New Features in Release 15.4

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - October 2023, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

New Features in Release 15.3

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - June 2023, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 15.3

• Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 as a guest OS

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 15.3

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7 and 8.4 are no longer supported as a guest OS.

New Features in Release 15.2

• Support for authenticated local proxy servers by licensed clients of a Cloud License Service (CLS) instance
• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - March 2023, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 15.2

• Support for the for the following GPUs:
  • NVIDIA H800 PCIe 80GB
  • NVIDIA L4
• Support for Rocky Linux as a guest OS

Features Deprecated in Release 15.2

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 Although the features remain available in this release, they might be withdrawn in a future release.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 alternatives listed in the table.

New Features in Release 15.1

• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 15.1

• Support for the for the following GPUs:
  • NVIDIA L40
  • NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada
• Support for Windows 11 22H2 as a guest OS
• Support for Windows 10 2022 Update (22H2) as a guest OS

New Features in Release 15.0

• DCH packaging of the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver for Windows guest OSes
  Note: The results of this change are as follows:

  • The path to the registry key for configuring NVIDIA vGPU software licensing has changed. After an upgrade from a package that is not DCH compliant, license settings must be reconfigured in the registry key at the new path to ensure that a VM in which the driver has been upgraded can acquire a license.
  • NVIDIA System Management Interface, nvidia-smi, is now installed in a folder that is in the default executable path.
  • The NVWMI binary files are now installed in the Windows Driver Store under %SystemDrive%:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\.
  • NVWMI help information in Windows Help format is no longer installed with graphics driver for Windows guest OSes.
• Support for a mixture of TCC and WDM operation for Windows VMs to which multiple vGPUs are assigned
• Unified memory support on the following GPUs:
  • NVIDIA A100 (all variants)
  • NVIDIA A30
• Support for non-transparent local proxy servers when NVIDIA vGPU software is served licenses by a Cloud License Service (CLS) instance
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 15.0

• Support for the following GPUs:
  • NVIDIA A100 PCIe 80GB liquid cooled
  • NVIDIA A800 PCIe 80GB
  • NVIDIA A800 PCIe 80GB liquid cooled
  • NVIDIA A800 HGX 80GB
  • NVIDIA H100 PCIe 80GB

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 15.0

• The legacy NVIDIA vGPU software license server is no longer supported.
  Note: If you are using the legacy NVIDIA vGPU software license server to serve licenses for an earlier vGPU software release, you must migrate your licenses to NVIDIA License System as part of your upgrade to NVIDIA vGPU software 15.0. Otherwise, your guest VMs will not be able to acquire a license for NVIDIA vGPU software. For more information, refer to Migrating Licenses from a Legacy NVIDIA vGPU Software License Server in the NVIDIA License System documentation.
• All versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V role are no longer supported as a hypervisor.
• All versions of Microsoft Windows Server 2016 are no longer supported as a guest OS.

This release of NVIDIA vGPU software on Microsoft Windows Server provides support for several NVIDIA GPUs running on validated server hardware platforms. For a list of validated server platforms, refer to NVIDIA GRID Certified Servers.

The supported products for each type of NVIDIA vGPU software deployment depend on the GPU.

Since 15.1: GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Hopper Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Ampere Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Turing Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Volta Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Pascal™ Architecture

GPUs Based on the NVIDIA Maxwell Graphic Architecture

Description

A request to a Cloud License Service (CLS) instance for a vCS license from a Windows VM fails. This issue affects only Windows guest VMs that are configured with a general-purpose GPU in pass-through mode. A general-purpose GPU supports graphics acceleration in addition to compute workloads. When this issue occurs, NVIDIA License System (NLS) hangs after it is initialized.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software15.4

Ref. #

4253360

Description

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.3

Ref. #

4059416

Description

The NVIDIA Enterprise Management Toolkit (NVWMI) floods Windows application logs with Pipe operation failed messages. This issue affects only Windows guest VMs and has no functional impact other than the flooding of the Windows application logs.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.3

Ref. #

3896627

Description

On all supported Windows Server guest OS releases, NVIDIA Control Panel crashes if a user session is disconnected and then reconnected while NVIDIA Control Panel is open.

Version

This issue affects all supported Windows Server guest OS releases.

Status

Open

Ref. #

4086605

Description

The remote desktop connection is lost and the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver is unloaded after an attempt to access a VM over RDP and VMware Horizon agent direct connect. After an attempt to log in again, a black screen is displayed.

Workaround

To recover from this issue, reboot the VM.

Since 15. 2: To prevent this issue from occurring, disable translation lookaside buffer (TLB) invalidation by setting the vGPU plugin parameter tlb_invalidate_enabled to 0.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.3

Ref. #

3596327

Description

After the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics for windows has been installed in the guest VM, the driver sends a remote call to ngx.download.nvidia.com to download and install additional components. Such a remote call might be a security issue.

