New Features in Release 5.0

• New NVIDIA vGPU schedulers for GPUs based on the NVIDIA Pascal architecture
• Support for NVML and nvidia-smi on 32-bit Windows VMs
• Application-level monitoring of NVIDIA vGPU engine utilization
• Encoder session monitoring
• Support for NVENC on Linux NVIDIA vGPUs
• Software enforcement of licensing requirements
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 5.0

• GRID K1 and GRID K2 GPUs are no longer supported.

New Features in Release 5.1

• Miscellaneous bug fixes

New Features in Release 5.2

• New default values for the license borrow time and license linger time:
  • The default license borrow time is reduced from 7 days to 1 day.
  • The default license linger time is reduced from 10 minutes to 0 minutes.
• New setting LingerInterval for overriding the default license linger time
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Description

A VM running a version of the NVIDIA guest VM drivers from a previous main release branch, for example release 4.4, will fail to initialize vGPU when booted on a Huawei UVP platform running the current release of Virtual GPU Manager.

In this scenario, 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)

Depending on the versions of drivers in use, the Huawei UVP VM’s /var/log/messages log file reports one of the following errors:

• An error message:

  vmiop_log: error: Unable to fetch Guest NVIDIA driver information

• A version mismatch between guest and host drivers:

  vmiop_log: error: Guest VGX version(1.1) and Host VGX version(1.2) do not match

• A signature mismatch:

  vmiop_log: error: VGPU message signature mismatch.

Resolution

Install the current NVIDIA guest VM driver in the VM.

Description

Tesla M60, Tesla M6, and GPUs based on the Pascal GPU architecture, for example Tesla P100 or Tesla P4, support error correcting code (ECC) memory for improved data integrity. Tesla M60 and M6 GPUs in graphics mode are supplied with ECC memory disabled by default, but it may subsequently be enabled using nvidia-smi. GPUs based on the Pascal GPU architecture are supplied with ECC memory enabled.

However, NVIDIA vGPU does not support ECC memory. If ECC memory is enabled, NVIDIA vGPU fails to start.

The following error is logged in the Huawei UVP VM’s /var/log/messages log file:

vmiop_log: error: Initialization: VGX not supported with ECC Enabled.

Resolution

Ensure that ECC is disabled on all GPUs.

Before you begin, ensure that NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager is installed on your hypervisor.

1. Use nvidia-smi to list the status of all GPUs, and check for ECC noted as enabled on GPUs.

   # nvidia-smi -q
   
   ==============NVSMI LOG==============
   
   Timestamp                           : Tue Dec 19 18:36:45 2017
   Driver Version                      : 384.99
   
   Attached GPUs                       : 1
   GPU 0000:02:00.0
   
   [...]
   
       Ecc Mode
           Current                     : Enabled
           Pending                     : Enabled
   
   [...]

2. Change the ECC status to off on each GPU for which ECC is enabled.
   • If you want to change the ECC status to off for all GPUs on your host machine, run this command:

     # nvidia-smi -e 0

   • If you want to change the ECC status to off for a specific GPU, run this command:

     # nvidia-smi -i id -e 0

     id is the index of the GPU as reported by nvidia-smi.

     This example disables ECC for the GPU with index 0000:02:00.0.

     # nvidia-smi -i 0000:02:00.0 -e 0

3. Reboot the host.

   # reboot

4. Confirm that ECC is now disabled for the GPU.

   # nvidia-smi -q
   
   ==============NVSMI LOG==============
   
   Timestamp                           : Tue Dec 19 18:37:53 2017
   Driver Version                      : 384.99
   
   Attached GPUs                       : 1
   GPU 0000:02:00.0
   [...]
   
       Ecc Mode
           Current                     : Disabled
           Pending                     : Disabled
   
   [...]

If you later need to enable ECC on your GPUs, run one of the following commands:

• If you want to change the ECC status to on for all GPUs on your host machine, run this command:

  # nvidia-smi -e 1

• If you want to change the ECC status to on for a specific GPU, run this command:

  # nvidia-smi -i id -e 1

  id is the index of the GPU as reported by nvidia-smi.

  This example enables ECC for the GPU with index 0000:02:00.0.

