Today I start a series of blog posts on GPUs and 3D rendering in VMware Horizon View. I’ll be sharing much of my knowledge on the technical aspects of GPUs. In this post I will be sharing links that will be helpful as you plan and deploy a graphically intensive workload. In future posts I will be sharing how to do sizing calculations, hardware install tips, and many other GPU related items. I hope to put out a post every week or two on this.
If you have questions or there is a topic on GPUs you would like me to touch on please drop me a note or add a comment.
Below are a list of links I use when working with GPUs in VMware. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means. If you have more to add please be sure to put them in the comments.
The Cards
We’ll start with the GPUs. This is based on the VMware HCL for ESXi hosts 5.5 U2 at the date of this blog post. (http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php?deviceCategory=vsga)
NVIDIA GRID Cards:
- GRID card drivers can be found here: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en_us (Be sure to select the right version of ESXi host)
- Virtual GPUs landing page: http://www.nvidia.com/object/virtual-gpus.html
- A quick NVIDIA overview of how VSGA works: http://www.nvidia.com/object/vmware-horizon.html
- A quick NVIDIA overview of how VDGA works: http://www.nvidia.com/object/vdga.html
- Data Sheets, Overviews, Case Studies, and White Papers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-enterprise-resources.htm
- List of Grid Certified Applications: http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-isv-certification.html
- About NVIDIA GRID Technology: http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-technology.html
- All you ever wanted to know about the Kepler Architecture: http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-kepler.html
AMD FirePro:
- Drivers: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download (Step 1: workstation Graphics; Step 2: FirePro Server Series; Step 3: [your card]; Step 4: VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5)
- AMD FirePro site: http://fireprographics.com/vdi/hypervisors/vmware/
- Landing page: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-remote-graphics
- Base Sizing Information and Compatibility: http://www.amd.com/en-us/solutions/professional/virtualization#graphics-technology
The Servers
With the cards addressed here are some links to hardware vendors whose servers have been certified with one or more of these cards. (http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php?deviceCategory=server&details=1&pFeatures=60&page=1&display_interval=50&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc&bookmark=1) Due to time constraints I’m only going to list a few of the many possible servers.
Cisco C240 M3/M4
- The main page for this server: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c240-m3-rack-server/index.html
- Technical Specifications: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/C240M3_LFF_SpecSheet.pdf (Step 8 page 38)
- K1 & K2 Cisco Data Sheet: http://www.nvidia.com/content/grid/resources/9315-NVIDIA-GRID-CISCO-DS-US-Jun19-HR.pdf (link to NVIDIA)
- C240 M3 w/Nvidia GRID Cards onHorizon 5.3, July 2014 PDF: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/whitepaper_C11-732252.pdf
- C240 M3 w/Nvidia GRID Cards on Horizon 5.3, July 2014 PDF: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/whitepaper_C11-732252.html
- Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solution for Graphics Workstations: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/desktop-virtualization-solutions/cisco-desktop-virtualization-for-graphics-aag.pdf
Dell
- NVIDIA/Dell Data Sheet: http://www.nvidia.com/content/grid/resources/grid-dell-datasheet.pdf
- HPC GPU Community: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/high-performance-computing/b/hpc_gpu_computing/
- GPU Page: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/campaigns/poweredge-gpu
- Referance Architecture; Dell Wyse Datacenter for VMware Horizon View with High Performance Graphics: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20438576
- Will update as more become available.
HP 
- NVIDIA/ HP Datasheet: http://www.nvidia.com/content/grid/resources/grid-hp-datasheet.pdf
- Tech White Paper, HP Hardware Accelerated Graphics for Desktop Virtualization (ProLiant Blades): http://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?cc=us&doclang=EN_US&docname=4AA4-1701ENW&doctype=white%20paper&lc=en&searchquery=&jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0006
- WS460C Quick Start Guide for VDGA: http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.BINARYPORTLET/public/kb/docDisplay/resource.process/?jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0008&javax.portlet.tpst=ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01_ws_BI&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.rst_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=wsrp-resourceState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c04041471-1%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.rid_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=docDisplayResURL&ac.admitted=1415628359180.876444892.199480143
- NVDIA GRID K1 HP Tech Specs page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-comp-graphic-accelerators/product-detail.html?oid=7061957
- NVIDIA GRID K2 HP Tech Specs page (Reverse Airflow): http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-comp-graphic-accelerators/product-detail.html?oid=6662331
- NVIDIA GRID K2 HP Tech Specs Page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/server-comp-graphic-accelerators/product-detail.html?oid=5410610
- NVIDIA GRID K2 I/O Plate Installation Instructions for WS460C: http://h20566.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.BINARYPORTLET/public/kb/docDisplay/resource.process/?jumpid=reg_r1002_usen_c-001_title_r0027&javax.portlet.tpst=ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01_ws_BI&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.rst_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=wsrp-resourceState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c03886395-3%257CdocLocale%253Den_US&javax.portlet.rid_ba847bafb2a2d782fcbb0710b053ce01=docDisplayResURL&ac.admitted=1415629204646.876444892.199480143
VMware
With a majority of the physical addressed here are links to VMware GPU materials.
- Graphics Acceleration in View Virtual Desktops: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-horizon-view-graphics-acceleration-deployment.pdf (a must read)
- KB 2033434, Installing and Configuring the NVIDIA VIB: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2033434/
- KB 2084939, Xorg Fails to start when using pci-passthrough: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2084939
- KB 2081323, Recomposing a View desktop fails if a GPU device is attached to the parent when the vDGA driver is installed: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2081323
- KB 2033479, Virtual machine running on a Windows Server 2012 host gets corrupted when 3D acceleration is enabled: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2033479
- vSphere 5.5 Configuring 3D Graphics: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.vm_admin.doc/GUID-5C95566A-A750-4EE6-AA17-FFF72BCA8891.html
- Performance Study, VMware® Horizon View™ 5.2 and Hardware Accelerated 3D Graphics: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/view/vmware-horizon-view-hardware-accelerated-3Dgraphics-performance-study.pdf
- [Added 3-7-15] Installing VMware vGPU on vSphere 6.0: https://www.vmguru.com/2015/03/installing-vmware-vgpu-vsphere-6-0/
I know this isn’t a comprehensive list. If there is a link that you think is helpful please add a comment below with the link.
In my next post I will cover calculating how many users you can get out of a single card. Look for it in the next week or so.
Cheers.
