Grid K2 Question (vSGA / vDGA)

[mystacor]

Hi guys,

I have a few basic questions concerning Grid K2 cards and their deployment vSGA / vDGA

We have a VMware 5.5 Host equipped with 2 physical NVidia GRID graphic acceleration cards of type K2.

If I go to the PCI device settings of the the vmware host, then I see four 4 pci devices to allocate to virtual machines:

Now I am a little bit confused because I though I could allocate only one physical Grid K2 card to a virtual machine via vDGA.

Why do I see four devices?? Are these the Kepler Cores (2 per K2 card). I tried to run 3 VMs (each with one allocated Grid K2 device), and it worked.

How many VMs could I manage If I use vSGA Deployment of two physical Grid K2 cards?

I also see a bug. If I allocate a Grid K2 device a VM, then I'm not able anymore to connect to the VM via vmware console, is this normal??

The standard vga adapter is still present within the VM. I just see the Windows 7 start display.

Best Regards

Viktor

[Linjo · Accepted solution]

Hi Viktor and welcome to the VMware Communities.

You are correct, each K2 have 2 GPU:s, each GPU can be dedicated to a guest so in your case you can use 4 guest with dedicated GPU:s

How many VMs could I manage If I use vSGA Deployment of two physical Grid K2 cards?

That depends, with vSGA you are limited on the amount of RAM. On the K2 you have 8Gb memory on each card, you can maximum have 512Mb for each guest and half of that will come from the graphics ram. So in this example with your config you will be able to start 64 guest however the practical limit will depend on the deman of the guests.

I also see a bug. If I allocate a Grid K2 device a VM, then I'm not able anymore to connect to the VM via vmware console, is this normal??

Yes this is normal when using vDGA, you can use RDP or VNC in case you need to administrate the vm outside the PCoIP session.

// Linjo

[mystacor]

Hi Linjo,

thanks for your answer. I few more questions 😉

We use VMware Horizon View Client v5.4 and Agent v5.3 with the direct connection plugin.

Can I use multiple screens per VM with a Grid K2 device (an how?)?

Does it make any sense to provide two grid k2 pci devices to a single VM (concerning perfomance, ...)?

Is it possible to create multiple sessions to different VMs via the View Client (and how)?

What would be a good bandwidth / latency interconnect to ensure the full performance (e.g. for a full hd session via vDGA with the view client).

Thank you in advance

Best Regards

Viktor

[Linjo]

The View 5.4 client is outdated, the last released one is 2.3. (We have changed the version numbers...)

Can I use multiple screens per VM with a Grid K2 device (an how?)?

Yes but maximum 2. Just choose multimonitor on the client side. (There was a bug in the Nvidia bios that cause only 1 monitor, you might have to update that to get 2 displays.)'

Does it make any sense to provide two grid k2 pci devices to a single VM (concerning perfomance, ...)?

Its possible and works but it depends on your application if it can use both GPU:s. Its however not supported by Nvidia or VMware.

Is it possible to create multiple sessions to different VMs via the View Client (and how)?

Yes, add the switch "-standalone" on the view client. USB redirection etc will probably only work for one session.

What would be a good bandwidth / latency interconnect to ensure the full performance (e.g. for a full hd session via vDGA with the view client).

As fast as possible and with as low latency as possible... PCoIP is a fantastic protocol that can pull 80Mbit if you configure it to...

But if you want like 24fps (DVD quality) then I would say you should have a 2-3Mbit and not go over 20ms.

// Linjo

[mystacor]

Hi Linjo,

thanks again for your answers.

Currently we use the Video BIOS Version 80.04.d4.00.09. Is this the most current one?

Another question. Does VMware support API requests concerning the vDGA?

Best Regards

Viktor

[Linjo]

The cards needs to be running the following or later:

* 80.07.BE.00.02/03/04/05 (NVIDIA GRID K1 P2401-502)

* 80.04.D4.00.07/08 (NVIDIA GRID K2 P2055-550)

* 80.04.D4.00.09/0A (NVIDIA GRID K2 P2055-552)

Not sure what you mean with the second question, what API are you referring to?

// Linjo

[mystacor]

Well,

VMware provides SDKs for automatic worklflows, e.g. .NET SDK.

Do the SDK support the allocation of graphic cards via vDGA?

Thanks for your support.

Best Regards

Viktor