  # nvidia-smi -i 0000:02:00.0 -e 1

After changing the ECC status to on, reboot the host.

Description

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

Aside from performance differences that may be attributed to a vGPU’s smaller framebuffer size, vGPU incorporates a performance balancing feature known as Frame Rate Limiter (FRL), which is enabled on all vGPUs. 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 passthrough GPU.

Resolution

FRL is controlled by an internal vGPU setting. NVIDIA does not validate vGPU with FRL disabled, but for validation of benchmark performance, FRL can be temporarily disabled by setting plugin0.frame_rate_limiter=0 in the vGPU configuration file. vGPU configuration files are stored in /usr/share/nvidia/vgx and are named for the vGPU types they define, for example, grid_k100.conf.

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

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 by setting plugin0.frame_rate_limiter=1 in the vGPU configuration file.

Description

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

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

This is because GPUs operating in passthrough mode are not visible to nvidia-smi and the NVIDIA kernel driver operating in the Huawei UVP dom0.

Resolution

N/A

Description

When starting multiple VMs configured with large amounts of RAM (typically more than 32GB per VM), a VM may fail to initialize vGPU. In this scenario, the VM boots in standard VGA mode with reduced resolution and color depth. The NVIDIA virtual GPU software 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)

The Huawei UVP VM’s /var/log/messages log file contains these error messages:

vmiop_log: error: NVOS status 0x29
vmiop_log: error: Assertion Failed at 0x7620fd4b:179
vmiop_log: error: 8 frames returned by backtrace
...
vmiop_log: error: VGPU message 12 failed, result code: 0x29
...
vmiop_log: error: NVOS status 0x8
vmiop_log: error: Assertion Failed at 0x7620c8df:280
vmiop_log: error: 8 frames returned by backtrace
...
vmiop_log: error: VGPU message 26 failed, result code: 0x8

Resolution

vGPU reserves a portion of the VM’s framebuffer for use in GPU mapping of VM system memory. The reservation is sufficient to support up to 32GB of system memory, and may be increased to accommodate up to 64GB by specifying plugin0.enable_large_sys_mem=1 in the vGPU configuration file.

vGPU configuration files are stored in /usr/share/nvidia/vgx and are named for the vGPU types they define, for example, grid_k100.conf.

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

With this setting in place, less GPU FB is available to applications running in the VM. To accommodate system memory larger than 64GB, the reservation can be further increased by specifying plugin0.extra_fb_reservation in the vGPU configuration file, setting its value to the desired reservation size in megabytes. The default value of 64M is sufficient to support 64GB of RAM. We recommend adding 2M of reservation for each additional 1GB of system memory. For example, to support 96GB of RAM, set extra_fb_reservation to 128:

plugin0.extra_fb_reservation=128 

The reservation can be reverted back to its default setting in one of the following ways:

• Removing enable_large_sys_mem from the vGPU configuration file
• Setting enable_large_sys_mem=0

Description

Upgrading vGPU host driver RPM fails with an error message about failed dependencies on the console.

[root@uvp ~]# rpm –U NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-uvp-210.0-352.70.x86_64
error: Failed dependencies: NVIDIA-vgx-uvp conflicts with NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-uvp-210.0-352.70.x86_64
[root@uvp ~]#

Resolution

Uninstall the older vGPU RPM before installing the latest driver.

Use the following command to uninstall the older vGPU RPM:

[root@uvp ~]# rpm –e NVIDIA-vgx-uvp

Description

In Linux guest VMs, the license expires before the default borrow period has elapsed. In normal operation, the license is renewed periodically at an interval that depends on the license borrow period. As a result, a failure to renew the license may cause the license to expire before the default borrow period has elapsed.

Workaround

To reduce the possibility of license-renewal failures caused by transient network issues, increase the license borrow period to a value of about 7 days.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200376678

Description

After an Ubuntu 14.04 guest VM has acquired a license, multiple display heads connected to the VM are not detected.

Version

Ubuntu 14.04

Workaround

To see all the connected display heads after the VM has acquired a license, open the Displays settings window and click Detect displays.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200334648

Description

On GPUs based on the Pascal architecture, Ubuntu VMs to which an NVIDIA vGPU or pass-through GPU is assigned run slowly after acquiring a license. Ubuntu VMs that have not been assigned an NVIDIA vGPUor pass-through GPU run noticeably faster.

