Virtual GPU Software R440 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Release Notes

Release information for all users of NVIDIA virtual GPU software and hardware on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.

1. Release Notes

These Release Notes summarize current status, information on validated platforms, and known issues with NVIDIA vGPU software and associated hardware on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.

1.1. NVIDIA vGPU Software Driver Versions

Each release in this release family of NVIDIA vGPU software includes a specific version of the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager, NVIDIA Windows driver, and NVIDIA Linux driver.

Software 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4
NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM releases listed in Hypervisor Software Releases 440.43 440.53 440.87 440.107 440.121
NVIDIA Windows driver 441.66 442.06 443.05 443.46 443.66
NVIDIA Linux driver 440.43 440.56 440.87 440.107 440.118.02

1.2. Compatibility Requirements for the NVIDIA vGPU Manager and Guest VM Driver

The releases of the NVIDIA vGPU Manager and guest VM drivers that you install must be compatible. If you install the wrong guest VM driver release for the release of the vGPU Manager that you are using, the NVIDIA vGPU fails to load.
See VM running an incompatible NVIDIA vGPU guest driver fails to initialize vGPU when booted.
Note: This requirement does not apply to the NVIDIA vGPU software license server. All releases in this release family of NVIDIA vGPU software are compatible with all releases of the license server.

Compatible NVIDIA vGPU Manager and Guest VM Driver Releases

The following combinations of NVIDIA vGPU Manager and guest VM driver releases are compatible with each other.

  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager with guest VM drivers from the same release
  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager with guest VM drivers from different releases within the same major release branch
    Note: NVIDIA vGPU Manager from releases 10.0 through 10.2 are compatible only with guest VM drivers from releases 10.0 through 10.2.

    In this situation, the combination supports only the features, hardware, and software (including guest OSes) that are supported on both releases.

  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager from a later major release branch with guest VM drivers from the previous branch

    In this situation, the combination supports only the features, hardware, and software (including guest OSes) that are supported on both releases.

The following table lists the specific software releases that are compatible with the components in the NVIDIA vGPU software 10 major release branch.

NVIDIA vGPU Software Component Releases Compatible Software Releases
NVIDIA vGPU Manager 10.0 through 10.2 Guest VM driver releases 10.0 through 10.2
10.3 through 10.4 All guest VM driver 10.x releases
Guest VM drivers 10.0 through 10.2
  • All NVIDIA vGPU Manager 10.x releases
  • All NVIDIA vGPU Manager 11.x releases
10.3 through 10.4
  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager 10.3 through 10.4
  • All NVIDIA vGPU Manager 11.x releases

Incompatible NVIDIA vGPU Manager and Guest VM Driver Releases

The following combinations of NVIDIA vGPU Manager and guest VM driver releases are incompatible with each other.

  • Any 10.x release of NVIDIA vGPU Manager with guest VM drivers from a different major release branch
  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager from releases 10.0-10.2 with guest VM drivers from releases 10.3 or later

The following table lists the specific software releases that are incompatible with the components in the NVIDIA vGPU software 10 major release branch.

NVIDIA vGPU Software Component Releases Incompatible Software Releases
NVIDIA vGPU Manager 10.0 through 10.2
  • Guest VM driver releases 10.3 through 10.4
  • All guest VM driver releases 11.x and later
  • All guest VM driver releases 9.x and earlier
10.3 through 10.4
  • All guest VM driver releases 11.x and later
  • All guest VM driver releases 9.x and earlier
Guest VM drivers 10.0 through 10.2 All NVIDIA vGPU Manager releases 9.x and earlier
10.3 through 10.4
  • NVIDIA vGPU Manager releases 10.0 through 10.2
  • All NVIDIA vGPU Manager releases 9.x and earlier

1.3. Updates in Release 10.0

New Features in Release 10.0

  • Support for NVIDIA® GRID™ Virtual PC and GRID Virtual Applications on Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
  • Increase in the maximum number of virtual display heads supported by -1Q, -2B, and -1B4 vGPUs:
    • All -1Q vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
    • All -2B vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 2 heads.
    • All -1B4 vGPUs now support 4 heads instead of 1 head.
  • Flexible virtual display resolutions

    Instead of a fixed maximum resolution per head, vGPUs now support a maximum combined resolution based on their frame buffer size. This behavior allows the same number of lower resolution displays to be used as before, but alternatively allows a smaller number of higher resolution displays to be used.

  • Virtual display resolutions greater than 4096×2160
  • 10-bit color
  • Changes to allow cross-branch driver support in future main release branches
    Note: This feature cannot be used until the next NVIDIA vGPU software main release branch is available.

    The purpose of this change is to allow a release of the Virtual GPU Manager from a later main release branch to be used with the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for the guest VMs from the previous branch.

  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 10.0

  • Support for passively cooled Quadro RTX 6000 and Quadro RTX 8000 GPUs
  • Support for Tesla V100S PCIe 32GB GPUs
  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM hypervisor releases 8.1 and 7.7
  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 as a guest OS
  • Support for Windows 10 November 2019 Update (1909) as a guest OS

Features Deprecated in Release 10.0

The following table lists features that are deprecated in this release of NVIDIA vGPU software. Although the features remain available in this release, they might be withdrawn in a future release. In preparation for the possible removal of these features, use the preferred alternative listed in the table.

Deprecated Feature Preferred Alternative
-1B4 vGPU types -1B vGPU types
-2B4 vGPU types -2B vGPU types

1.4. Updates in Release 10.1

New Features in Release 10.1

  • Miscellaneous bug fixes

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 10.1

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 8.0 hypervisor is no longer supported.
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 is no longer supported as a guest OS.

1.5. Updates in Release 10.2

New Features in Release 10.2

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 10.2

  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM hypervisor releases 8.2 and 7.8
  • Support for the following OS releases as a guest OS:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2
    • CentOS Linux 8 (1911)
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.8
    • CentOS 7.8

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 10.2

  • The following Red Hat hypervisor software releases are no longer supported:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM hypervisor releases 7.0-7.5
    • Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.1
  • The following guest OS releases are no longer supported:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0-7.5
    • CentOS 7.0-7.5

1.6. Updates in Release 10.3

New Features in Release 10.3

  • Cross-branch driver support

    With the release of NVIDIA vGPU software 11.0, NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for the guest VMs from this release branch can be used with the Virtual GPU Manager from NVIDIA vGPU software 11.0 and later 11.x releases

  • Miscellaneous bug fixes
  • Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - June 2020

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 10.3

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 is no longer supported as a guest OS

1.7. Updates in Release 10.4

New Features in Release 10.4

2. Validated Platforms

This release family of NVIDIA vGPU software provides support for several NVIDIA GPUs on validated server hardware platforms, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM hypervisor software versions, and guest operating systems. It also supports the version of NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit that is compatible with R440 drivers.

