Linux with KVM

Virtual GPU Software R450 for Linux with KVM Release Notes

Release information for all users of NVIDIA virtual GPU software and hardware on supported Linux with KVM hypervisors.

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

For details of which Linux with KVM releases are supported, see Hypervisor Software Releases.

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 an incompatible 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.

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

The following table lists the specific software releases that are compatible with the components in the NVIDIA vGPU software 11 major release branch.

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.

• NVIDIA vGPU Manager from a later major release branch with guest VM drivers from two or more major releases before the release of the vGPU Manager
• NVIDIA vGPU Manager from an earlier major release branch with guest VM drivers from a later branch

The following table lists the specific software releases that are incompatible with the components in the NVIDIA vGPU software 11 major release branch.

1.3. Updates in Release 11.13

New Features in Release 11.13

• 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

1.4. Updates in Release 11.12

New Features in Release 11.12

• 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

1.5. Updates in Release 11.11

New Features in Release 11.11

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - November 2022, which is updated shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page

1.6. Updates in Release 11.10

New Features in Release 11.10

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - November 2022, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.7. Updates in Release 11.9

New Features in Release 11.9

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - August 2022, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.8. Updates in Release 11.8

New Features in Release 11.8

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - May 2022, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.9. Updates in Release 11.7

New Features in Release 11.7

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - February 2022, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.10. Updates in Release 11.6

New Features in Release 11.6

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - October 2021, which is posted shortly after the release date of this software and is listed on the NVIDIA Product Security page
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.11. Updates in Release 11.5

New Features in Release 11.5

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - July 2021
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.12. Updates in Release 11.4

New Features in Release 11.4

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - April 2021
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.13. Updates in Release 11.3

New Features in Release 11.3

• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - January 2021
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.14. Updates in Release 11.2

New Features in Release 11.2

• Miscellaneous bug fixes

1.15. Updates in Release 11.1

New Features in Release 11.1

• Support for Multi-Instance GPU (MIG)-backed vGPUs on GPUs that support MIG
• Support for GPUDirect^® technology remote direct memory access (RDMA)
• Security updates - see Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Driver - September 2020
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

Hardware and Software Support Introduced in Release 11.1

• Support for the following GPUs:
  • NVIDIA A100 PCIe 40GB
  • NVIDIA A100 HGX 40GB

Feature Support Withdrawn in Release 11.1

• Windows Server 2012 R2 is no longer supported as a guest OS with GPUs based on architectures after NVIDIA Turing™ architecture.

1.16. Updates in Release 11.0

New Features in Release 11.0

• Cross-branch driver support

  This change allows a release of the Virtual GPU Manager from a later major release branch to be used with the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers for the guest VMs from the previous branch.

• Licensing grace period for unlicensed virtual GPUs and physical GPUs

  An unlicensed virtual GPU or physical GPU initially operates at full capability but its performance is degraded over time if a license is not obtained.

• Miscellaneous bug fixes

This release family of NVIDIA vGPU software provides support for several NVIDIA GPUs on validated server hardware platforms, Linux with KVM hypervisor software versions, and guest operating systems. It also supports the version of NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit that is compatible with R450 drivers.

2.1. Supported NVIDIA GPUs and Validated Server Platforms

For information about supported NVIDIA GPUs and the validated server hardware platforms on which they run, consult the documentation from your hypervisor vendor.

2.2. Hypervisor Software Releases

NVIDIA vGPU software is supported on Linux with KVM platforms only by specific hypervisor software vendors. For information about which NVIDIA vGPU software releases and hypervisor software releases are supported, consult the documentation from your hypervisor vendor.

2.3. Guest OS Support

For information about Windows releases and Linux distributions supported as a guest OS, consult the documentation from your hypervisor vendor.

2.4. NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit Version Support

The releases in this release family of NVIDIA vGPU software support NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 11.0.

