Configure Cisco UCS Rack and Blade Servers and Cisco HyperFlex Hyperconverged Servers with NVIDIA GRID 2.0 for Citrix XenDesktop on VMware vSphere
Available Languages
Why Use NVIDIA GRID vGPU for Graphic Deployments on Citrix XenDesktop
Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnect
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers
Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 License Requirements
Graphics Acceleration in Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp
GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Desktops
GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Server
GPU Sharing for Citrix XenApp RDS Workloads
Citrix HDX 3D Pro Requirements
Install NVIDIA Tesla GPU Card on Cisco UCS C240 M4
Install NVIDIA Tesla GPU Card on Cisco UCS B200 M4
Install the NVIDIA GRID Software
Install the NVIDIA GRID License Server
Configure the NVIDIA GRID 2.0 License Server
Deploy the NVIDIA GRID vGPU Software
Configure the VMware ESXi Host Server for vGPU
NVIDIA Tesla M60 and M6 Profile Specifications
Prepare a Virtual Machine for vGPU Support
Install the NVIDIA vGPU Software Driver and Citrix HDX 3D Pro Agent
Verify That Applications Are Ready to Support vGPU
Configure the Virtual Machine for an NVIDIA GRID vGPU License
Verify That the NVIDIA Driver Is Running on the Desktop
Verify NVDIA License Acquisition by Desktops
Verify the NVDIA Configuration on the Host
Install Citrix HDX 3D Pro Virtual Desktop Agent Using the CLI
Install and Upgrade NVIDIA Drivers
Optimize the Citrix HDX 3D Pro User Experience
Use GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Server DirectX, Direct3D, and WPF Rendering
Use the OpenGL Software Accelerator
Using the increased processing power of today’s Cisco UCS® B-Series Blade Servers, C-Series Rack Servers, and Cisco HyperFlex™ hyperconverged servers, applications with demanding graphics requirements are now being virtualized. To enhance the capability to deliver these high-performance and graphics-intensive applications, Cisco offers support for the NVIDIA GRID M6 and M60 in the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS) portfolio of PCI Express (PCIe) or mezzanine form-factor cards for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and C-Series Rack Servers and Cisco HyperFlex HX240 M4 Node hyperconverged server.
With the addition of the new graphics processing capabilities, the engineering, design, imaging, and marketing departments of organizations can now experience the benefits that desktop virtualization brings to the applications they use. Users of Microsoft Windows 10 and Office 2016 or later versions can benefit from the NVIDIA M60 graphics card, deployable on Cisco HyperFlex HX240c M4 Node and Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack servers, and NVIDIA M6 graphics card, deployable on Cisco UCS B200 M4 blade, in Cisco HyperFlex.
This new graphics capability helps enable organizations to centralize their graphics workloads and data in the data center. This capability greatly benefits organizations that need to be able to shift work geographically. Until now, graphics files have been too large to move, and the files have had to be local to the person using them to be usable.
The PCIe graphics cards in the Cisco UCS C-Series, and Cisco HX-Series offer these benefits:
● Support for full-length, full-power NVIDIA GRID cards in a 2-rack-unit (2RU) form factor
● Cisco UCS Manager integration for management of the servers and NVIDIA GRID cards
● End-to-end integration with Cisco UCS management solutions, including Cisco UCS Central Software and Cisco UCS Director
● More efficient use of rack space with Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Servers with two NVIDIA GRID cards than with the 2-slot, 2.5-inch equivalent rack unit: the HP ProLiant WS460c Gen9 Graphics Server Blade with the GRID card in a second slot
Note: A maximum of one GPU can be installed on HX-Series
The modular LAN-on-motherboard (mLOM) form-factor NVIDIA graphics card in the Cisco UCS B-Series offers these benefits:
● Cisco UCS Manager integration for management of the servers and the NVIDIA GRID card in Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers
● End-to-end integration with Cisco UCS management solutions, including Cisco UCS Central Software and Cisco UCS Director
An important element of this document’s design is VMware’s support for the NVIDIA GRID Virtual Graphics Processing Unit (vGPU) feature in VMware vSphere 6. Prior versions of vSphere supported only virtual direct graphics acceleration (vDGA) and virtual shared graphics acceleration (vSGA), so support for vGPU in vSphere 6 greatly expands the range of deployment scenarios using the most versatile and efficient configuration of the GRID cards.
The purpose of this document is to help our partners and customers integrate NVIDIA GRID 2.0 graphics processing cards, Cisco UCS B200 M4 servers, Cisco UCS C240 M4 servers, and Cisco HyperFlex HX240 M4 servers on VMware vSphere and Citrix XenDesktop in vGPU mode.