Workaround

After the VM has acquired a license, restart the lightdm service.

Status

Open.

Ref. #

200359618

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

Description

GPU encoder and process utilization counter groups are listed in Windows Performance Counters, but no instances of the counters are available. The counters are disabled by default and must be enabled.

Workaround

Enable the counters by running the following sequence of commands from a command shell:

wmic /namespace:nv path System call enableProcessUtilizationPerfCounter

wmic /namespace:nv path System call enableEncoderSessionsPerfCounter

If you need to disable the counters, run the following sequence of commands from a command shell:

wmic /namespace:nv path System call disableProcessUtilizationPerfCounter

wmic /namespace:nv path System call disableEncoderSessionsPerfCounter

Status

Open

Ref. #

1971698

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.

Since 5.1: The GUI for licensing is disabled by default.

Version

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 and 6.9

CentOS 6.8 and 6.9

NVIDIA virtual GPU software 5.0

5.0 Only: Workaround

This workaround requires sudo privileges.

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

2. Start the nvidia-gridd service.

   # sudo service nvidia-gridd start

3. Confirm that the nvidia-gridd service has obtained a license by examining the log messages written to /var/log/messages.

   # sudo grep gridd /var/log/messages
   …
   Aug 5 15:40:06 localhost nvidia-gridd: Started (4293)
   Aug 5 15:40:24 localhost nvidia-gridd: License acquired successfully.

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.

Version

NVIDIA virtual GPU software 5.1

Workaround

This workaround requires sudo privileges.

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

The nvidia-gridd service exits with an error because the required configuration is not provided.

The known issue described in A segmentation fault in DBus code causes nvidia-gridd to exit on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS causes the NVIDIA X Server Settings page for managing licensing settings through a GUI to be disabled by default. As a result, if the required license configuration is not provided through the configuration file, the service exits with an error.

Details of the error can be obtained by checking the status of the nvidia-gridd service.

# service nvidia-gridd status
nvidia-gridd.service - NVIDIA Grid Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nvidia-gridd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2017-11-01 19:25:07 IST; 27s ago
  Process: 11990 ExecStopPost=/bin/rm -rf /var/run/nvidia-gridd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 11905 ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-gridd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 11906 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Nov 01 19:24:35 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting NVIDIA Grid Daemon...
Nov 01 19:24:35 localhost.localdomain nvidia-gridd[11906]: Started (11906)
Nov 01 19:24:35 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started NVIDIA Grid Daemon.
Nov 01 19:24:36 localhost.localdomain nvidia-gridd[11906]:  Failed to open config file : /etc/nvidia/gridd.conf error :No such file or directory
Nov 01 19:25:07 localhost.localdomain nvidia-gridd[11906]: Service provider detection complete.
Nov 01 19:25:07 localhost.localdomain nvidia-gridd[11906]: Shutdown (11906)
Nov 01 19:25:07 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: nvidia-gridd.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Nov 01 19:25:07 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit nvidia-gridd.service entered failed state.
Nov 01 19:25:07 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: nvidia-gridd.service failed.

Workaround

Use a configuration file to license NVIDIA virtual GPU software on Linux as explained in Virtual GPU Client Licensing User Guide.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200359469

Description

After the mode is changed from licensed Quadro Virtual Datacenter Workstation Edition mode to Unlicensed Tesla mode, the Apply button on the Manage GRID License page is disabled. As a result, NVIDIA X Server Settings cannot be used to switch to Tesla (Unlicensed) mode on a licensed system.

Workaround

1. Start NVIDIA X Server Settings by using the method for launching applications provided by your Linux distribution.
2. In the NVIDIA X Server Settings window that opens, click Manage GRID License.
3. Clear the Primary Server field.
4. Select the Tesla (unlicensed) option.
5. Click Apply.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200359624

Description

NVIDIA virtual GPU 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

Description

Running intensive WebGL applications in multiple IE tabs may trigger a TDR on Windows VMs.

Workaround

Disable hardware acceleration in IE.

To enable software rendering in IE, refer to the Microsoft knowledge base article How to enable or disable software rendering in Internet Explorer.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200148377