To build a CUDA application, the system must have the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit and the libraries required for linking. For details of the components of NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit, refer to CUDA Toolkit 11.0 Release Notes for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.

To run a CUDA application, the system must have a CUDA-enabled GPU and an NVIDIA display driver that is compatible with the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit release that was used to build the application. If the application relies on dynamic linking for libraries, the system must also have the correct version of these libraries.

For more information about NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit, refer to CUDA Toolkit 11.0 Documentation.

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 Linux with KVM releases.

Supported vGPUs

Only Q-series and C-series time-sliced vGPUs that are allocated all of the physical GPU's frame buffer are supported. MIG-backed vGPUs are not supported.

Maximum vGPUs per VM

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

Supported Hypervisor Releases

For information about which hypervisor software releases support the assignment of more than one vGPU device to a VM, consult the documentation from your hypervisor vendor.

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 are supported only on a subset of vGPUs, Linux with KVM releases, and guest OS releases.

Supported vGPUs

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

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.
• Only time-sliced vGPUs are supported. MIG-backed vGPUs are not supported.
• PCIe is not supported.
• SLI is not supported.

2.7. Since 11.1: GPUDirect Technology Support

GPUDirect^® technology remote direct memory access (RDMA) enables network devices to directly access vGPU frame buffer, bypassing CPU host memory altogether. GPUDirect technology is supported only on a subset of vGPUs and guest OS releases.

Supported vGPUs

Only C-series vGPUs that are allocated all of the physical GPU's frame buffer on physical GPUs based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture are supported. Both time-sliced and MIG-backed vGPUs that meet these requirements are supported.

Supported Guest OS Releases

Linux only. GPUDirect technology is not supported on Windows.

Supported Network Interface Cards

GPUDirect technology RDMA is supported on the following network interface cards:

• Mellanox Connect-X^® 6 SmartNIC
• Mellanox Connect-X 5 Ethernet adapter card

Limitations

Only GPUDirect technology RDMA is supported. GPUDirect technology storage is not supported.

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

3.1. NVENC does not support resolutions greater than 4096×4096

Description

The NVIDIA hardware-based H.264 video encoder (NVENC) does not support resolutions greater than 4096×4096. This restriction applies to all NVIDIA GPU architectures and is imposed by the GPU encoder hardware itself, not by NVIDIA vGPU software. The maximum supported resolution for each encoding scheme is listed in the documentation for NVIDIA Video Codec SDK. This limitation affects any remoting tool where H.264 encoding is used with a resolution greater than 4096×4096. Most supported remoting tools fall back to software encoding in such scenarios.

Workaround

If your GPU is based on a GPU architecture later than the NVIDIA Maxwell^® architecture, use H.265 encoding. H.265 is more efficient than H.264 encoding and has a maximum resolution of 8192×8192. On GPUs based on the NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, H.265 has the same maximum resolution as H.264, namely 4096×4096.

3.2. 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.

3.3. 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.

3.4. 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 + compression-adjustment

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.

compression-adjustment

The amount of frame buffer in Mbytes that is reserved for the higher compression overhead in vGPU types with 12 Gbytes or more of frame buffer on GPUs based on the Turing architecture.

compression-adjustment depends on the vGPU type as shown in the following table.

vGPU Type	Compression Adjustment (MB)
T4-16Q T4-16C T4-16A	28
RTX6000-12Q RTX6000-12C RTX6000-12A	32
RTX6000-24Q RTX6000-24C RTX6000-24A	104
RTX6000P-12Q RTX6000P-12C RTX6000P-12A	32
RTX6000P-24Q RTX6000P-24C RTX6000P-24A	104
RTX8000-12Q RTX8000-12C RTX8000-12A	32
RTX8000-16Q RTX8000-16C RTX8000-16A	64
RTX8000-24Q RTX8000-24C RTX8000-24A	96
RTX8000-48Q RTX8000-48C RTX8000-48A	238
RTX8000P-12Q RTX8000P-12C RTX8000P-12A	32
RTX8000P-16Q RTX8000P-16C RTX8000P-16A	64
RTX8000P-24Q RTX8000P-24C RTX8000P-24A	96
RTX8000P-48Q RTX8000P-48C RTX8000P-48A	238

For all other vGPU types, compression-adjustment is 0.