Workaround

Before running the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver installer, disable the remote call to ngx.download.nvidia.com by setting the following Windows registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NGXCore]
"EnableOTA"=dword:00000000

Status

Open

Ref. #

4031840

Description

Mismatch between client and server with respect to licenses held. Returning the licenses

Version

This issue affects only Windows guest VMs.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.2

Ref. #

3835855

Description

After a remoting session has been reconnected to several times or the screen has been resized several times, the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver can be randomly left in a state where it cannot drive the display. This issue affects only Windows guest VMs. Linux guest VMs are not affected.

Because the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver is not driving the display, this issue can cause visible performance degradation.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.2

Ref. #

3956112

Description

The Desktop Window Manager process has exited. 
(Process exit code: 0xe0464645, Restart count: 1, Primary display device ID: )

Version

This issue affects only the Windows Server 2022 guest OS.

Workaround

Periodically restart the Windows Server 2022 guest VM to prevent all frame buffer from being consumed.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3583766

Description

A licensed client of NVIDIA License System (NLS) fails to acquire a license with the error The allowed time to process response has expired. This error can affect clients of a Cloud License Service (CLS) instance or a Delegated License Service (DLS) instance.

This error occurs when the time difference between the system clocks on the client and the server that hosts the CLS or DLS instance is greater than 10 minutes. A common cause of this error is the failure of either the client or the server to adjust its system clock when daylight savings time begins or ends. The failure to acquire a license is expected to prevent clock windback from causing licensing errors.

Workaround

Ensure that system clock time of the client and any server that hosts a DLS instance match the current time in the time zone where they are located.

Status

Not a bug

Ref. #

3859889

Description

In an environment with multiple active desktop sessions, the Manage License page of NVIDIA Control Panel shows that a licensed system is unlicensed. However, the nvidia-smi command and the management interface of the NVIDIA vGPU software license server correctly show that the system is licensed. When an active session is disconnected and reconnected, the NVIDIA Display Container service crashes.

The Manage License page incorrectly shows that the system is unlicensed because of stale data in NVIDIA Control Panel in an environment with multiple sessions. The data is stale because NVIDIA Control Panel fails to get and update the settings for remote sessions when multiple sessions or no sessions are active in the VM. The NVIDIA Display Container service crashes when a session is reconnected because the session is not active at the moment of reconnection.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3761243

Description

VP9 and AV1 decoding with web browsers are not supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2019 and later supported releases. This issue occurs because starting with Windows Server 2019, the required codecs are not included with the OS and are not available through the Microsoft Store app. As a result, hardware decoding is not available for viewing YouTube videos or using collaboration tools such as Google Meet in a web browser.

Version

This issue affects Microsoft Windows Server releases starting with Windows Server 2019.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200756564

Description

On all supported Windows Server guest OS releases, NVIDIA Control Panel is started only for the RDP user that logs on first. Other users cannot start NVIDIA Control Panel. If more than one RDP user is logged on when NVIDIA Control Panel is started, it always opens in the session of the RDP user that logged on first, irrespective of which user started NVIDIA Control Panel. Furthermore, on Windows Server 2016, NVIDIA Control Panel crashes if a user session is disconnected and then reconnected while NVIDIA Control Panel is open.

Version

This issue affects all supported Windows Server guest OS releases.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 15.2

Ref. #

3334310

Description

After the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver for Linux is upgraded from an RPM package in a licensed VM, licensing fails. The nvidia-smi vgpu -q command shows the driver version and license status as N/A. Restarting the nvidia-gridd service fails with a Unit not found error.

Workaround

Perform a clean installation of the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver for Linux from an RPM package.

1. Remove the currently installed driver.

2. Install the new version of the driver.

   $ rpm -iv nvidia-linux-grid-525_525.147.05_amd64.rpm

Status

Open

Ref. #

3512766

Description

After the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver for Linux is upgraded from a Debian package, the driver is not loaded into the VM.

Workaround

Use one of the following workarounds to load the driver into the VM:

• Reboot the VM.
• Remove the nvidia module from the Linux kernel and reinsert it into the kernel.

  1. Remove the nvidia module from the Linux kernel.

     $ sudo rmmod nvidia

  2. Reinsert the nvidia module into the Linux kernel.

     $ sudo modprobe nvidia

Status

Not a bug

Ref. #

200748806

Description

If a proxy is set with a system environment variable such as HTTP_PROXY or HTTPS_PROXY, a licensed client might fail to acquire a license.

Workaround

Perform this workaround on each affected licensed client.

1. Add the address of the NVIDIA vGPU software license server to the system environment variable NO_PROXY.

   The address must be specified exactly as it is specified in the client's license server settings either as a fully-qualified domain name or an IP address. If the NO_PROXY environment variable contains multiple entries, separate the entries with a comma (,).