Please contact our partners NVIDIA, Citrix, and VMware for lists of applications that are supported by the card, hypervisor, and desktop broker in each mode.
Our objective here is to provide the reader with specific methods for integrating Cisco UCS and Cisco HyperFlex servers with NVIDIA GRID M6 and M60 cards with VMware vSphere and Citrix products so that the servers, hypervisor, and virtual desktops are ready for installation of graphics applications.
Why Use NVIDIA GRID vGPU for Graphic Deployments on Citrix XenDesktop
The NVIDIA GRID vGPU allows multiple virtual desktops to share a single physical GPU, and it allows multiple GPUs to reside on a single physical PCI card. All provide the 100 percent application compatibility of vDGA pass-through graphics, but with lower cost because multiple desktops share a single graphics card. With Citrix XenDesktop, you can centralize, pool, and more easily manage traditionally complex and expensive distributed workstations and desktops. Now all your user groups can take advantage of the benefits of virtualization.
The GRID vGPU capability brings the full benefits of NVIDIA hardware-accelerated graphics to virtualized solutions. This technology provides exceptional graphics performance for virtual desktops equivalent to PCs with an onboard graphics processor.
The GRID vGPU uses the industry's most advanced technology for sharing true GPU hardware acceleration among multiple virtual desktops—without compromising the graphics experience. Application features and compatibility are exactly the same as they would be at the user's desk.
With GRID vGPU technology, the graphics commands of each virtual machine are passed directly to the GPU, without translation by the hypervisor. By allowing multiple virtual machines to access the power of a single GPU in the virtualization server, enterprises can increase the number of users with access to true GPU-based graphics acceleration on virtual machines.
The physical GPU in the server can be configured with a specific vGPU profile. Organizations have a great deal of flexibility in how best to configure their servers to meet the needs of various types of end users.
vGPU support allows businesses to use the power of the NVIDIA GRID technology to create a whole new class of virtual machines designed to provide end users with a rich, interactive graphics experience.
In any given enterprise, the needs of individual users vary widely. One of the main benefits of the GRID vGPU is the flexibility to use various vGPU profiles designed to serve the needs of different classes of end users.
Although the needs of end users can be diverse, for simplicity users can be grouped into the following categories: knowledge workers, designers, and power users.
● For knowledge workers, the main areas of importance include office productivity applications, a robust web experience, and fluid video playback. Knowledge workers have the least-intensive graphics demands, but they expect the same smooth, fluid experience that exists natively on today’s graphics-accelerated devices such as desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones.
● Power users are users who need to run more demanding office applications, such as office productivity software, image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, mainstream computer-aided design (CAD) software such as Autodesk AutoCAD, and product lifecycle management (PLM) applications. These applications are more demanding and require additional graphics resources with full support for APIs such as OpenGL and Direct3D.
● Designers are users in an organization who run demanding professional applications such as high-end CAD software and professional digital content creation (DCC) tools. Examples include Autodesk Inventor, PTC Creo, Autodesk Revit, and Adobe Premiere. Historically, designers have used desktop workstations and have been a difficult group to incorporate into virtual deployments because of their need for high-end graphics and the certification requirements of professional CAD and DCC software.
vGPU profiles allow the GPU hardware to be time-sliced to deliver exceptional shared virtualized graphics performance (Figure 1).
Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco UCS is a next-generation data center platform that unites computing, networking, and storage access. The platform, optimized for virtual environments, is designed using open industry-standard technologies and aims to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. The system integrates a low-latency; lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. It is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain (Figure 2).
The main components of Cisco UCS are:
● Computing: The system is based on an entirely new class of computing system that incorporates, blade servers and modular servers based on Intel processors.
● Network: The system is integrated onto a low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps unified network fabric. This network foundation consolidates LANs, SANs, and high-performance computing (HPC) networks, which are separate networks today. The unified fabric lowers costs by reducing the number of network adapters, switches, and cables and by decreasing power and cooling requirements.
● Virtualization: The system unleashes the full potential of virtualization by enhancing the scalability, performance, and operational control of virtual environments. Cisco security, policy enforcement, and diagnostic features are now extended into virtualized environments to better support changing business and IT requirements.
● Storage access: The system provides consolidated access to local storage, SAN storage, and network-attached storage (NAS) over the unified fabric. With storage access unified, Cisco UCS can access storage over Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) protocols. This capability provides customers with choice for storage access and investment protection. In addition, server administrators can preassign storage-access policies for system connectivity to storage resources, simplifying storage connectivity and management and helping increase productivity.
● Management: Cisco UCS uniquely integrates all system components, enabling the entire solution to be managed as a single entity by Cisco UCS Manager. The manager has an intuitive GUI, a command-line interface (CLI), and a robust API for managing all system configuration processes and operations.