3.5. 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. In pass through mode, all GPUs connected to each other through NVLink must be assigned to the same VM

Description

In pass through mode, all GPUs connected to each other through NVLink must be assigned to the same VM. If a subset of GPUs connected to each other through NVLink is passed through to a VM, unrecoverable error XID 74 occurs when the VM is booted. This error corrupts the NVLink state on the physical GPUs and, as a result, the NVLink bridge between the GPUs is unusable.

Workaround

Restore the NVLink state on the physical GPUs by resetting the GPUs or rebooting the hypervisor host.

3.7. 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.

3.8. 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.

3.9. 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 Linux with KVM platform running that release of Virtual GPU Manager.

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 branch two or more major releases before the current release, for example release 9.4.

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

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  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 Linux with KVM VM’s /var/log/messages log file reports the following error:

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  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.

3.10. 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.

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   # 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.

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   # 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:

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

3.11. 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 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

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 11.13

Issues Resolved in Release 11.12

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.11

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.10

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.9

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.8

            

            
General data transfer failure. Couldn't resolve host name
        

Issues Resolved in Release 11.7

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.6

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.5

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

Issues Resolved in Release 11.4

Issues Resolved in Release 11.3

Issues Resolved in Release 11.2

Issues Resolved in Release 11.1

Issues Resolved in Release 11.0

5.1. NVIDIA Control Panel crashes if a user session is disconnected and reconnected

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

5.2. 11.0-11.12 Only: Remote desktop connection is lost and the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver is unloaded

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. When this issue occurs, the following errors are written to the log files on the guest VM:

• A timeout detection and recovery (TDR) error:
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  vmiop_log: (0x0): Timeout occurred, reset initiated.
  vmiop_log: (0x0): TDR_DUMP:0x52445456 0x006907d0 0x000001cc 0x00000001
          

• XID error 43:
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  vmiop_log: (0x0): XID 43 detected on physical_chid
          

• vGPU error 22:
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  vmiop_log: (0x0): VGPU message 22 failed
          

• Guest driver unloaded error:
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  vmiop_log: (0x0): Guest driver unloaded!
          

Workaround

To recover from this issue, reboot the VM.

11.12 only: 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 11.13

Ref. #

3596327

5.3. NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver fails to load on KVM-based hypervsiors

Description

The NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver fails to load on hypervsiors based on Linux with KVM. This issue affects UEFI VMs configured with a vGPU or pass-through GPU that requires a large BAR address space. This issue does not affect VMs that are booted in legacy BIOS mode. The issue occurs because BAR resources are not mapped into the VM.

Workaround

1. In virsh, open for editing the XML document of the VM to which the vGPU or GPU is assigned.
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   # virsh edit vm-name
           

   vm-name

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

2. Declare the custom libvirt XML namespace that supports command-line pass through of QEMU arguments.

   Declare this namesapce by modifying the start tag of the top-level domain element in the first line of the XML document.

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   <domain type='kvm' xmlns:qemu='http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0'>
           

3. At the end of the XML document, between the </devices> end tag and the </domain> end tag, add the highlighted qemu elements.

   These elements pass the QEMU arguments for mapping the required BAR resources into the VM.

