Horizon View 5.2 3d Hardware GPU Offload

[mkramerbs]

** Quick Rant **

I have to say I am terribly disappointed as to how View 5.2 has been released.  Nothing seems to be available for useful documentation and/or tutorials on what is available.  It seems as though half of the bits have been thrown up on the site for public consumption and the documentation that is available leads to no where

** End Rant **

The documentation that is available for 3d says...

http://pubs.vmware.com/view-52/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.view.integration.doc%2Fview_integration...

To support hardware-based 3D rendering, a pool must meet these additional requirements:

■	The desktops must run on ESXi 5.1 or later hosts and be managed by vCenter Server 5.1 or later software
■	GPU graphics cards and the associated vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs) must be installed on the ESXi hosts. For a list of supported GPU hardware, see the VMware Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.

Where does one obtain said VIB for NVIDIA Quadro support?  After I install the VIB will 3d hardware magically work?  How does one know that a view session is actually using hardware vs software rendering.  Besides obviously testing an app and seeing improved performence is there a backend command or esxtop value that shows GPU usage?

[Linjo]

Sorry about the bad experience, I do believe that most of this is documented in the releasenotes and the official docs.

The VIB comes from Nvidia, they are providing the driver and is distributing it.

I do know that its not yet available from them but we expect it to be shortly.

Once the VIB is installed you need to start the xorg-service (if its not started automatically) and then start the VM, if the VM is configured to use a 3D renderer and have the 3D renderer set to "Automatic" or "Hardware" the VM will be started and get vRAM from the GPU and be accelerated.

There will be more specific information coming in a whitepaper shortly, until then the documentation and these forums is a great source of information.

// Linjo

[llacas]

Wrong. Twice I've had to request it from VMWare. NOT nVidia (I even had opened a support ticket with them and was told they didn't have it). Maybe it will change later but in the end, VMWare needs to certify the driver and was told they were the one who gave it to customers.

[Linjo]

That was only during the beta phase, VMware does not have the rights to distribute the driver. (except when they got explicit permission from Nvidia, maybe this was one of those times?)

// Linjo

[mkramerbs]

I called NVIDIA support and they gave me the following VIB..

VMware ESXi Host Driver 304.59 (signed)

Once installed and rebooted the View Desktop now perform GPU offload.  So far the only way I can tell that the desktop is actually offloading to the GPU card is by logging in to the ESXi console and running...

gpuvm

[LMUISHuntsville]

You can also issue the command "nvidia-smi" and this will tell you allocated VRAM, GPU temp, etc... but more importantly it will show you %utilization of the GPU.  This is a little more usefull than just issuing the "gpuvm" command.  Also if you want it to continually poll the GPU and display % utilization every 2 or 3 seconds you can issue "watch nvidia-smi".

Regards,

Nathan

[HIsgett]

What was the process that you followed to get the VIB file? I have contacted Nvidia several times and they claim they cannot find any VIB files for ESXi or they were not trained for anything related to VMware. 

[LMUISHuntsville]

Also, if you are using one of the GRID cards (K1 or K2) you may be better served to ask for version 304.76,  which offers much better performance for those cards.  You will not see any performance improvement over the 304.59 version if you are using the Fermi Quadro cards.

[TomMar]

Where can you download the VIB for ESXi?  I've tried calling nvidia support but they don't seem to know what it is.

[TomaszK]

Anyone else had luck with getting the VIB?

Is there an direct link or do I need to call NVIDIA ?

Thanks

[Linjo]

Latest I heard is that it will be available in a day or two, it will probably be listed under the K1/K2 cards drivers since those are the ones that will be certified first.

// Linjo

[retoix]

Hi Guys,

Also seraching for the VBI. Any news?

Maybe someon can upload the latest driver and share it with us?

Which nVidia Number i should call? 

[HIsgett]

Unfortunately no one can legally distribute this if they do have it.

[pabsfr]

Hi Guys,

nVidia VIB file is now available in the download section on the nVidia site

[retoix]

Thank you for the information. Now i can start with the evaluation at monday, awesome.

[unixys]

It is really strange but,

it seems the drivers at Nvidia are more or less in the same package, at least i found this one here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/Windows/Quadro_Certifie...

I did not tried it out yet but am eager to do so...

[Linjo]

Yes that is the driver, what is it that is so strange?

// Linjo

[nickchien]

Esxi Host
esxi version: 5.1.838463
mother board: Supermicro H8QGL
CPU: AMD Opteron 6282SE X 4
memory: 128 GB ECC REG
Raid Card: Dell H700
HD: Seagate 600 GB 15K X 5(Raid 5)
GPU: Nvidai Telsa M2070Q X1 + (on board VGA primary)

xorg running

VM
OS: Win7 profession 64 bit
Memory: 4G
Vedio:
3D Graphic enable(128MB)
3D Render Automatic or Hardware

hung on after power on to 95%

Why?

[Linjo]

What is the hardware version? (Needs to be vmx9)

Anything in the logs?

// linjo

[nickchien]

sorry !

I english is not good.

the hardware version is V9

thank you