Cisco UCS is designed to deliver:
● Reduced TCO and increased business agility
● Increased IT staff productivity through just-in-time provisioning and mobility support
● A cohesive, integrated system that unifies the technology in the data center; the system is managed, serviced, and tested as a whole
● Scalability through a design for hundreds of discrete servers and thousands of virtual machines and the capability to scale I/O bandwidth to match demand
● Industry standards supported by a partner ecosystem of industry leaders
Cisco UCS Manager provides unified, embedded management of all software and hardware components of Cisco UCS through an intuitive GUI, a CLI, and an XML API. The manager provides a unified management domain with centralized management capabilities and can control multiple chassis and thousands of virtual machines.
The Cisco® UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnect is a core part of the Cisco Unified Computing System, providing both network connectivity and management capabilities for the system. The Cisco UCS 6200 Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Fibre Channel functions.
The Cisco UCS 6200 Series provides the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis. All chassis, and therefore all blades, attached to the Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6200 Series provides both the LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades within its domain.
From a networking perspective, the Cisco UCS 6200 Series uses a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports, 1Tb switching capacity, 160 Gbps bandwidth per chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. The product family supports Cisco low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric capabilities, which increase the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. The Fabric Interconnect supports multiple traffic classes over a lossless Ethernet fabric from a blade server through an interconnect. Significant TCO savings come from an FCoE-optimized server design in which network interface cards (NICs), host bus adapters (HBAs), cables, and switches can be consolidated.
Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnect
The Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect is a one-rack-unit (1RU) 10 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE and Fiber Channel switch offering up to 960-Gbps throughput and up to 48 ports. The switch has 32 1/10-Gbps fixed Ethernet, FCoE and FC ports and one expansion slot.
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers keep pace with Intel® Xeon® processor innovation by offering the latest processors with an increase in processor frequency and improved security and availability features. With the increased performance provided by the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 and v3 product families, C-Series servers offer an improved price-to-performance ratio. They also extend Cisco UCS innovations to an industry-standard rack-mount form factor, including a standards-based unified network fabric, Cisco® VN-Link virtualization support, and Cisco Extended Memory Technology.
Designed to operate both in standalone environments and as part of Cisco UCS, these servers enable organizations to deploy systems incrementally—using as many or as few servers as needed—on a schedule that best meets the organization’s timing and budget. C-Series servers offer investment protection through the capability to deploy them either as standalone servers or as part of Cisco UCS.
One compelling reason that many organizations prefer rack-mount servers is the wide range of I/O options available in the form of PCIe adapters. C-Series servers support a broad range of I/O options, including interfaces supported by Cisco as well as adapters from third parties.
The Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Server (Figures 4 and 5 and Table 1) is designed for both performance and expandability over a wide range of storage-intensive infrastructure workloads, from big data to collaboration.
The enterprise-class Cisco UCS C240 M4 server extends the capabilities of the Cisco UCS portfolio in a 2RU form factor with the addition of the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 and v3 product family, which delivers a superb combination of performance, flexibility, and efficiency
The enterprise-class Cisco UCS C240 M4 server extends the capabilities of the Cisco UCS portfolio in a 2RU form factor. Based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 and v3 series, it delivers an outstanding combination of performance, flexibility, and efficiency. In addition, the C240 M4 offers outstanding levels of internal memory and storage expandability with exceptional performance. It delivers:
● Up to 24 DDR4 DIMMs at speeds up to 2400 MHz for improved performance and lower power consumption
● Up to 6 PCIe 3.0 slots (4 full-height, full-length)
● Up to 24 small-form-factor (SFF) drives or 12 large-form-factor (LFF) drives, plus two (optional) internal SATA boot drives
● Support for 12-Gbps SAS drives
● An mLOM slot for installing a next-generation Cisco virtual interface card (VIC) or third-party network interface card (NIC) without consuming a PCIe slot
● Two 1 Gigabit Ethernet embedded LOM ports
● Support for up to 2 double-wide NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), providing a graphics-rich experience to more virtual users
● Excellent reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features with tool-free CPU insertion, easy-to-use latching lid, hot-swappable and hot-pluggable components, and redundant Cisco Flexible Flash (FlexFlash) Secure Digital (SD) cards.
The C240 M4 also increases performance and customer choice over many types of storage-intensive applications such as:
● Collaboration
● Small and medium-sized business (SMB) databases
● Big data infrastructure
● Virtualization and consolidation
● Storage servers
● High-performance appliances
The C240 M4 can be deployed as a standalone server or as part of Cisco UCS. Cisco UCS unifies computing, networking, management, virtualization, and storage access into a single integrated architecture that enables end-to-end server visibility, management, and control in both bare-metal and virtualized environments. Within a Cisco UCS deployment, the C240 M4 takes advantage of Cisco’s standards-based unified computing innovations, which significantly reduce customers’ TCO and increase business agility.