2.1. Supported NVIDIA GPUs and Validated Server Platforms

This release of NVIDIA vGPU software provides support for the following NVIDIA GPUs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM, running on validated server hardware platforms:

  • GPUs based on the NVIDIA Maxwell™ graphic architecture:
    • Tesla M6 (NVIDIA Virtual Compute Server (vCS) is not supported.)
    • Tesla M10 (vCS is not supported.)
    • Tesla M60 (vCS is not supported.)
  • GPUs based on the NVIDIA Pascal™ architecture:
    • Tesla P4
    • Tesla P6
    • Tesla P40
    • Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB
    • Tesla P100 SXM2 16 GB
    • Tesla P100 PCIe 12GB
  • GPUs based on the NVIDIA Volta architecture:
    • Tesla V100 SXM2
    • Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB
    • Tesla V100 PCIe
    • Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB
    • Tesla V100S PCIe 32GB
    • Tesla V100 FHHL
  • GPUs based on the NVIDIA Turing™ architecture:
    • Tesla T4
    • Quadro RTX 6000 in displayless mode
    • Quadro RTX 6000 passive in displayless mode
    • Quadro RTX 8000 in displayless mode
    • Quadro RTX 8000 passive in displayless mode

In displayless mode, local physical display connectors are disabled.

For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA GRID Certified Servers.

Note:

Tesla M60 and M6 GPUs support compute mode and graphics mode. NVIDIA vGPU requires GPUs that support both modes to operate in graphics mode.

Recent Tesla M60 GPUs and M6 GPUs are supplied in graphics mode. However, your GPU might be in compute mode if it is an older Tesla M60 GPU or M6 GPU, or if its mode has previously been changed.

To configure the mode of Tesla M60 and M6 GPUs, use the gpumodeswitch tool provided with NVIDIA vGPU software releases.

Even in compute mode, Tesla M60 and M6 GPUs do not support NVIDIA Virtual Compute Server vGPU types.

2.2. Hypervisor Software Releases

This release supports only the hypervisor software releases listed in the table.

Note: If a specific release, even an update release, is not listed, it’s not supported.
Software Releases Supported Notes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

Since 10.2: 8.1, 8.2

10.1 only: 8.1

10.0 only: 8.0, 8.1

All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported with vGPU and in pass-through mode.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

Since 10.2: 7.8 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported with vGPU and in pass-through mode.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

7.6, 7.7 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported with vGPU and in pass-through mode.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

10.0, 10.1 only: 7.5 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported with vGPU and in pass-through mode.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

10.0, 10.1 only: 7.2 through 7.4 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported in pass-through mode only.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM

10.0, 10.1 only: 7.0, 7.1 Only the following NVIDIA GPUs are supported in pass-through mode only:
  • Tesla M6
  • Tesla M10
  • Tesla M60
Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.3, 4.2 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported with vGPU and in pass-through mode.
Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 10.0, 10.1 only: 4.1 All NVIDIA GPUs that NVIDIA vGPU software supports are supported in pass-through mode only.

2.3. Guest OS Support

NVIDIA vGPU software supports several Windows releases and Linux distributions as a guest OS. The supported guest operating systems depend on the hypervisor software version.

Note:

Use only a guest OS release that is listed as supported by NVIDIA vGPU software with your virtualization software. To be listed as supported, a guest OS release must be supported not only by NVIDIA vGPU software, but also by your virtualization software. NVIDIA cannot support guest OS releases that your virtualization software does not support.

NVIDIA vGPU software supports only 64-bit guest operating systems. No 32-bit guest operating systems are supported.

Windows Guest OS Support

Note: Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM and Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) support Windows guest operating systems only under specific Red Hat subscription programs. For details, see:

NVIDIA vGPU software supports only the 64-bit Windows releases listed in the table as a guest OS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM. The releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM for which a Windows release is supported depend on whether NVIDIA vGPU or pass-through GPU is used.

Note:

If a specific release, even an update release, is not listed, it’s not supported.

Guest OS NVIDIA vGPU - Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Releases Pass-Through GPU - Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Releases
Windows Server 2019

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Windows Server 2016 1709, 1607

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Windows Server 2012 R2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

10.0-10.2 only: Windows Server 2008 R2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Supported only on GPUs based on the Maxwell architecture

Windows 10:
  • November 2019 Update (1909)
  • May 2019 Update (1903)
  • October 2018 Update (1809)
  • Spring Creators Update (1803)
  • Fall Creators Update (1709)
  • Creators Update (1703)
  • Anniversary Update (1607)
  • November Update (1511)
  • RTM (1507)

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Windows 8.1 Update

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Windows 7

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Supported only on GPUs based on the Maxwell architecture

2.3.2. Linux Guest OS Support

NVIDIA vGPU software supports only the 64-bit Linux distributions listed in the table as a guest OS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM. The releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM for which a Linux release is supported depend on whether NVIDIA vGPU or pass-through GPU is used.

Note:

If a specific release, even an update release, is not listed, it’s not supported.

Guest OS NVIDIA vGPU - Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Releases Pass-Through GPU - Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM Releases
Since 10.2: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2

RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.2

RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.2

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

Since 10.2: CentOS Linux 8 (1911)

RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

10.0 only: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0

RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

CentOS 8.0

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8,2, 8.1

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0

Since 10.2: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6-7.8

RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

RHV 4.3, 4.2

RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Since 10.2: CentOS 7.6-7.8 See Note (1)

RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

RHV 4.3, 4.2

RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

10.0, 10.1 only: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0-7.5

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

10.0, 10.1 only: CentOS 7.0-7.5 See Note (1)

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

CentOS 6.6 See Note (1)

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5

RHV 4.3, 4.2

Since 10.2: RHEL KVM 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.1 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

10.0 only: RHEL KVM 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0

Since 10.2: RHV 4.3, 4.2

10.0, 10.1 only: RHV 4.3, 4.2, 4.1

Note:
  1. CentOS is not a certified guest OS for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM or RHV.

2.4. NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit Version Support

The releases in this release family of NVIDIA vGPU software support NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 10.2.

For more information about NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit, see CUDA Toolkit 10.2 Documentation.

Note:

If you are using NVIDIA vGPU software with CUDA on Linux, avoid conflicting installation methods by installing CUDA from a distribution-independent runfile package. Do not install CUDA from distribution-specific RPM or Deb package.

To ensure that the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver is not overwritten when CUDA is installed, deselect the CUDA driver when selecting the CUDA components to install.

