only with following 64-bit Windows releases as a guest OS:
Note:
If a specific release, even an update release, is not listed, it’s not supported.
- Windows 7
- Windows 10
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
Linux Guest OS Support
Quadro Virtual Workstation is available on Microsoft Azure VMs preconfigured only with the following Linux releases as a guest OS:
Note:
If a specific release, even an update release, is not listed, it’s not supported.
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
What is MULTI-vGPU
Supported Hypervisor with Multiple vGPU support
Following Hypervisors is supported with assigning multiple vGPU to a single VM:
- Nutanix AHV 5.5, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10.1, 5.10.4
- RHEL KVM 7.5, 7.6, 8.0
- RHV 4.2, 4.3
The assignment of more than one vGPU device to a VM is supported only on a subset of vGPUs and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM releases and Nutanix AHV releases.
Supported vGPUs profile with (Multiple vGPU support functionality)
Only Q-series vGPUs that are allocated all of the physical GPU’s frame buffer are supported.
| GPU Architecture | Board | vGPU |
|---|---|---|
| Volta | V100 SXM2 32GB | V100DX-32Q |
| V100 PCIe 32GB | V100D-32Q | |
| V100 SXM2 | V100X-16Q | |
| V100 PCIe | V100-16Q | |
| V100 FHHL | V100L-16Q | |
| Pascal | P100 SXM2 | P100X-16Q |
| P100 PCIe 16GB | P100-16Q | |
| P100 PCIe 12GB | P100C-12Q | |
| P40 | P40-24Q | |
| P6 | P6-8Q | |
| P4 | P4-8Q | |
| Maxwell | M60 | M60-8Q |
| M10 | M10-8Q | |
| M6 | M6-8Q | |
| Turing | T4 | T4-16Q |
| Turing | RTX6000 | RTX6000-24Q |
| Turin | RTX8000 | RTX8000-48Q |
Maximum vGPUs per VM
NVIDIA vGPU software supports up to a maximum of four vGPUs per VM on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.
Whats new in NVIDIA vGPU 9.0- 430.27-431.02-430.30
NVIDIA have released a new version of GRID 9.0 – 430.27-431.02-430.30 for NVIDIA vGPU (Tesla M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100,V100,T4,RTX6000,RTX8000 platform)
Included in this release is
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager versions 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 7.0
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager versions 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 7.1
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager versions 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 7.6
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager versions 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 8.0
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for VMware vSphere 6.0 Hypervisor (ESXi)
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for VMware vSphere 6.5 Hypervisor (ESXi)
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for VMware vSphere 6.7 Hypervisor (ESXi)
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for Nutanix AHV 5.5, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10.1
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.5, 7.6, 8.0
- NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager version 430.27 for Red Hat Virtualization RHV 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
- NVIDIA Windows drivers for vGPU version 431.02
- NVIDIA Linux drivers for vGPU version 430.30
Important:
The vGPU Manager and Windows guest VM drivers must be installed together. Older VM drivers will not function correctly with this release of vGPU Manager. Similarly, older vGPU Managers will not function correctly with this release of Windows guest drivers
Windows Guest OS support in NVIDIA vGPU 9.0 – 431.02
NVIDIA vGPU 431.02 supports following Windows release as a guest OS
- Microsoft Windows 7 (64bit)
- Microsoft Windows 8 (64bit)
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64bit)
- Microsoft Windows 10 (64bit) (1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709, 1803, 1809)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (1607, 1709)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Linux Guest OS support in NVIDIA vGPU 9.0 – 430.30
NVIDIA vGPU 430.30 supports following Linux distributions as a guest OS only on supported Tesla GPUs
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0-7.6
- CentOS 7.0-7.6
- Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Important driver notes to NVIDIA vGPU 9.0
In pass-through mode, GPUs based on the Pascal architecture support only 64-bit guest operating systems. No 32-bit guest operating systems are supported in pass-through mode for these GPUs.
- ESXi 6.0 Update 3 is required for pass-through mode on GPUs based on the Pascal architecture.
- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are not supported in pass-through mode on GPUs based on the Pascal architecture.
- Only Tesla M6 is supported as the primary display device in a bare-metal deployment.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 7.0 and 7.1 are supported only on Tesla M6, Tesla M10, and Tesla M60 GPUs.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM supports Windows guest operating systems only under specific Red Hat subscription programs. For details, see Certified guest operating systems for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.
- Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, 32-bit Windows 10, and 32-bit Windows 8.1 are supported only on Tesla M6, Tesla M10, and Tesla M60 GPUs.