For more information about the Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Server, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c240-m4-rack-server/index.html.
Table 1. Cisco UCS C240 M4 PCIe Slots
| PCIe Slot |
Length |
Lane |
| 1 |
¾ |
x8 |
| 2 |
Full |
x16 |
| 3 |
Full |
x8 |
| 4 |
¾ |
x8 |
| 5 |
Full |
x16 |
| 6 |
Full |
x8 |
The Cisco UCS VIC 1227 (Figure 6) is a dual-port Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) 10-Gbps Ethernet and FCoE-capable PCIe mLOM adapter installed in the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series servers. The mLOM slot can be used to install a Cisco VIC without consuming a PCIe slot, which provides greater I/O expandability. It incorporates next-generation converged network adapter (CNA) technology from Cisco, providing investment protection for future feature releases. The card enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present up to 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either network interface cards (NICs) or host bus adapters (HBAs). The personality of the card is determined dynamically at boot time using the service profile associated with the server. The number, type (NIC or HBA), identity (MAC address and World Wide Name [WWN]), failover policy, bandwidth, and quality-of-service (QoS) policies of the PCIe interfaces are all determined using the service profile.
For more information about the VIC, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/ucs-virtual-interface-card-1227/index.html.
Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server
The enterprise-class Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (Figure 7) extends the capabilities of the Cisco UCS portfolio in a half-width blade form factor. The B200 M4 uses the power of the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 series CPUs with up to 768 GB of RAM (using 32-GB DIMMs), two solid-state disks (SSDs) or hard-disk drives (HDDs), and throughput of up to 80 Gbps. The B200 M4 server mounts in a Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis or Cisco UCS Mini blade server chassis. It has 24 total slots for error-correcting code (ECC) registered DIMMs (RDIMMs) or load-reduced DIMMs (LR DIMMs) for up to 768 GB of total memory capacity (Cisco UCS B200 M4 configured with two CPUs using 32-GB DIMMs). It supports one connector for the Cisco UCS VIC 1340 or 1240 adapter, which provides Ethernet and FCoE. A second mezzanine card slot also is available, which can be used for the NVIDIA M6 graphics cards.
For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b200-m4-blade-server/index.html.
The Cisco UCS VIC 1340 (Figure 8) is a 2-port 40-Gbps Ethernet or dual 4 x 10-Gbps Ethernet, FCoE-capable mLOM designed exclusively for the M4 generation of Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. When used in combination with an optional port expander, the VIC 1340 is enabled for two ports of 40-Gbps Ethernet. The VIC 1340 enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present more than 256 PCIe standards-compliant interfaces to the host that can be dynamically configured as either NICs or HBAs. In addition, the VIC 1340 supports Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server virtualization deployment and management.
For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/ucs-virtual-interface-card-1340/index.html.
The Cisco HyperFlex system is composed of a pair of Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnects, along with up to 8 Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series rack-mount servers per cluster. You can also add 8 computing-only servers to each cluster. The addition of the Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis allows you to use Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers for additional computing resources in a hybrid cluster design. You can also use Cisco UCS C240 and C220 rack servers for additional computing resources. Up to 8 separate HX-Series clusters can be installed under a single pair of fabric interconnects. Both fabric interconnects connect to every HX-Series rack-mount server and to every 5108 Blade Server Chassis. Upstream network connections, also referred to as northbound network connections, are implemented from the fabric interconnects to the customer data center network at the time of installation (Figure 9).
Currently, Cisco HyperFlex HX240c M4 Node servers are capable of hosting one NVIDIA M60 graphics card per server.
Additional graphics support for Cisco HyperFlex clusters can be achieved by adding Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers or Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Servers to the cluster as computing-only nodes.
To learn more about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series servers, see https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/products/computing/hyperconverged-infrastructure/index.html
For desktop virtualization applications, the NVIDIA Tesla M6 and M60 cards are excellent choices for high-performance graphics (Table 2).
Table 2. Technical Specifications for NVIDIA GRID Cards
|
|
Tesla M6 |
Tesla M60 |
|
|
|
|
| Number of GPUs |
Single high-end Maxwell |
Number of GPUs |
| NVIDIA Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) Cores |
1536 |
4096 (2048 per GPU) |
| Memory Size |
8-GB GDDR5 |
16-GB GDDR5 (8 GB per GPU) |
| Maximum Number of vGPU Instances |
16 |
32 |
| Power |
100 watts (W; 75W optimal) |
240W or 300W (225W optimal) |
| Form Factor |
MXM (blade servers) P |
PCIe 3.0 dual slot (rack servers) |
| Cooling Solution |
Bare board |
Active and passive |
| H.264 1080p30 Streams 2 |
18 |
36 |
| Maximum Number of Users per Board |
16 |
32 (16 per GPU) |
| Virtualization Use Case |
Blade optimized |
Performance optimized |
NVIDIA GRID is the industry's most advanced technology for sharing vGPUs across multiple virtual desktop and application instances. You can now use the full power of NVIDIA data center GPUs to deliver a superior virtual graphics experience to any device anywhere. The NVIDIA GRID platform offers the highest levels of performance, flexibility, manageability, and security—offering the right level of user experience for any virtual workflow.