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   </devices>
     <qemu:commandline> <qemu:arg value='-fw_cfg'/> <qemu:arg value='opt/ovmf/X-PciMmio64Mb,string=262144'/> </qemu:commandline>
   </domain>
           

4. Start the VM to which the vGPU or GPU is assigned.
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   # virsh start vm-name
           

   vm-name

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

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200719557

5.4. With multiple active sessions, NVIDIA Control Panel incorrectly shows that the system is unlicensed

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

5.5. VP9 and AV1 decoding with web browsers are not supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2019

Description

VP9 and AV1 decoding with web browsers are not supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2019. 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

5.6. 11.0-11.7 Only: Linux VM might fail to return a license after shutdown if the license server is specified by its name

Description

If the license server is specified by its fully qualified domain name, a Linux VM might fail to return its license when the VM is shut down. This issue occurs if the nvidia-gridd service cannot resolve the fully qualified domain name of the license server because systemd-resolved.service is not available when the service attempts to return the license. When this issue occurs, the nvidia-gridd service writes the following message to the systemd journal:

            

            
General data transfer failure. Couldn't resolve host name
        

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.8

Ref. #

200756399

5.7. NVIDIA Control Panel is started only for the RDP user that logs on first

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

Open

Ref. #

3334310

5.8. 11.0-11.7 Only: Windows vGPU VM sometimes crashes after guest OS upgrade

Description

When a VM that is configured with NVIDIA vGPU is rebooted after an OS upgrade from Windows 10 1909 to Windows 10 20H2, the VM sometimes crashes. This issue is caused by a NULL pointer exception in the Virtual GPU Manager plugin (libnvidia-vgx.so). This NULL pointer exception might also cause the VM to crash in other situations. When this issue occurs, error messages that indicate that the Virtual GPU Manager process crashed are written to the standard activity log /var/log/messages on the hypervisor host.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.8

Ref. #

3465448

5.9. 11.0-11.7 Only: Memory leaks in the vGPU manager plugin cause the VM to hang

Description

Applications running in a VM request memory to be allocated and freed by the vGPU manager plugin, which runs on the hypervisor host. When an application requests the vGPU manager plugin to free previously allocated memory, some of the memory is not freed. Some applications request memory more frequently than other applications. If such applications run for a long period of time, for example for two or more days, the failure to free all allocated memory might cause the hypervisor host to run out of memory. As a result, memory allocation for applications running in the VM might fail, causing the applications and, sometimes, the VM to hang. When memory allocation fails, the error messages that are written to the log file on the hypervisor host depend on the hypervisor.

• For VMware vSphere ESXi, the following error messages are written to vmware.log:
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  2021-10-05T04:57:35.547Z| vthread-2329002| E110: vmiop_log: Fail to create the buffer for translate pte rpc node
  
  2021-06-05T10:48:33.007Z| vcpu-3| E105: PANIC: Unrecoverable memory allocation failure
          

• For Citrix Hypervisor and hypervisors based on Linux KVM, the following messages are written to the standard activity log in the /var/log directory (/var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog):
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  Feb 15 09:27:48 bkrzxen1 kernel: [1278743.170072] Out of memory: Kill process 20464 (vgpu) score 9 or sacrifice child
  
  Feb 15 09:27:48 bkrzxen1 kernel: [1278743.170111] Killed process 20464 (vgpu) total-vm:305288kB, anon-rss:56508kB, file-rss:30828kB, shmem-rss:0kB
  
  Feb 15 09:27:48 bkrzxen1 kernel: [1278743.190484] oom_reaper: reaped process 20464 (vgpu), now anon-rss:0kB, file-rss:27748kB, shmem-rss:4kB".
          

Workaround

If an application or a VM hangs after a long period of usage, restart the VM every couple of days to prevent the hypervisor host from running out of memory.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.8

Ref. #

200724807

5.10. nvidia-smi ignores the second NVIDIA vGPU device added to a Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM

Description

After a second NVIDIA vGPU device is added to a Microsoft Windows Server 2016 VM, the device does not appear in the output from the nvidia-smi command. This issue occurs only if the VM is already running NVIDIA vGPU software for the existing NVIDIA vGPU device when the second device is added to the VM. The nvidia-smi command cannot retrieve the guest driver version, license status, and accounting mode of the second NVIDIA vGPU device.

