Before You Begin
This section describes building a Proof of Concept (POC), sizing your VDI environment, general prerequisites, and general preparatory steps that must be addressed before deployment.
You should test your unique workloads to determine the best NVIDIA virtual GPU solution to meet your organizational needs and goals. The most successful customer deployments start with a proof of concept (POC) and are “tuned” throughout the deployment lifecycle. Beginning with a POC enables customers to understand the expectations and behavior of their users and optimize their deployment for the best user density while maintaining required performance levels. Continued monitoring is essential because user behavior can change throughout a project or an individual change within the organization. A user who was once a light graphics user (vApps, vPC) might become a heavy graphics user via professional visualization (RTX vWS) when they change teams and/or projects.
Consider the following during your POC:
A comprehensive review of all user groups, their workloads, applications utilized, and current and future projections should be considered
A vision for balancing user density with end-user experience measurements and analysis
Gather feedback from IT and end-users regarding infrastructure and productivity needs
Based on your Proof of Concept (POC), we recommend sizing an appropriate environment for each user group you are trying to reach with your evaluation. NVIDIA provides in-depth sizing guides to assist with optimally scaling your organization’s workloads.
Please refer to the appropriate sizing guides below to build your NVIDIA vGPU environment:
As an overview:
Scope your environment for the needs of each end-user
Run a proof of concept for each deployment type
Implement the NVIDIA recommended sizing methodology
Utilize benchmark testing to help validate your deployment
Utilize NVIDIA-specific and industry-wide performance tools for monitoring
Ensure performance and experience metrics are within acceptable thresholds
The following elements are required to install and configure vGPU software on XenServer:
NVIDIA-certified servers with NVIDIA cards see the web page NVIDIA vGPU Partners for a list of certified NVIDIA servers. It is also recommended to cross-check this list with the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for XenServer to ensure overall compatibility for your deployment. The following specifications are recommended:
CPU for vPC/vApps:
Intel Xeon Gold 6338 @2.0 GHz or faster
AMD EPYC 7713 @2.0 GHz or faster
CPU for RTX vWS:
Intel Xeon Gold 6354 @3.0 GHz or faster
AMD EPYC 7763 @3.0 GHz or faster
To support VMs running Windows or more recent versions of Linux, you require an Intel VT or AMD-V 64-bit x86-based system with one or more CPUs.
High-speed RAM (2 GB minimum, 4 GB or more recommended)
Fast networking, e.g., best-in-class Mellanox ConnectX certified by NVIDIA
When considering CPUs for your vGPU deployment, NVIDIA recommends the following:
vPC deployments should have a higher core count and lower clock speeds to prioritize density.
RTX vWS deployments should have a higher clock speed priority core count to priority performance.
To find the appropriate vGPU software driver versions to use, refer to the hypervisor release notes.
Check out the complete list of XenServer system requirements and XenCenter system requirements, as well as the licensing overview.
The supported hypervisor software releases are listed here.
For supported Windows and Linux guest OS versions, consult our XenServer hypervisor release notes.
Use only a guest OS release that is listed as supported by NVIDIA vGPU software with your virtualization software. To be listed as supported, a guest OS release must be supported by NVIDIA vGPU software and your virtualization software. NVIDIA cannot support guest OS releases, and your virtualization software does not help.
NVIDIA vGPU software supports only 64-bit guest operating systems. No 32-bit guest operating systems are supported.
NVIDIA vGPU software allows up to 16 vGPUs per VM. This capability is limited to certain vGPUs. For detailed information, see vGPUs that Support Multiple vGPUs Assigned to a VM.
Configure the BIOS as appropriate for your physical hosts, as described below:
Hyperthreading – Enabled
Power Setting or System Profile– High Performance
CPU Performance (if applicable) – Enterprise or High Throughput
Memory Mapped I/O above 4-GB - Enabled (if applicable)
VT-d or AMD IOMMU – Enabled