   If high availability is configured for the license server, add the addresses of the primary license server and the secondary license server to the system environment variable NO_PROXY.

2. Restart the NVIDIA driver service that runs the core NVIDIA vGPU software logic.

   • On Windows, restart the NVIDIA Display Container service.
   • On Linux, restart the nvidia-gridd service.

Status

Closed

Ref. #

200704733

Description

Disconnected sessions cannot be reconnected or might be reconnected very slowly when the NVIDIA Enterprise Management Toolkit (NVWMI) is installed. This issue affects Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and VMware Horizon sessions on Windows guest VMs.

Workaround

Uninstall NVWMI.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3262923

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

Restart the VM and wait at least 30 seconds before trying to launch NVIDIA Control Panel.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200623179

Description

When a window is dragged across the desktop in a Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops session, corruption of the session in the form of residual window borders occurs.

Version

This issue affects only Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops version 7 2003

Workaround

Use Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops version 7 1912 or 2006.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200608675

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

Description

Microsoft Discrete Device Assignment (DDA) fails with GPUs that have more than 16 GB of GPU memory. After the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver is installed in the guest VM, a second display device appears on the GPU and the driver prompts for a reboot. After the reboot, the device disappears and the Microsoft Hyper-V Video device appears.

This issue occurs because less memory-mapped input/output (MMIO) space is configured for the operating system than the device requires.

Workaround

Perform this workaround in a Windows Power Shell window on the hypervisor host.

Set the upper MMIO space to the amount that the device requires to allow all of the MMIO to be mapped. Upper MMIO space starts at approximately 64 GB in address space.

Set-VM –HighMemoryMappedIoSpace mmio-space –VMName vm-name

mmio-space

The amount of MMIO space that the device requires, appended with the appropriate unit of measurement, for example, 64GB for 64 GB of MMIO space.

The required amount of MMIO space depends on the amount of BAR1 memory on the installed GPUs and the number of GPUs assigned to the VM as follows:

mmio-space = 2 ˟ gpu-bar1-memory ˟ assigned-gpus

gpu-bar1-memory

The amount of BAR1 memory on one of the installed GPUs. For example, in a server in which eight GPUs are installed and each GPU has 32 GB of BAR1 memory, gpu-bar1-memory is 32 GB.

assigned-gpus

The number of GPUs assigned to the VM.

vm-name

The name of the VM to which the GPU is assigned.

The following example sets the upper MMIO space to 64 GB for the VM named mygpuvm, to which one GPU with 32 GB of BAR1 memory is assigned.

Set-VM –HighMemoryMappedIoSpace 64GB –VMName mygpuvm

For more information, see Deploy graphics devices using Discrete Device Assignment on the Microsoft technical documentation site.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

2812853

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

Description

After the Linux kernel is upgraded (for example by running sudo apt full-upgrade) with Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) enabled, the nvidia-smi command fails to run. If DKMS is enabled, an upgrade to the Linux kernel triggers a rebuild of the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver. The rebuild of the driver fails because the compiler version is incorrect. Any attempt to reinstall the driver fails because the kernel fails to build.

When the failure occurs, the following messages are displayed:

-> Installing DKMS kernel module:
        ERROR: Failed to run `/usr/sbin/dkms build -m nvidia -v  525.60.13 -k 5.3.0-28-generic`: 
        Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping...
        Building module:
        cleaning build area...
        'make' -j8 NV_EXCLUDE_BUILD_MODULES='' KERNEL_UNAME=5.3.0-28-generic IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH='' modules...(bad exit status: 2)
        ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for nvidia:  525.60.13 not found
        Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.3.0-28-generic (x86_64)
        Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/ 525.60.13/build/make.log for more information.
        -> error.
        ERROR: Failed to install the kernel module through DKMS. No kernel module was installed;
        please try installing again without DKMS, or check the DKMS logs for more information.
        ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details.
        You may find suggestions on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

Workaround

When installing the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver with DKMS enabled, use one of the following workarounds:

• Before running the driver installer, install the dkms package, then run the driver installer with the -dkms option.
• Run the driver installer with the --no-cc-version-check option.

Status

Not a bug.

Ref. #

2836271

Description

If a VM on Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V role is reset from the hypervisor host, a blue screen crash (BSOD) occurs on Windows VMs and the nvidia-smi command reports No devices were found on Linux VMs. This issue occurs only on Windows Server 2019 with Tesla T4 GPUs with SRIOV enabled, Quadro RTX 8000 passive GPUs, and Quadro RTX 6000 passive GPUs.

Workaround

Contact NVIDIA Enterprise Support for a workaround for this issue, referencing the knowledge base article Workaround for Blue Screen Crashes On Hyper-V DDA With SRIOV-Enabled GPUs. This article is available only to NVIDIA Enterprise Support personnel.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200567935

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

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.

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

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.

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

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