For more information about NVIDIA GRID technology, see http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-technology.html.
The NVIDIA GRID solution runs on top of award-winning, NVIDIA Maxwell-powered GPUs. These GPUs come in two server form factors: the NVIDIA Tesla M6 for blade servers and converged infrastructure, and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 for rack and tower servers.
NVIDIA GRID 2.0 License Requirements
GRID 2.0 requires concurrent user licenses and an on-premises NVIDIA license server to manage the licenses. When the guest OS boots up, it contacts the NVIDIA license server and consumes one concurrent license. When the guest OS shuts down, the license is returned to the pool.
GRID 2.0 also requires the purchase of a 1:1 ratio of concurrent licenses to NVIDIA Support, Update, and Maintenance Subscription (SUMS) instances.
The following NVIDIA GRID products are available as licensed products on NVIDIA Tesla GPUs:
● Virtual workstation
● Virtual PC
● Virtual applications
For complete details about GRID 2.0 license requirements, see https://images.nvidia.com/content/grid/pdf/GRID-Licensing-Guide.pdf.
VMware provides virtualization software. VMware’s enterprise software hypervisors for servers—VMware vSphere ESX, vSphere ESXi, and VSphere—are bare-metal hypervisors that run directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system. VMware vCenter Server for vSphere provides central management and complete control and visibility into clusters, hosts, virtual machines, storage, networking, and other critical elements of your virtual infrastructure.
vSphere 6.0 introduces many enhancements to vSphere Hypervisor, VMware virtual machines, vCenter Server, virtual storage, and virtual networking, further extending the core capabilities of the vSphere platform.
The vSphere 6.0 platform includes these features:
● Computing
◦ Increased scalability: vSphere 6.0 supports larger maximum configuration sizes. Virtual machines support up to 128 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 4 TB of virtual RAM (vRAM). Hosts support up to 480 CPUs and 12 TB of RAM, 1024 virtual machines per host, and 64 nodes per cluster.
◦ Expanded support: Get expanded support for the latest x86 chip sets, devices, drivers, and guest operating systems. For a complete list of guest operating systems supported, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
◦ Outstanding graphics: The NVIDIA GRID vGPU delivers the full benefits of NVIDIA hardware-accelerated graphics to virtualized solutions.
◦ Instant cloning: Technology built in to vSphere 6.0 lays the foundation for rapid cloning and deployment of virtual machines—up to 10 times faster than what is possible today.
● Storage
◦ Transformation of virtual machine storage: vSphere Virtual Volumes enable your external storage arrays to become virtual machine aware. Storage policy–based management (SPBM) enables common management across storage tiers and dynamic storage class-of-service (CoS) automation. Together these features enable exact combinations of data services (such as clones and snapshots) to be instantiated more efficiently on a per–virtual machine basis.
● Network
◦ Network I/O control: New support for per–virtual machine VMware Distributed Virtual Switch (DVS) bandwidth reservation helps ensure isolation and enforce limits on bandwidth.
◦ Multicast snooping: Support for Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping for IPv4 packets and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) snooping for IPv6 packets in VDS improves performance and scalability with multicast traffic.
◦ Multiple TCP/IP stacks for VMware vMotion: Implement a dedicated networking stack for vMotion traffic, simplifying IP address management with a dedicated default gateway for vMotion traffic.
● Availability
◦ vMotion enhancements: Perform nondisruptive live migration of workloads across virtual switches and vCenter Servers and over distances with a round-trip time (RTT) of up to 100 milliseconds (ms). This support for dramatically longer RTT—a 10x increase in the supported time—for long-distance vMotion now enables data centers physically located in New York and London to migrate live workloads between one another.
◦ Replication-assisted vMotion: Customers with active-active replication set up between two sites can perform more efficient vMotion migration, resulting in huge savings in time and resources, with up to 95 percent more efficient migration depending on the amount of data moved.
◦ Fault tolerance (up to 4 vCPUs): Get expanded support for software-based fault tolerance for workloads with up to four vCPUs.
● Management
◦ Content library: This centralized repository provides simple and effective management for content, including virtual machine templates, ISO images, and scripts. With vSphere Content Library, you can now store and manage content from a central location and share content through a publish-and-subscribe model.