            

            
nvidia-smi vgpu --query
GPU 00000000:37:00.0
    Active vGPUs                      : 1
    vGPU ID                           : 3251695793
        VM ID                         : 3575923
        VM Name                       : SVR-Reg-W(P)-KuIn
        vGPU Name                     : GRID V100D-32Q
        vGPU Type                     : 185
        vGPU UUID                     : 29097249-2359-11b2-8a5b-8e896866496b
        Guest Driver Version : 453.51
        License Status : Licensed
        Accounting Mode : Disabled
...
GPU 00000000:86:00.0
    Active vGPUs                      : 1
    vGPU ID                           : 3251695797
        VM ID                         : 3575923
        VM Name                       : SVR-Reg-W(P)-KuIn
        vGPU Name                     : GRID V100D-32Q
        vGPU Type                     : 185
        vGPU UUID                     : 2926dd83-2359-11b2-8b13-5f22f0f74801
        Guest Driver Version : Not Available
        License Status : N/A
        Accounting Mode : N/A
        

Version

This issue affects only VMs that are running Microsoft Windows Server 2016 as a guest OS.

Workaround

To avoid this issue, configure the guest VM with both NVIDIA vGPU devices before installing the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver.

If you encounter this issue after the VM is configured, use one of the following workarounds:

• Reinstall the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver.
• Forcibly uninstall the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and reboot the VM.
• Upgrade the guest OS on the VM to Microsoft Windows Server 2019.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

3562801

5.11. The reported NVENC frame rate is double the actual frame rate

Description

The frame rate in frames per second (FPS) for the NVIDIA hardware-based H.264/HEVC video encoder (NVENC) reported by the nvidia-smi encodersessions command and NVWMI is double the actual frame rate. Only the reported frame rate is incorrect. The actual encoding of frames is not affected.

This issue affects only Windows VMs that are configured with NVIDIA vGPU.

Status

Open

Ref. #

2997564

5.12. Since 11.6: NVENC does not work with Teradici Cloud Access Software on Windows

Description

The NVIDIA hardware-based H.264/HEVC video encoder (NVENC) does not work with Teradici Cloud Access Software on Windows. This issue affects NVIDIA vGPU and GPU pass through deployments.

This issue occurs because the check that Teradici Cloud Access Software performs on the DLL signer name is case sensitive and NVIDIA recently changed the case of the company name in the signature certificate.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

This issue is resolved in the latest 21.07 and 21.03 Teradici Cloud Access Software releases.

Ref. #

200749065

5.13. A licensed client might fail to acquire a license if a proxy is set

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

5.14. Session connection fails with four 4K displays and NVENC enabled on a 2Q, 3Q, or 4Q vGPU

Description

Desktop session connections fail for a 2Q, 3Q, or 4Q vGPU that is configured with four 4K displays and for which the NVIDIA hardware-based H.264/HEVC video encoder (NVENC) is enabled. This issue affects only Teradici Cloud Access Software sessions on Linux guest VMs.

This issue is accompanied by the following error message:

            

            
This Desktop has no resources available or it has timed out
        

This issue is caused by insufficient frame buffer.

Workaround

Ensure that sufficient frame buffer is available for all the virtual displays that are connected to a vGPU by changing the configuration in one of the following ways:

• Reducing the number of virtual displays. The number of 4K displays supported with NVENC enabled depends on the vGPU.

  vGPU	4K Displays Supported with NVENC Enabled
  2Q	1
  3Q	2
  4Q	3

• Disabling NVENC. The number of 4K displays supported with NVENC disabled depends on the vGPU.

  vGPU	4K Displays Supported with NVENC Disabled
  2Q	2
  3Q	2
  4Q	4

• Using a vGPU type with more frame buffer. Four 4K displays with NVENC enabled on any Q-series vGPU with at least 6144 MB of frame buffer are supported.