For more information, see NVIDIA CUDA Installation Guide for Linux.

2.5. Multiple vGPU Support

To support applications and workloads that are compute or graphics intensive, multiple vGPUs can be added to a single VM. The assignment of more than one vGPU to a VM is supported only on a subset of vGPUs and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM releases.

Supported vGPUs

Only Q-series and C-series vGPUs that are allocated all of the physical GPU's frame buffer are supported.

GPU Architecture Board vGPU
Turing Tesla T4 T4-16Q
T4-16C
Quadro RTX 6000 RTX6000-24Q
RTX6000-24C
Quadro RTX 6000 passive RTX6000P-24Q
RTX6000P-24C
Quadro RTX 8000 RTX8000-48Q
RTX8000-48C
Quadro RTX 8000 passive RTX8000P-48Q
RTX8000P-48C
Volta Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB V100DX-32Q
V100D-32C
Tesla V100 PCIe 32GB V100D-32Q
V100D-32C
Tesla V100S PCIe 32GB V100S-32Q
V100S-32C
Tesla V100 SXM2 V100X-16Q
V100X-16C
Tesla V100 PCIe V100-16Q
V100-16C
Tesla V100 FHHL V100L-16Q
V100L-16C
Pascal Tesla P100 SXM2 P100X-16Q
P100X-16C
Tesla P100 PCIe 16GB P100-16Q
P100-16C
Tesla P100 PCIe 12GB P100C-12Q
P100C-12C
Tesla P40 P40-24Q
P40-24C
Tesla P6 P6-16Q
P6-16C
Tesla P4 P4-8Q
P4-8C
Maxwell Tesla M60 M60-8Q
Tesla M10 M10-8Q
Tesla M6 M6-8Q

Maximum vGPUs per VM

NVIDIA vGPU software supports up to a maximum of 16 vGPUs per VM on Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.

Supported Hypervisor Releases

Only these Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM releases:
  • Since 10.2: 8.2, 8.1, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6
  • 10.1 only: 8.1, 7.7, 7.6, and 7.5
  • 10.0 only: 8.1, 8.0, 7.7, 7.6, and 7.5

RHV 4.3 and 4.2 only.

2.6. Peer-to-Peer CUDA Transfers over NVLink Support

Peer-to-peer CUDA transfers enable device memory between vGPUs on different GPUs that are assigned to the same VM to be accessed from within the CUDA kernels. NVLink is a high-bandwidth interconnect that enables fast communication between such vGPUs. Peer-to-Peer CUDA Transfers over NVLink is supported only on a subset of vGPUs, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM releases, and guest OS releases.

Supported vGPUs

Only Q-series and C-series vGPUs that are allocated all of the physical GPU's frame buffer on physical GPUs that support NVLink are supported.

GPU Architecture Board vGPU
Turing Quadro RTX 6000 RTX6000-24Q
RTX6000-24C
Quadro RTX 6000 passive RTX6000P-24Q
RTX6000P-24C
Quadro RTX 8000 RTX8000-48Q
RTX8000-48C
Quadro RTX 8000 passive RTX8000P-48Q
RTX8000P-48C
Volta Tesla V100 SXM2 32GB V100DX-32Q
V100DX-32C
Tesla V100 SXM2 V100X-16Q
V100X-16C
Pascal Tesla P100 SXM2 P100X-16Q
P100X-16C

Supported Hypervisor Releases

Peer-to-Peer CUDA Transfers over NVLink are supported on all hypervisor releases that support the assignment of more than one vGPU to a VM. For details, see Multiple vGPU Support.

Supported Guest OS Releases

Linux only. Peer-to-Peer CUDA Transfers over NVLink are not supported on Windows.

Limitations

  • Only direct connections are supported. NVSwitch is not supported.
  • PCIe is not supported.
  • SLI is not supported.

3. Known Product Limitations

Known product limitations for this release of NVIDIA vGPU software are described in the following sections.

3.1. Issues occur when the channels allocated to a vGPU are exhausted

Description

Issues occur when the channels allocated to a vGPU are exhausted and the guest VM to which the vGPU is assigned fails to allocate a channel to the vGPU. A physical GPU has a fixed number of channels and the number of channels allocated to each vGPU is inversely proportional to the maximum number of vGPUs allowed on the physical GPU.

When the channels allocated to a vGPU are exhausted and the guest VM fails to allocate a channel, the following errors are reported on the hypervisor host or in an NVIDIA bug report:

Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0): Guest attempted to allocate channel above its max channel limit 0xfb
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0): VGPU message 6 failed, result code: 0x1a
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0):         0xc1d004a1, 0xff0e0000, 0xff0400fb, 0xc36f,
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0):         0x1, 0xff1fe314, 0xff1fe038, 0x100b6f000, 0x1000,
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0):         0x80000000, 0xff0e0200, 0x0, 0x0, (Not logged),
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0):         0x1, 0x0
Jun 26 08:01:25 srvxen06f vgpu-3[14276]: error: vmiop_log: (0x0): , 0x0

Workaround

Use a vGPU type with more frame buffer, thereby reducing the maximum number of vGPUs allowed on the physical GPU. As a result, the number of channels allocated to each vGPU is increased.

3.2. Virtual GPU hot plugging is not supported

NVIDIA vGPU software does not support the addition of virtual function I/O (VFIO) mediated device (mdev) devices after the VM has been started by QEMU. All mdev devices must be added before the VM is started.

3.3. Total frame buffer for vGPUs is less than the total frame buffer on the physical GPU

Some of the physical GPU's frame buffer is used by the hypervisor on behalf of the VM for allocations that the guest OS would otherwise have made in its own frame buffer. The frame buffer used by the hypervisor is not available for vGPUs on the physical GPU. In NVIDIA vGPU deployments, frame buffer for the guest OS is reserved in advance, whereas in bare-metal deployments, frame buffer for the guest OS is reserved on the basis of the runtime needs of applications.

If error-correcting code (ECC) memory is enabled on a physical GPU that does not have HBM2 memory, the amount of frame buffer that is usable by vGPUs is further reduced. All types of vGPU are affected, not just vGPUs that support ECC memory.

On all GPUs that support ECC memory and, therefore, dynamic page retirement, additional frame buffer is allocated for dynamic page retirement. The amount that is allocated is inversely proportional to the maximum number of vGPUs per physical GPU. All GPUs that support ECC memory are affected, even GPUs that have HBM2 memory or for which ECC memory is disabled.