◦ Cloning and migration across vCenter: Copy and move virtual machines between hosts on different vCenter Servers in a single action.
◦ Enhanced user interface: vSphere Web Client is more responsive, more intuitive, and simpler than ever before.
Graphics Acceleration in Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp
Citrix HDX 3D Pro enables you to deliver the desktops and applications that perform best with a GPU for hardware acceleration, including 3D professional graphics applications based on OpenGL and DirectX. (The standard virtual delivery agent [VDA] supports GPU acceleration of DirectX only.)
Examples of 3D professional applications include:
● Computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and engineering (CAE) applications
● Geographical information system (GIS) software
● Picture archiving and communication system (PACS) for medical imaging
● Applications using the latest OpenGL, DirectX, NVIDIA CUDA, and OpenCL versions
● Computationally intensive nongraphical applications that use CUDA GPUs for parallel computing
HDX 3D Pro provides an outstanding user experience over any bandwidth:
● On WAN connections: Delivers an interactive user experience over WAN connections with bandwidth as low as 1.5 Mbps
● On LAN connections: Delivers a user experience equivalent to that of a local desktop on LAN connections with bandwidth of 100 Mbps
You can replace complex and expensive workstations with simpler user devices by moving graphics processing into the data center for centralized management.
HDX 3D Pro provides GPU acceleration for Microsoft Windows desktops and Microsoft Windows Server. When used with VMware vSphere 6 and NVIDIA GRID GPUs, HDX 3D Pro provides vGPU acceleration for Windows desktops. For more information, see Citrix Virtual GPU Solution.
GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Desktops
With Citrix HDX 3D Pro, you can deliver graphics-intensive applications as part of hosted desktops or applications on desktop OS machines. HDX 3D Pro supports physical host computers (including desktop, blade, and rack workstations) and GPU pass-through and GPU virtualization technologies offered by VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
Using GPU pass-through, you can create virtual machines with exclusive access to dedicated graphics processing hardware. You can install multiple GPUs on the hypervisor and assign virtual machines to each of these GPUs on a one-to-one basis.
Using GPU virtualization, multiple virtual machines can directly access the graphics processing power of a single physical GPU. The true hardware GPU sharing provides desktops suitable for users with complex and demanding design requirements. GPU virtualization for NVIDIA GRID cards uses the same NVIDIA graphics drivers as are deployed on nonvirtualized operating systems.
HDX 3D Pro offers the following features:
● Adaptive H.264-based deep compression for optimal WAN and wireless performance: HDX 3D Pro uses CPU-based full-screen H.264 compression as the default compression technique for encoding. Hardware encoding is used with NVIDIA cards that support NVIDIA NVENC.
● Lossless compression option for specialized use cases: HDX 3D Pro offers a CPU-based lossless codec to support applications that require pixel-perfect graphics, such as medical imaging. True lossless compression is recommended only for specialized use cases because it consumes significantly more network and processing resources.
◦ When you use lossless compression:
− The lossless indicator, a system tray icon, shows the user whether the screen displayed is a lossy frame or a lossless frame. This information is helpful when the Visual Quality policy setting specifies a lossless build. The lossless indicator turns green when the frames sent are lossless.
− The lossless switch enables the user to change to Always Lossless mode at any time in the session. To select or deselect Always Lossless at any time in a session, right-click the icon or use the shortcut Alt+Shift+1.
◦ For lossless compression, HDX 3D Pro uses the lossless codec for compression regardless of the codec selected through policy.
◦ For lossy compression, HDX 3D Pro uses the original codec: either the default or the one selected through policy.
◦ Lossless switch settings are not retained for subsequent sessions. To use the lossless codec for every connection, select Always Lossless for the Visual Quality policy setting.
● Multiple and high-resolution monitor support: For Microsoft Windows 7 and 8 desktops, HDX 3D Pro supports user devices with up to four monitors. Users can arrange their monitors in any configuration and can mix monitors with different resolutions and orientations. The number of monitors is limited by the capabilities of the host computer GPU, the user device, and the available bandwidth. HDX 3D Pro supports all monitor resolutions and is limited only by the capabilities of the GPU on the host computer.
● Dynamic resolution: You can resize the virtual desktop or application window to any resolution.
● Support for NVIDIA Kepler architecture: HDX 3D Pro supports NVIDIA GRID K1 and K2 cards for GPU pass-through and GPU sharing. The GRID vGPU enables multiple virtual machines to have simultaneous, direct access to a single physical GPU, using the same NVIDIA graphics drivers as are deployed on nonvirtualized operating systems.