Status

Not an NVIDIA bug

Ref. #

200701959

5.15. 11.0-11.3 Only: Rebooting a Windows 10 vGPU VM causes a host crash

Description

When a Windows 10 VM that is configured with NVIDIA vGPU is rebooted, the hypervisor host crashes. This issue is caused by the failure of the Virtual GPU Manger to honor a particular notifier request from the kernel, which causes the kernel to crash.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.4.

Ref. #

3184762

5.16. For some accounted processes, nvidia-smi incorrectly reports maximum memory use of 0 MiB

Description

When the --query-accounted-apps option is used to list accounted compute processes, the nvidia-smi command incorrectly reports that the maximum memory use of some processes is 0 MiB. With the --query-accounted-apps option, nvidia-smi reports the maximum memory used by an application during its lifetime, and other information such as which GPU the application is running on and GR engine utilization.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200647764

5.17. 11.0 Only: Desktop sessions disconnect after the server becomes unresponsive

Description

Desktop sessions disconnect after the server becomes unresponsive. Before the sessions disconnect, the error message VGPU message 32 failed, result code: 0x59 is written to the log files on the hypervisor host.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.1

Ref. #

2925629

5.18. 11.0-11.2 Only: Sessions freeze randomly with XID errors 38, 43, 32, and 31

Description

Issues such as a session freeze, black screen, application crash, or VM crash might randomly occur with VMs that are configured with a Tesla T4 vGPU. When these issues occur, XID error 38 followed by multiple instances of XID errors 43, 32, and 31 are written to the log files on the hypervisor host. This issue is caused by a regression in the NVIDIA firmware code for the Tesla T4 GPU and affects only VMs that are configured with a vGPU that resides on a Tesla T4 GPU.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.3

Ref. #

200664572

5.19. Since 11.1: Idle NVIDIA A100 GPUs show 100% GPU utilization

Description

The nvidia-smi command shows 100% GPU utilization for NVIDIA A100 GPUs even if no vGPUs have been configured or no VMs are running. This issue affects only NVIDIA A100 GPUs on which the sriov-manage script has not been run to enable the virtual function for the GPU in the sysfs file system.

            

            
[root@host ~]# nvidia-smi
Fri Jul 14 11:45:28 2023
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 450.248.03   Driver Version: 450.248.03  CUDA Version: 11.0     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  A100-PCIE-40GB      On   | 00000000:5E:00.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   50C    P0    97W / 250W |      0MiB / 40537MiB |    100%      Default |
|                               |                      |             Disabled |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        

Workaround

Run the sriov-manage script to enable the virtual function for the GPU in the sysfs file system as explained in Virtual GPU Software User Guide.

After the script has been run, the nvidia-smi command shows 0% GPU utilization for idle NVIDIA A100 GPUs.

            

            
root@host ~]# nvidia-smi
Fri Jul 14 11:47:38 2023
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 450.248.03   Driver Version: 450.248.03  CUDA Version: 11.0     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  A100-PCIE-40GB      On   | 00000000:5E:00.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   50C    P0    97W / 250W |      0MiB / 40537MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |             Disabled |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        

Status

Open

Ref. #

200605527

5.20. Since 11.1: Guest VM frame buffer listed by nvidia-smi for vGPUs on GPUs that support SRIOV is incorrect

Description

The amount of frame buffer listed in a guest VM by the nvidia-smi command for vGPUs on GPUs that support Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) is incorrect. Specifically, the amount of frame buffer listed is the amount of frame buffer allocated for the vGPU type minus the size of the VMMU segment (vmmu_page_size). Examples of GPUs that support SRIOV are GPUs based on the NIVIDIA Ampere architecture, such as NVIDA A100 PCIe 40GB or NVIDA A100 HGX 40GB.