The approximate amount of frame buffer that NVIDIA vGPU software reserves can be calculated from the following formula:

max-reserved-fb = vgpu-profile-size-in-mb÷16 + 16 + ecc-adjustments + page-retirement-allocation

max-reserved-fb
The maximum total amount of reserved frame buffer in Mbytes that is not available for vGPUs.
vgpu-profile-size-in-mb
The amount of frame buffer in Mbytes allocated to a single vGPU. This amount depends on the vGPU type. For example, for the T4-16Q vGPU type, vgpu-profile-size-in-mb is 16384.
ecc-adjustments
The amount of frame buffer in Mbytes that is not usable by vGPUs when ECC is enabled on a physical GPU that does not have HBM2 memory.
  • If ECC is enabled on a physical GPU that does not have HBM2 memory ecc-adjustments is fb-without-ecc/16, which is equivalent to 64 Mbytes for every Gbyte of frame buffer assigned to the vGPU. fb-without-ecc is total amount of frame buffer with ECC disabled.
  • If ECC is disabled or the GPU has HBM2 memory, ecc-adjustments is 0.
page-retirement-allocation
The amount of frame buffer in Mbytes that is reserved for dynamic page retirement.
  • On GPUs based on the NVIDIA Maxwell GPU architecture, page-retirement-allocation = 4÷max-vgpus-per-gpu.
  • On GPUs based on NVIDIA GPU architectures after the Maxwell architecture, page-retirement-allocation = 128÷max-vgpus-per-gpu
max-vgpus-per-gpu
The maximum number of vGPUs that can be created simultaneously on a physical GPU. This number varies according to the vGPU type. For example, for the T4-16Q vGPU type, max-vgpus-per-gpu is 1.
Note: In VMs running a Windows guest OS that supports Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.x, namely, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012, an additional 48 Mbytes of frame buffer are reserved and not available for vGPUs.

3.4. Issues may occur with graphics-intensive OpenCL applications on vGPU types with limited frame buffer

Description

Issues may occur when graphics-intensive OpenCL applications are used with vGPU types that have limited frame buffer. These issues occur when the applications demand more frame buffer than is allocated to the vGPU.

For example, these issues may occur with the Adobe Photoshop and LuxMark OpenCL Benchmark applications:

  • When the image resolution and size are changed in Adobe Photoshop, a program error may occur or Photoshop may display a message about a problem with the graphics hardware and a suggestion to disable OpenCL.
  • When the LuxMark OpenCL Benchmark application is run, XID error 31 may occur.

Workaround

For graphics-intensive OpenCL applications, use a vGPU type with more frame buffer.

3.6. vGPU profiles with 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer support only 1 virtual display head on Windows 10

Description

To reduce the possibility of memory exhaustion, vGPU profiles with 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer support only 1 virtual display head on a Windows 10 guest OS.

The following vGPU profiles have 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer:

  • Tesla M6-0B, M6-0Q
  • Tesla M10-0B, M10-0Q
  • Tesla M60-0B, M60-0Q

Workaround

Use a profile that supports more than 1 virtual display head and has at least 1 Gbyte of frame buffer.

3.7. NVENC requires at least 1 Gbyte of frame buffer

Description

Using the frame buffer for the NVIDIA hardware-based H.264/HEVC video encoder (NVENC) may cause memory exhaustion with vGPU profiles that have 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer. To reduce the possibility of memory exhaustion, NVENC is disabled on profiles that have 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer. Application GPU acceleration remains fully supported and available for all profiles, including profiles with 512 MBytes or less of frame buffer. NVENC support from both Citrix and VMware is a recent feature and, if you are using an older version, you should experience no change in functionality.

The following vGPU profiles have 512 Mbytes or less of frame buffer:

  • Tesla M6-0B, M6-0Q
  • Tesla M10-0B, M10-0Q
  • Tesla M60-0B, M60-0Q

Workaround

If you require NVENC to be enabled, use a profile that has at least 1 Gbyte of frame buffer.

3.8. VM running an incompatible NVIDIA vGPU guest driver fails to initialize vGPU when booted

Description

A VM running a version of the NVIDIA guest VM driver that is incompatible with the current release of Virtual GPU Manager will fail to initialize vGPU when booted on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM platform running that release of Virtual GPU Manager.

Note: NVIDIA vGPU Manager from releases 10.0 through 10.2 are compatible only with guest VM drivers from releases 10.0 through 10.2.

A guest VM driver is incompatible with the current release of Virtual GPU Manager in either of the following situations:

  • The guest driver is from a release in a major release branch before the current release, for example release 9.4.

    In this situation, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM VM’s /var/log/messages log file reports the following error:

    vmiop_log: (0x0): Incompatible Guest/Host drivers: Guest VGX version is older than the minimum version supported by the Host. Disabling vGPU.
  • The guest driver is from a later release than the Virtual GPU Manager.

    In this situation, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM VM’s /var/log/messages log file reports the following error:

    vmiop_log: (0x0): Incompatible Guest/Host drivers: Guest VGX version is newer than the maximum version supported by the Host. Disabling vGPU.

In either situation, the VM boots in standard VGA mode with reduced resolution and color depth. The NVIDIA virtual GPU is present in Windows Device Manager but displays a warning sign, and the following device status:

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

Resolution

Install a release of the NVIDIA guest VM driver that is compatible with current release of Virtual GPU Manager.

3.9. Single vGPU benchmark scores are lower than pass-through GPU

Description

A single vGPU configured on a physical GPU produces lower benchmark scores than the physical GPU run in pass-through mode.

Aside from performance differences that may be attributed to a vGPU’s smaller frame buffer size, vGPU incorporates a performance balancing feature known as Frame Rate Limiter (FRL). On vGPUs that use the best-effort scheduler, FRL is enabled. On vGPUs that use the fixed share or equal share scheduler, FRL is disabled.

FRL is used to ensure balanced performance across multiple vGPUs that are resident on the same physical GPU. The FRL setting is designed to give good interactive remote graphics experience but may reduce scores in benchmarks that depend on measuring frame rendering rates, as compared to the same benchmarks running on a pass-through GPU.

Resolution

FRL is controlled by an internal vGPU setting. On vGPUs that use the best-effort scheduler, NVIDIA does not validate vGPU with FRL disabled, but for validation of benchmark performance, FRL can be temporarily disabled by setting frame_rate_limiter=0 in the vGPU configuration file.

# echo "frame_rate_limiter=0" > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/vgpu-id/nvidia/vgpu_params

For example:

# echo "frame_rate_limiter=0" > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/aa618089-8b16-4d01-a136-25a0f3c73123/nvidia/vgpu_params

The setting takes effect the next time any VM using the given vGPU type is started.

With this setting in place, the VM’s vGPU will run without any frame rate limit.