● Support for VMware vSphere and ESX using vDGA: You can use HDX 3D Pro with vDGA for both remote desktop service (RDS) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workloads. When you use HDX 3D Pro with vSGA, support is limited to one monitor. Use of vSGA with large 3D models can result in performance problems because of its use of API-intercept technology. For more information, see VMware vSphere 5.1: Citrix Known Issues.
As shown in Figure 10:
● The host computer must reside in the same Microsoft Active Directory domain as the delivery controller.
● When a user logs on to Citrix Receiver and accesses the virtual application or desktop, the controller authenticates the user and contacts the VDA for HDX 3D Pro to broker a connection to the computer hosting the graphical application.
● The VDA for HDX 3D Pro uses the appropriate hardware on the host to compress views of the complete desktop or of just the graphical application.
● The desktop or application views and the user interactions with them are transmitted between the host computer and the user device through a direct HDX connection between Citrix Receiver and the VDA for HDX 3D Pro.
GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Server
Citrix HDX 3D Pro allows graphics-intensive applications running in Microsoft Windows Server sessions to render on the server's GPU. By moving OpenGL, DirectX, Direct3D, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) rendering to the server's GPU, the server's CPU is not slowed by graphics rendering. Additionally, the server can process more graphics because the workload is split between the CPU and the GPU.
GPU Sharing for Citrix XenApp RDS Workloads
RDS GPU sharing enables GPU hardware rendering of OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX applications in remote desktop sessions.
● Sharing can be used on bare-metal devices or virtual machines to increase application scalability and performance.
● Sharing enables multiple concurrent sessions to share GPU resources (most users do not require the rendering performance of a dedicated GPU).
● Sharing requires no special settings.
For DirectX applications, only one GPU is used by default. That GPU is shared by multiple users. The allocation of sessions across multiple GPUs with DirectX is experimental and requires registry changes. Contact Citrix Support for more information.
You can install multiple GPUs on a hypervisor and assign virtual machines to each of these GPUs on a one-to-one basis: either install a graphics card with more than one GPU, or install multiple graphics cards with one or more GPUs each. Mixing heterogeneous graphics cards on a server is not recommended.
Virtual machines require direct pass-through access to a GPU, which is available with VMware vSphere 6. When Citrix HDX 3D Pro is used with GPU pass-through, each GPU in the server supports one multiuser virtual machine.
Scalability using RDS GPU sharing depends on several factors:
● The applications being run
● The amount of video RAM that the applications consume
● The graphics card's processing power
Some applications handle video RAM shortages better than others. If the hardware becomes extremely overloaded, the system may become unstable, or the graphics card driver may fail. Limit the number of concurrent users to avoid such problems.
To confirm that GPU acceleration is occurring, use a third-party tool such as GPU-Z. GPU-Z is available at http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/.
Citrix HDX 3D Pro Requirements
The physical or virtual machine hosting the application can use GPU pass-through or vGPU:
● GPU pass-through is available with Citrix XenServer; VMware vSphere and ESX, where it is referred to as virtual direct graphics acceleration (vDGA); and Microsoft Hyper-V in Microsoft Windows Server 2016, where it is referred to as discrete device assignment (DDA).
● vGPU is available with Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere; see https://www.citrix.com/products/xenapp-xendesktop/hdx-3d-pro.html.
● Citrix recommends that the host computer have at least 4 GB of RAM and four virtual CPUs with a clock speed of 2.3 GHz or higher.
The requirements for the GPU are as follows:
● For CPU-based compression (including lossless compression), Citrix HDX 3D Pro supports any display adapter on the host computer that is compatible with the application being delivered.
● For virtualized graphics acceleration using the NVIDIA GRID API, HDX 3D Pro can be used with supported GRID cards (see NVIDIA GRID). GRID delivers a high frame rate, resulting in a highly interactive user experience.
● Virtualized graphics acceleration is supported on the Intel Xeon processor E3 family data center graphics platform. For more information, see http://www.citrix.com/intel and http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/data-center-graphics.html.
The requirements for the user device are as follows:
● HDX 3D Pro supports all monitor resolutions that are supported by the GPU on the host computer. However, for optimal performance with the minimum recommended user device and GPU specifications, Citrix recommends a maximum monitor resolution for user devices of 1920 x 1200 pixels for LAN connections, and 1280 x 1024 pixels for WAN connections.
● Citrix recommends that user devices have at least 1 GB of RAM and a CPU with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz or higher. Use of the default deep compression codec, which is required on low-bandwidth connections, requires a more powerful CPU unless the decoding is performed in hardware. For optimum performance, Citrix recommends that user devices have at least 2 GB of RAM and a dual-core CPU with a clock speed of 3 GHz or higher.
● For multiple-monitor access, Citrix recommends user devices with quad-core CPUs.
