Is this page helpful?

Overview#

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to deploy NVIDIA vGPU software in a Microsoft Windows Server environment. It assumes familiarity with virtualization environments and NVIDIA vGPU technology. For a comprehensive overview of NVIDIA vGPU architecture, licensing, and sizing, refer to the following documentation:

Supported NVIDIA GPUs#

Ensure your deployment uses NVIDIA GPUs compatible with vGPU software and supported on Windows Server. For a complete list of supported NVIDIA GPUs and validated server platforms, please refer to our Microsoft Windows Server release notes.

Note

Some GPUs support display-off and display-enabled modes. For vGPU software deployments, they must be used in display-off mode. For more information, see Switching the Mode of a GPU that Supports Multiple Display Modes.

Choosing Your Hardware#

Ensure your hardware is certified by NVIDIA and compatible with Windows Server. Also, see the hardware requirements for Microsoft Windows Server.

General Prerequisites#

Warning

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

NVIDIA vGPU software supports assigning multiple vGPUs to a single VM, but the maximum number is limited. For detailed information, see vGPUs that Support Multiple vGPUs Assigned to a VM.

Server BIOS Settings#

Ensure the following BIOS settings are enabled:

  • Virtualization support, for example, Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V)

  • SR-IOV

  • Above 4G Decoding

  • For Supermicro servers: ASPM Support

  • For servers that have an AMD CPU:

    • Alternative Routing ID Interpretation (ARI)

    • Access Control Service (ACS)

    • Advanced Error Reporting (AER)

For deployments that will utilize GPU Pass-Through, VT-D/IOMMU is also required to be enabled in the BIOS.