The FRL can be reverted back to its default setting as follows:

  1. Clear all parameter settings in the vGPU configuration file.

    # echo " " > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/vgpu-id/nvidia/vgpu_params
    Note: You cannot clear specific parameter settings. If your vGPU configuration file contains other parameter settings that you want to keep, you must reinstate them in the next step.
  2. Set frame_rate_limiter=1 in the vGPU configuration file.

    # echo "frame_rate_limiter=1" > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/vgpu-id/nvidia/vgpu_params

    If you need to reinstate other parameter settings, include them in the command to set frame_rate_limiter=1. For example:

    # echo "frame_rate_limiter=1 disable_vnc=1" > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/aa618089-8b16-4d01-a136-25a0f3c73123/nvidia/vgpu_params

3.10. nvidia-smi fails to operate when all GPUs are assigned to GPU pass-through mode

Description

If all GPUs in the platform are assigned to VMs in pass-through mode, nvidia-smi will return an error:

[root@vgx-test ~]# nvidia-smi
Failed to initialize NVML: Unknown Error

This is because GPUs operating in pass-through mode are not visible to nvidia-smi and the NVIDIA kernel driver operating in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVMhost.

To confirm that all GPUs are operating in pass-through mode, confirm that the vfio-pci kernel driver is handling each device.

# lspci -s 05:00.0 -k
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204GL [Tesla M60] (rev a1)
               Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 113a
               Kernel driver in use: vfio-pci

Resolution

N/A

4. Resolved Issues

Only resolved issues that have been previously noted as known issues or had a noticeable user impact are listed. The summary and description for each resolved issue indicate the effect of the issue on NVIDIA vGPU software before the issue was resolved.

Issues Resolved in Release 10.0

No resolved issues are reported in this release for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.

Issues Resolved in Release 10.1

No resolved issues are reported in this release for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.

Issues Resolved in Release 10.2

Bug ID Summary and Description
200594274

10.0, 10.1 Only: When the VMs to which 16 vGPUs on a single GPU are assigned are started simultaneously, one VM fails to boot

When the VMs to which 16 vGPUs on a single GPU (for example 16 T4-1Q vGPUs on a Tesla T4 GPU) are assigned are started simultaneously, only 15 VMs boot and the remaining VM fails to start. When the other VMs are shut down, the VM that failed to start boots successfully.

2920224

10.0, 10.1 Only: NVIDIA Control Panel cannot be used to change the display resolution

After the user selects a new display resolution in NVIDIA Control Panel and clicks Apply, the resolution is not changed and the selection on the list is reset to the previous value.

200555917

10.0, 10.1 Only: The Desktop color depth list is empty

The Desktop color depth list on the Change resolution page in NVIDIA Control Panel for the VM display NVIDIA VGX is empty. This list should include options such as SDR 24 bit and SDR 30 bit.

Issues Resolved in Release 10.3

Bug ID Summary and Description
200626446

10.0-10.2 Only: Failure to allocate resources causes VM failures or crashes

Failure to allocate resources causes VM failures or crashes. When the error occurs, the error message NVOS status 0x19 is written to the log file on the hypervisor host. Depending on the resource and the underlying cause of the failure, VGPU message 52 failed, VGPU message 4 failed, VGPU message 21 failed, and VGPU message 10 failed might also be written to the log file on the hypervisor host.

2814740

10.0-10.2 Only: Uncorrectable machine check exception occurs after initial reboot of the hypervisor host

When the hypervisor host is first rebooted after the Virtual GPU Manager is installed, an uncorrectable machine check exception occurs during POST immediately after the message SYSTEM CHIPSET INITIALIZATION UPI LINK INITIALIZATION - START. This issue affects HP systems that are running a hypervisor release that has a newer kernel, for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 8.0 or 8.1.

Issues Resolved in Release 10.4

Bug ID Summary and Description
3051614

10.0-10.3 Only: Application responsiveness degrades over time

Application responsiveness degrades over time, causing slow application performance and stutter when users switch between applications. This issue occurs because the GPU driver is not setting the Linux kernel PCI coherent_dma_mask for NVIDIA GPU devices. If the coherent_dma_mask is not set, IOMMU IOVA space is restricted to the default size of 32 bits for DMA allocations performed in the NVIDIA GPU device context. Furthermore, for hosts on which iommu=pt is set, the default coherent_dma_mask causes IOMMU mappings to always be created. When IOMMU mappings are always created, performance degradation can occur because all host to device accesses require translation by hardware IOMMU.

5. Known Issues

5.1. 10.0-10.3 Only: Application responsiveness degrades over time

Description

Application responsiveness degrades over time, causing slow application performance and stutter when users switch between applications. This issue occurs because the GPU driver is not setting the Linux kernel PCI coherent_dma_mask for NVIDIA GPU devices. If the coherent_dma_mask is not set, IOMMU IOVA space is restricted to the default size of 32 bits for DMA allocations performed in the NVIDIA GPU device context. Furthermore, for hosts on which iommu=pt is set, the default coherent_dma_mask causes IOMMU mappings to always be created. When IOMMU mappings are always created, performance degradation can occur because all host to device accesses require translation by hardware IOMMU.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.4

Note: On systems with more than 1 TiB of system memory and GPUs based on GPU architectures earlier than the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, a related issue might still cause application performance to degrade over time. For details, see On systems with more than 1 TiB of system memory, application performance degrades over time.

Ref. #

3051614

5.2. On systems with more than 1 TiB of system memory, application performance degrades over time

Description

On systems with more than 1 TiB of system memory, application performance degrades over time. As a result, application performance is slow and stutter occurs when users switch between applications. This issue occurs because the virtual GPU manager temporarily limits the dma_mask and the coherent_dma_mask to 40 bits while the vGPU is being initialized. On systems with more than 1 TiB of system memory, the coherent_dma_mask addressing capability is less than the amount of system memory. As a result, IOMMU mappings are always created, which can cause performance degradation because all host to device accesses require translation by hardware IOMMU.

Workaround

Reduce the amount of system memory to 1 TiB or less.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3063042

5.3. Since 10.4: Licensing event logs indicate license renewal from unavailable primary server

Description

Licensing event logs for the guest VM indicate that a license is renewed from primary license server even when primary license server is unavailable and the license is renewed from the secondary server.

Workaround

None. However, these incorrect event log entries are benign and can be ignored.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200658253

5.4. 10.0, 10.1 Only: When the VMs to which 16 vGPUs on a single GPU are assigned are started simultaneously, one VM fails to boot

Description

When the VMs to which 16 vGPUs on a single GPU (for example 16 T4-1Q vGPUs on a Tesla T4 GPU) are assigned are started simultaneously, only 15 VMs boot and the remaining VM fails to start. When the other VMs are shut down, the VM that failed to start boots successfully.