Guide – Update existing NVIDIA vGPU Manager (Hypervisor)
Citrix Hypervisor (aka XenServer)
NVIDIA vGPU Manager 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 7.0 & 7.1
If you have a NVIDIA M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100 vGPU 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 vGPU driver on Citrix XenServer 7, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:
If you have NVIDIA TESLA M6 / M10 / M60 / P4 / P6 / P40 / P100 / V100 / T4/RTX6000/RTX8000
[root@localhost ~]
# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.0-430.27.x86_64.rpm (#if you have for XenServer 7)
[root@localhost ~]
# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.1-430.27.x86_64.rpm (#if you have for XenServer 7.1)
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 M6/M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000 select following file:
“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.0-430.27.x86_64.iso ” (#if you have XenServer 7)
“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.1-430.27x86_64.iso ” (#if you have XenServer 7.1)
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 vGPU 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 vGPU 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 418.66, if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
NVIDIA vGPU Manager 430.27 for Citrix XenServer 7.6 or Citrix Hypervisor 8.0
If you have a NVIDIA vGPU M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, T4, RTX6000,RTX8000 vGPU 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 7.6, use the rpm -U command to upgrade:
If you have NVIDIA TESLA M6/M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000
[root@localhost ~]
# rpm -Uv NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.6-430.27x86_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 M6/ M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000 select following file:
“NVIDIA-vGPU-xenserver-7.6-430.27.x86_64.iso ” if XenServer 7.6
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 430.27 if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
GRID vGPU Manager 430.27 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:
- Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
- Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
- Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
- Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
- Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
- Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
- Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
- Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M6 / M10 / M60 / P4 / P6 / P40 / P100 / v100 / T4 / RTX6000 / RTX8000 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~]
esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_430.27-1OEM.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 430.27 if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
GRID vGPU Manager 430.27 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:
- Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
- Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
- Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
- Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
- Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
- Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
- Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
- Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA GRID TESLA M6 / M10 / M60 / P4 / P6 / P40 / P100 / v100 / T4 / RTX6000 / RTX8000 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~]
esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.5_Host_Driver_430.27-1OEM.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 430.27 if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
GRID vGPU Manager 430.27 for VMware vSphere 6.7
To update the NVIDIA GPU VIB, you must uninstall the currently installed VIB and install the new VIB.
To uninstall the currently installed VIB:
- Stop all virtual machines using 3D acceleration.
- Place the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
- Open a command prompt on the ESXi host.
- Stop the xorg service by running the command:/etc/init.d/xorg stop
- Remove the NVIDIA VMkernel driver by running the command:vmkload_mod -u nvidia
- Identify the NVIDIA VIB name by running this command:esxcli software vib list | grep NVIDIA
- Remove the VIB by running the command:esxcli software vib remove -n nameofNVIDIAVIBYou can now install a new NVIDIA GPU VIB
- Use the esxcli command to install the vGPU Manager package:
If you have NVIDIA TESLA M6 / M10 / M60 / P4 / P6 / P40 / P100 / v100 / T4 / RTX6000 / RTX8000 select following file:
[root@lesxi ~]
esxcli software vib install -v /NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.7_Host_Driver_430.27-1OEM.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 NVIDIA 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 430.27 if it is then your host is ready for GPU awesomeness and make your VM rock.
Update existing NVIDIA vGPU Driver for (Virtual Machine)
When the hypervisor NVIDIA vGPU manager is updated, next is updating the Virtual Machines vGPU driver.
- 431.02_grid_win8_win7_32bit_international.exe
- 431.02_grid_win8_win7_server2012R2_64bit_international.exe
- 431.02_grid_win10_server2016_64bit_international.exe
- NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.30-grid.run
The vGPU driver for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 is available with NVIDIA vGPU download. This is available for both M6/M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000
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 Virtual Apps & Desktop 7.15/1903/1906 customers)
The NVIDIA vGPU 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 vGPU is enabled by default.
To enable NVIDIA vGPU 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 vGPU is disabled. Enable NVIDIA vGPU by using the NVFBCEnable tool provided by NVIDIA.
To disable NVIDIA vGPU, run the following command and then restart the VDA: NVFBCEnable.exe -disable -noreset
Source
NVIDIA Virtual GPU Software Supported Products
NVIDIA Virtual GPU Software Quick Start Guide
NVIDIA Tesla M6/M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000 – sources
vGPU vGPU Manager + Drivers are only available to customers and NVIDIA NPN partners for M6/M10/M60/P4/P6/P40/P100/V100/T4/RTX6000/RTX8000
Download if you are a NPN partner
Download if you are a vGPU M6, M10, M60, P4, P6, P40, P100, V100, T4, RTX6000, RTX8000 customer
mcerveny
NVidia chaotic release 9 (revision 0) !
– There is no support for “vComputeServer”. All profiles *-*C (like P4-4C) are missing in package. No licensing information published.
– Release 8 (long term) is no more actual release (moved to archive in software portal).
– Quality of drivers is lower in every newer release (10 BSODs in 5 hours with supported Windows 7 or 10r1809).
So wait for developers return after summer holidays and release revisions 1,2,3,4,5 … (like Release 8.0 revision 5) !