VMview Desktop Graphic Question

[mrtba]

Does anyone have any information on what I can do to increase performance of 3d models in Vmware View.  We are an engineering firm that has very large models and currently in Vmware View 5.0 we have performance issues and cannot port applications such as NavisWorks(Autodesk product) into it yet.  I was told by some Vmware representives that they are working on this.  Is there any information on this or anything we could try?  What I would like to see happen is for us to buy a very large graphic card and have the View machines use the GPU of it.  Also I know this is far in advance but what about adding multiple graphic cards in a server?

Thanks for any and all help,

Tim

[pcerda]

Hi,

Take a look to this link:

http://www.teradici.com/pcoip-solutions/server-offload-solutions/overview.php

Constantly monitoring the graphic encoding demands of each display and dynamically offloads up to 100 of the most active displays

It's also recommendable to upgrade to View 5.1, which improve the performance of user experience.

Best Regards

[sketchy00]

The PCoIP offload card will "offload" the PCoIP encoding from the CPU to the dedicated card much like a ToE chip works with NICs.  It helps to improve VM density per host, but it won't necessarily improve the graphics experience.   The "real" solution here is the debut of NVIDIAs VGX adapter, as well as the adjustments of vSphere 5.1 to incorporate hardware based graphics.  (note however that at this time, View 5.1 is not on the compatibility matrix with vSphere 5.1).  Anyway, the VGX will allow for up to 100 concurrent VDI sessions per physical host to leverage this physical adapter for real GPU processing.

Here are some links to the VGX.  Its not officially out yet, so there is not much known on pricing, etc.

http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=3713
http://www.nvidia.com/object/vdi-desktop-virtualization.html
http://blogs.vmware.com/euc/2012/08/vmware-and-nvidia-to-showcase-virtual-desktops-at-vmworld.html

[vedeht]

You could use a PCoIP host card and broker it with VMware View. 

EVGA Host Card: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=128-IP-HD02-KR

General Info: http://www.teradici.com/pcoip-solutions/workstation-solutions/overview.php

[sketchy00]

I've had quite a bit of experience with this option as well, serving up physical workstations with a PCoIP host card using VMware View as the connection broker.  I've also helped other organizations test and deploy it.  Generally the feedback on this option is that the interaction is "okay" but that the peculiar nature of the hardware based PCoIP illustrates 2 basic things. 1.)  The PCoIP host cards have behavior that is definately different, if not odd.  2.) Its a commentary on how nice the software based PCoIP rendering of VMware View with VMs are.  This was all testing against the likes of AutoDesk, and other software that require real GPU power.  This is why my position is that the real solution will be when the VGX adapter comes out.

You can read more about my experiences with this here:

http://vmpete.com/2012/01/05/vdi-for-me-part-1/

[vedeht]

I agree that the VGX will make a huge impact. I know someone who managed to talk nvidia to give them one. But VMware won't give them the beta code to run it. It's kind of hilarious.

[mrtba]

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I became extremley busy with other work.  I hope Vmware releases the code for these VGX adapters soon.  They look awesome!  I'm such a dork lol!

Cheers,

Tim