The log file on the hypervisor host contains these error messages:

2020-03-04T16:01:13.626Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: NVOS status 0x51
2020-03-04T16:01:13.626Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: Assertion Failed at 0x5e530d8c:303
...
2020-03-04T16:01:13.626Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: (0x0): Failed to alloc guest FB memory
2020-03-04T16:01:13.626Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: (0x0): init_device_instance failed for inst 0 with error 2 (vmiop-display: error allocating framebuffer)
2020-03-04T16:01:13.626Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: (0x0): Initialization: init_device_instance failed error 2
2020-03-04T16:01:13.629Z| vmx| E110: vmiop_log: display_init failed for inst: 0

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.2

Ref. #

200594274

5.5. 10.0-10.2 Only: Failure to allocate resources causes VM failures or crashes

Description

Failure to allocate resources causes VM failures or crashes. When the error occurs, the error message NVOS status 0x19 is written to the log file on the hypervisor host. Depending on the resource and the underlying cause of the failure, VGPU message 52 failed, VGPU message 4 failed, VGPU message 21 failed, and VGPU message 10 failed might also be written to the log file on the hypervisor host.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.3

Ref. #

200626446

5.6. NVIDIA Control Panel fails to start if launched too soon from a VM without licensing information

Description

If NVIDIA licensing information is not configured on the system, any attempt to start NVIDIA Control Panel by right-clicking on the desktop within 30 seconds of the VM being started fails.

Workaround

Wait at least 30 seconds before trying to launch NVIDIA Control Panel.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200623179

5.7. On Linux, the frame rate might drop to 1 after several minutes

Description

On Linux, the frame rate might drop to 1 frame per second (FPS) after NVIDIA vGPU software has been running for several minutes. Only some applications are affected, for example, glxgears. Other applications, such as Unigine Heaven, are not affected. This behavior occurs because Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) for the Xorg server is enabled by default and the display is detected to be inactive even when the application is running. When DPMS is enabled, it enables power saving behavior of the display after several minutes of inactivity by setting the frame rate to 1 FPS.

Workaround

  1. If necessary, stop the Xorg server.

    # /etc/init.d/xorg stop
  2. In a plain text editor, edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to set the options to disable DPMS and disable the screen saver.

    1. In the Monitor section, set the DPMS option to false.
      Option "DPMS" "false"
    2. At the end of the file, add a ServerFlags section that contains option to disable the screen saver.
      Section "ServerFlags"
          Option "BlankTime" "0"
        EndSection
    3. Save your changes to /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and quit the editor.
  3. Start the Xorg server.

    # etc/init.d/xorg start

Status

Open

Ref. #

200605900

5.8. 10.0, 10.1 Only: NVIDIA Control Panel cannot be used to change the display resolution

Description

After the user selects a new display resolution in NVIDIA Control Panel and clicks Apply, the resolution is not changed and the selection on the list is reset to the previous value.

Workaround

Use Microsoft Display settings in System settings to change the display resolution.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.2

Ref. #

2920224

5.9. 10.0-10.2 Only: Uncorrectable machine check exception occurs after initial reboot of the hypervisor host

Description

When the hypervisor host is first rebooted after the Virtual GPU Manager is installed, an uncorrectable machine check exception occurs during POST immediately after the message SYSTEM CHIPSET INITIALIZATION UPI LINK INITIALIZATION - START. This issue affects HP systems that are running a hypervisor release that has a newer kernel, for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM 8.0 or 8.1.

After the uncorrectable machine check exception, the hypervisor host is automatically reset and returns to a working state.

When this issue occurs, the following error messages are logged:

Uncorrectable Machine Check Exception (Processor 1, APIC ID 0x00000000, Bank 0x00000006, 
Status 0xFB800000'00000E0B, Address 0x00000000'00000000, Misc 0x00000000'5B000000).
Uncorrectable PCI Express Error Detected. Slot 255 (Segment 0x0, Bus 0x5D, Device 0x48, Function 0x0)
Uncorrectable PCI Express Error Detected. Slot 255 (Segment 0x0, Bus 0x5D, Device 0x88, Function 0x0)
Uncorrectable PCI Express Error Detected. Slot 255 (Segment 0x0, Bus 0x5D, Device 0x80, Function 0x0)
Uncorrectable PCI Express Error Detected. Slot 255 (Segment 0x0, Bus 0x5D, Device 0x40, Function 0x0)

Workaround

Wait for the host to return to a working state. No other action is required.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.3

Ref. #

2814740

5.10. DWM crashes randomly occur in Windows VMs

Description

Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) crashes randomly occur in Windows VMs, causing a blue-screen crash and the bug check CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. Computer Management shows problems with the primary display device.

Version

This issue affects Windows 10 1809, 1903 and 1909 VMs.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

2730037

5.11. 10.0, 10.1 Only: The Desktop color depth list is empty

Description

The Desktop color depth list on the Change resolution page in NVIDIA Control Panel for the VM display NVIDIA VGX is empty. This list should include options such as SDR 24 bit and SDR 30 bit.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 10.2

Ref. #

200555917

5.12. Publisher not verified warning during Windows 7 driver installation

Description

During installation of the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver for Windows on Windows 7, Windows warns that it can't verify the publisher of the driver software. If Device Manager is used to install the driver, Device Manager warns that the driver is not digitally signed. If you install the driver, error 52 (CM_PROB_UNSIGNED_DRIVER) occurs.

This issue occurs because Microsoft is no longer dual signing WHQL-tested software binary files by using the SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash algorithms. Instead, WHQL-tested software binary files are signed only by using the SHA-2 hash algorithm. All NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for Windows are WHQL tested.

By default, Windows 7 systems cannot recognize signatures that were created by using the SHA-2 hash algorithm. As a result, software binary files that are signed only by using the SHA-2 hash algorithm are considered unsigned.

For more information, see 2019 SHA-2 Code Signing Support requirement for Windows and WSUS on the Microsoft Windows support website.

Version

Windows 7

Workaround

If you experience this issue, install the following updates and restart the VM or host before installing the driver:

Status

Not a bug

5.13. RAPIDS cuDF merge fails on NVIDIA vGPU

Description

The merge function of the RAPIDS cuDF GPU data frame library fails on NVIDIA vGPU. This function fails because RAPIDS uses the Unified Memory feature of CUDA, which NVIDIA vGPU does not support.

Status

Open

Ref. #

2642134

5.14. ECC memory settings for a vGPU cannot be changed by using NVIDIA X Server Settings

Description

The ECC memory settings for a vGPU cannot be changed from a Linux guest VM by using NVIDIA X Server Settings. After the ECC memory state has been changed on the ECC Settings page and the VM has been rebooted, the ECC memory state remains unchanged.