For example, frame buffer for -4C and -20C vGPU types is listed as follows:

• For -4C vGPU types, frame buffer is listed as 3963 MB instead of 4096 MB.
• For -20C vGPU types, frame buffer is listed as 20347 MB instead of 20480 MB.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200524749

5.21. 11.0 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 11.1

Ref. #

3051614

5.22. 11.0 Only: 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

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.1

Ref. #

3063042

5.23. 11.1 Only: 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

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.2

Ref. #

200658253

5.24. 11.0 Only: The NVIDIA license not present notification appears even for VMs for which the vGPU is licensed

Description

After starting and logging on to a Windows VM that is configured with NVIDIA vGPU, users see the NVIDIA license not present notification even when the vGPU is already licensed. This notification is misleading and should be ignored. This issue occurs because the NVIDIA driver is not storing the correct NVIDIA vGPU software license state.

Users can confirm that their vGPU is licensed in one of the following ways:

• Opening NVIDIA Control Panel and checking the Licensing > Manage License page.
• Running the following command in a Command Prompt window:
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  C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi -q
          

Version

This issue affects Windows server and Windows desktop operating systems.

Workaround

While the misleading notifications can be ignored, this workaround can be used to suppress the notifications if they cause confusion.

1. When the notification appears, grab it by right-clicking in the notification window.

   

2. In Action Center, go to Windows notifications for NVIDIA Container, right-click the notification, and click Go to notification settings.

   

3. In the notification settings for NVIDIA Container, set Show notification banners to Off.

   

If necessary, you can reenable these notifications in one of the following ways:

• Use System settings as follows:
  1. In Notifications & actions, under Get notifications from these senders, select NVIDIA Container to see more settings.

     

  2. In the notification settings for NVIDIA Container, set the Show notification banners option to On.

     

• Set the Windows registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\Microsoft.Explorer.Notification.{D38519CE-37BE-5DFF-CF14-CC1848376559}\ShowBanner to 1.

  

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.1

Ref. #

3087984

5.25. Driver upgrade in a Linux guest VM with multiple vGPUs might fail

Description

Upgrading the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver in a Linux guest VM with multiple vGPUs might fail. This issue occurs if the driver is upgraded by overinstalling the new release of the driver on the current release of the driver while the nvidia-gridd service is running in the VM.

Workaround

1. Stop the nvidia-gridd service.
2. Try again to upgrade the driver.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200633548

5.26. 11.0 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 11.1

Ref. #

200626446

5.27. 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

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

Status

Open

Ref. #

200623179

5.28. 11.0 Only: Remoting solution session freezes with VGPU message 21 failed and VGPU message 14 failed errors

Description

The remoting solution session sometimes freezes while a window is being resized. For a Windows guest VM, the error message VGPU message 21 failed is written to the log file on the hypervisor host. For a Linux guest VM, the error messages VGPU message 21 failed and VGPU message 14 failed are written to the log file on the hypervisor host.

Workaround

Try resizing the window again.

Status

Resolved in NVIDIA vGPU software 11.1

Ref. #

200627445

5.29. 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.

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   # /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.
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      Option "DPMS" "false"
              

   2. At the end of the file, add a ServerFlags section that contains option to disable the screen saver.
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      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.

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   # etc/init.d/xorg start
           

Status

Open

Ref. #

200605900

5.30. 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

5.31. 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:

• Servicing stack update (SSU) (KB4490628)
• SHA-2 update (KB4474419)

Status

Not a bug

5.32. 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

5.33. 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

5.34. 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

5.35. 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

5.36. 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

5.37. 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.

5.38. 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

5.39. 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

5.40. 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

5.41. 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:

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  SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION(nvlddmkm.sys)
          

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  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

5.42. 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

5.43. 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

5.44. 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.

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.

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   # sudo service nvidia-gridd start
           

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

Status

Open

5.45. 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

5.46. 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

5.47. 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.
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   SELINUX=permissive
           

2. Reboot the system.
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   ~]# 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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