Workaround

Use the nvidia-smi command in the guest VM to enable or disable ECC memory for the vGPU as explained in Virtual GPU Software User Guide.

If the ECC memory state remains unchanged even after you use the nvidia-smi command to change it, use the workaround in Changes to ECC memory settings for a Linux vGPU VM by nvidia-smi might be ignored.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200523086

5.15. Changes to ECC memory settings for a Linux vGPU VM by nvidia-smi might be ignored

Description

After the ECC memory state for a Linux vGPU VM has been changed by using the nvidia-smi command and the VM has been rebooted, the ECC memory state might remain unchanged.

This issue occurs when multiple NVIDIA configuration files in the system cause the kernel module option for setting the ECC memory state RMGuestECCState in /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf to be ignored.

When the nvidia-smi command is used to enable ECC memory, the file /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf is created or updated to set the kernel module option RMGuestECCState. Another configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/ that contains the keyword NVreg_RegistryDwordsPerDevice might cause the kernel module option RMGuestECCState to be ignored.

Workaround

This workaround requires administrator privileges.

  1. Move the entry containing the keyword NVreg_RegistryDwordsPerDevice from the other configuration file to /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf.
  2. Reboot the VM.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200505777

5.16. Vulkan applications crash in Windows 7 guest VMs configured with NVIDIA vGPU

Description

In Windows 7 guest VMs configured with NVIDIA vGPU, applications developed with Vulkan APIs crash or throw errors when they are launched. Vulkan APIs require sparse texture support, but in Windows 7 guest VMs configured with NVIDIA vGPU, sparse textures are not enabled.

In Windows 10 guest VMs configured with NVIDIA vGPU, sparse textures are enabled and applications developed with Vulkan APIs run correctly in these VMs.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200381348

5.17. Host core CPU utilization is higher than expected for moderate workloads

Description

When GPU performance is being monitored, host core CPU utilization is higher than expected for moderate workloads. For example, host CPU utilization when only a small number of VMs are running is as high as when several times as many VMs are running.

Workaround

Disable monitoring of the following GPU performance statistics:

  • vGPU engine usage by applications across multiple vGPUs
  • Encoder session statistics
  • Frame buffer capture (FBC) session statistics
  • Statistics gathered by performance counters in guest VMs

Status

Open

Ref. #

2414897

5.18. Frame capture while the interactive logon message is displayed returns blank screen

Description

Because of a known limitation with NvFBC, a frame capture while the interactive logon message is displayed returns a blank screen.

An NvFBC session can capture screen updates that occur after the session is created. Before the logon message appears, there is no screen update after the message is shown and, therefore, a black screen is returned instead. If the NvFBC session is created after this update has occurred, NvFBC cannot get a frame to capture.

Workaround

Press Enter or wait for the screen to update for NvFBC to capture the frame.

Status

Not a bug

Ref. #

2115733

5.19. RDS sessions do not use the GPU with some Microsoft Windows Server releases

Description

When some releases of Windows Server are used as a guest OS, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) sessions do not use the GPU. With these releases, the RDS sessions by default use the Microsoft Basic Render Driver instead of the GPU. This default setting enables 2D DirectX applications such as Microsoft Office to use software rendering, which can be more efficient than using the GPU for rendering. However, as a result, 3D applications that use DirectX are prevented from using the GPU.

Version

  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2012

Solution

Change the local computer policy to use the hardware graphics adapter for all RDS sessions.

  1. Choose Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment.

  2. Set the Use the hardware default graphics adapter for all Remote Desktop Services sessions option.

5.20. Even when the scheduling policy is equal share, unequal GPU utilization is reported

Description

When the scheduling policy is equal share, unequal GPU engine utilization can be reported for the vGPUs on the same physical GPU.

For example, GPU engine usage for three P40-8Q vGPUs on a Tesla P40 GPU might be reported as follows:

[root@localhost:~] nvidia-smi vgpu
Wed Jun 27 10:33:18 2018
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 390.59                 Driver Version: 390.59                    |
|-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+
| GPU  Name                     | Bus-Id                         | GPU-Util   |
|      vGPU ID    Name          | VM ID    VM Name               | vGPU-Util  |
|===============================+================================+============|
|   0  Tesla P40                | 00000000:81:00.0               |  52%       |
|      2122661    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122682  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |     19%    |
|      2122663    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122692  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |      0%    |
|      2122659    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122664  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |     25%    |
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+
|   1  Tesla P40                | 00000000:85:00.0               |  58%       |
|      2122662    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122689  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |      0%    |
|      2122658    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122667  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |     59%    |
|      2122660    GRID P40-8Q   | 2122670  centos7.4-xmpl-211... |      0%    |
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+

The vGPU utilization of the vGPU 2122658 is reported as 59%. However, the expected vGPU utilization should not exceed 33%.

This behavior is a result of the mechanism that is used to measure GPU engine utilization.

Status

Open

Ref. #

2175888

5.21. When the scheduling policy is fixed share, GPU utilization is reported as higher than expected

Description

When the scheduling policy is fixed share, GPU engine utilization can be reported as higher than expected for a vGPU.

For example, GPU engine usage for six P40-4Q vGPUs on a Tesla P40 GPU might be reported as follows:

[root@localhost:~] nvidia-smi vgpu
Mon Aug 20 10:33:18 2018
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 390.42                 Driver Version: 390.42                    |
|-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+
| GPU  Name                     | Bus-Id                         | GPU-Util   |
|      vGPU ID    Name          | VM ID    VM Name               | vGPU-Util  |
|===============================+================================+============|
|   0  Tesla P40                | 00000000:81:00.0               |  99%       |
|      85109      GRID P40-4Q   | 85110    win7-xmpl-146048-1    |     32%    |
|      87195      GRID P40-4Q   | 87196    win7-xmpl-146048-2    |     39%    |
|      88095      GRID P40-4Q   | 88096    win7-xmpl-146048-3    |     26%    |
|      89170      GRID P40-4Q   | 89171    win7-xmpl-146048-4    |      0%    |
|      90475      GRID P40-4Q   | 90476    win7-xmpl-146048-5    |      0%    |
|      93363      GRID P40-4Q   | 93364    win7-xmpl-146048-6    |      0%    |
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+
|   1  Tesla P40                | 00000000:85:00.0               |   0%       |
+-------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------+

The vGPU utilization of vGPU 85109 is reported as 32%. For vGPU 87195, vGPU utilization is reported as 39%. And for 88095, it is reported as 26%. However, the expected vGPU utilization of any vGPU should not exceed approximately 16.7%.

This behavior is a result of the mechanism that is used to measure GPU engine utilization.

Status

Open

Ref. #

2227591

5.22. License is not acquired in Windows VMs

Description

When a windows VM configured with a licensed vGPU is started, the VM fails to acquire a license.

Error messages in the following format are written to the NVIDIA service logs:

[000000020.860152600 sec] - [Logging.lib]   ERROR: [nvGridLicensing.FlexUtility] 353@FlexUtility::LogFneError : Error: Failed to add trusted storage. Server URL : license-server-url - 
[1,7E2,2,1[7000003F,0,9B00A7]]
 
System machine type does not match expected machine type..

Workaround

This workaround requires administrator privileges.

  1. Stop the NVIDIA Display Container LS service.
  2. Delete the contents of the folder %SystemDrive%:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Grid Licensing.
  3. Start the NVIDIA Display Container LS service.

Status

Closed

Ref. #

200407287

5.23. nvidia-smi reports that vGPU migration is supported on all hypervisors

Description

The command nvidia-smi vgpu -m shows that vGPU migration is supported on all hypervisors, even hypervisors or hypervisor versions that do not support vGPU migration.

Status

Closed

Ref. #

200407230

5.24. Hot plugging and unplugging vCPUs causes a blue-screen crash in Windows VMs

Description

Hot plugging or unplugging vCPUs causes a blue-screen crash in Windows VMs that are running NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers.

When the blue-screen crash occurs, one of the following error messages may also be seen:

  • SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION(nvlddmkm.sys)
  • DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL(nvlddmkm.sys)

NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers do not support hot plugging and unplugging of vCPUs.

Status

Closed

Ref. #

2101499

5.25. Luxmark causes a segmentation fault on an unlicensed Linux client

Description

If the Luxmark application is run on a Linux guest VM configured with NVIDIA vGPU that is booted without acquiring a license, a segmentation fault occurs and the application core dumps. The fault occurs when the application cannot allocate a CUDA object on NVIDIA vGPUs where CUDA is disabled. On NVIDIA vGPUs that can support CUDA, CUDA is disabled in unlicensed mode.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug.

Ref. #

200330956

5.26. Resolution is not updated after a VM acquires a license and is restarted

Description

In a Red Enterprise Linux 7.3 guest VM, an increase in resolution from 1024×768 to 2560×1600 is not applied after a license is acquired and the gridd service is restarted. This issue occurs if the multimonitor parameter is added to the xorg.conf file.

Version

Red Enterprise Linux 7.3

Status

Open

Ref. #

200275925

5.27. A segmentation fault in DBus code causes nvidia-gridd to exit on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS

Description

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 and 6.9, and CentOS 6.8 and 6.9, a segmentation fault in DBus code causes the nvidia-gridd service to exit.

The nvidia-gridd service uses DBus for communication with NVIDIA X Server Settings to display licensing information through the Manage License page. Disabling the GUI for licensing resolves this issue.

To prevent this issue, the GUI for licensing is disabled by default. You might encounter this issue if you have enabled the GUI for licensing and are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 or 6.9, or CentOS 6.8 and 6.9.

Version

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 and 6.9

CentOS 6.8 and 6.9

Status

Open

Ref. #

  • 200358191
  • 200319854
  • 1895945

5.28. No Manage License option available in NVIDIA X Server Settings by default

Description

By default, the Manage License option is not available in NVIDIA X Server Settings. This option is missing because the GUI for licensing on Linux is disabled by default to work around the issue that is described in A segmentation fault in DBus code causes nvidia-gridd to exit on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS.

Workaround

This workaround requires sudo privileges.

Note: Do not use this workaround with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 and 6.9 or CentOS 6.8 and 6.9. To prevent a segmentation fault in DBus code from causing the nvidia-gridd service from exiting, the GUI for licensing must be disabled with these OS versions.

If you are licensing a physical GPU for vCS, you must use the configuration file /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf.

  1. If NVIDIA X Server Settings is running, shut it down.
  2. If the /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf file does not already exist, create it by copying the supplied template file /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf.template.

  3. As root, edit the /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf file to set the EnableUI option to TRUE.

  4. Start the nvidia-gridd service.

    # sudo service nvidia-gridd start

When NVIDIA X Server Settings is restarted, the Manage License option is now available.

Status

Open

5.29. Licenses remain checked out when VMs are forcibly powered off

Description

NVIDIA vGPU software licenses remain checked out on the license server when non-persistent VMs are forcibly powered off.

The NVIDIA service running in a VM returns checked out licenses when the VM is shut down. In environments where non-persistent licensed VMs are not cleanly shut down, licenses on the license server can become exhausted. For example, this issue can occur in automated test environments where VMs are frequently changing and are not guaranteed to be cleanly shut down. The licenses from such VMs remain checked out against their MAC address for seven days before they time out and become available to other VMs.

Resolution

If VMs are routinely being powered off without clean shutdown in your environment, you can avoid this issue by shortening the license borrow period. To shorten the license borrow period, set the LicenseInterval configuration setting in your VM image. For details, refer to Virtual GPU Client Licensing User Guide.

Status

Closed

Ref. #

1694975

5.30. VM bug checks after the guest VM driver for Windows 10 RS2 is installed

Description

When the VM is rebooted after the guest VM driver for Windows 10 RS2 is installed, the VM bug checks. When Windows boots, it selects one of the standard supported video modes. If Windows is booted directly with a display that is driven by an NVIDIA driver, for example a vGPU on Citrix Hypervisor, a blue screen crash occurs.

This issue occurs when the screen resolution is switched from VGA mode to a resolution that is higher than 1920×1200.

Fix

Download and install Microsoft Windows Update KB4020102 from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Workaround

If you have applied the fix, ignore this workaround.

Otherwise, you can work around this issue until you are able to apply the fix by not using resolutions higher than 1920×1200.

  1. Choose a GPU profile in Citrix XenCenter that does not allow resolutions higher than 1920×1200.
  2. Before rebooting the VM, set the display resolution to 1920×1200 or lower.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200310861

5.31. GNOME Display Manager (GDM) fails to start on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 and CentOS 7.0

Description

GDM fails to start on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 and CentOS 7.0 with the following error:

Oh no! Something has gone wrong!

Workaround

Permanently enable permissive mode for Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux).

  1. As root, edit the /etc/selinux/config file to set SELINUX to permissive.
    SELINUX=permissive
  2. Reboot the system.
    ~]# reboot

For more information, see Permissive Mode in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 SELinux User's and Administrator's Guide.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200167868

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