● User devices do not need a GPU to access desktops or applications delivered with HDX 3D Pro.
● Citrix Receiver must be installed.
For more information, see the Citrix HDX 3D Pro articles at http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-12/hdx/hdx-3d-pro.html.
Figure 11 provides an overview of the solution configuration.
The hardware components in the solution are:
● Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Server (two Intel Xeon processor E5-2690 v4 CPUs at 2.60 GHz) with 512 GB of memory (32 GB x 16 DIMMs at 2400 MHz)
● Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server (two Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 CPUs at 2.60 GHz) with 512 GB of memory (32 GB x 16 DIMMs at 2400 MHz)
● Cisco HyperFlex HX240c M4S hyperconverged server (two Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 CPUs at 2.60 GHz) with 512 GB of memory (32 GB x 16 DIMMs at 2400 MHz)
● Cisco UCS VIC 1227 mLOM (Cisco UCS C240 M4 and Cisco HyperFlex HX240c M4S)
● Cisco UCS VIC 1340 mLOM (Cisco UCS B200 M4)
● Two Cisco UCS 6324 fabric interconnects in Cisco UCS Mini or UCS second- or third-generation fabric interconnects
● Twelve 600-GB SAS disks at 10,000 rpm
● NVIDIA Tesla M6, and M60 cards
● Two Cisco Nexus® 9372 Switches (optional access switches)
The software components of the solution are:
● Cisco UCS Firmware Release 3.1(2e)
● VMware ESXi 6.0 (4192238) for VDI hosts
● Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.12
● Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
● Microsoft Server 2012 R2
● NVIDIA GRID 2.0 software and licenses:
◦ NVIDIA-vGPU-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver_367.64-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585
◦ 369.71_grid_win10_server2016_64bit_international
This section describes the Cisco UCS configuration.
Install NVIDIA Tesla GPU Card on Cisco UCS C240 M4
Install the M60 GPU card on the Cisco UCS C240 M4 server. Table 3 lists the minimum firmware required for the GPU cards.
Table 3. Minimum Server Firmware Versions Required for GPU Cards
| Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) |
BIOS Minimum Version |
| NVIDIA Tesla M60 |
Release 2.0(9) |
The rules for mixing NVIDIA GPU cards are as follows:
● Do not mix GRID GPU cards with Tesla GPU cards in the same server.
● Do not mix different models of Tesla GPU cards in the same server.
The rules for configuring the server with GPUs differ, depending on the server version and other factors. Table 4 lists rules for populating the Cisco UCS C240 M4 and HyperFlex HX240c M4 with NVIDIA GPUs. Figure 12 shows a one-GPU installation on HX-Series server, and Figure 13 shows a two-GPU installation C-Series server.
Table 4. NVIDIA GPU Population Rules
| Server |
Single GPU |
Dual GPU |
| Cisco UCS C240 M4 |
Riser 1A, slot 2 or Riser 2, slot 5 |
Riser 1A, slot 2 and Riser 2, slot 5 |
| HyperFlex HX240c M4 |
Riser 2, slot 5 |
Not Supported |
Note: If you have a single high-power GPU, it must be installed in in PCIe riser 1A, slot 2 on the Cisco UCS C240 M4.
For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C240M4/install/C240M4/gpu.html and http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/hyperconverged-infrastructure/hyperflex-hx-series/datasheet-c78-736818.pdf.
Install NVIDIA Tesla GPU Card on Cisco UCS B200 M4
Install the M6 GPU card on the Cisco UCS B200 M4 server. Table 5 lists the minimum firmware required for the GPU card. Figure 14 shows the card in the server.
Table 5. Minimum Server Firmware Versions Required for GPU Card
| Cisco Integrated Management Controller (IMC) |
BIOS Minimum Version |
| NVIDIA Tesla M6 |
Release 2.0(13c) |
Before installing the NVIDIA M6 GPU, do the following:
● Remove any adapter card, such as a Cisco UCS VIC 1380 or 1280 or Port extender card from mLOM slot 2. You cannot use any other card in slot 2 when the NVIDIA M6 GPU is installed.
● Upgrade your Cisco UCS system to a version of Cisco UCS Manager that supports this card. Refer to the latest version of the release notes for Cisco UCS software at the following URL for information about supported hardware: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/products-release-notes-list.html.
Follow these steps to configure the GPU card.
1. After the NVIDIA M60 GPU cards are physically installed and the Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Server is discovered in Cisco UCS Manager, select the server and choose Inventory > GPUs. As shown in Figure 15, PCIe slots 2 and 5 are used with two GRID M60 cards.
2. After the NVIDIA M6 GPU card is physically installed and the Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server is discovered in Cisco UCS Manager, select the server and choose Inventory > GPUs. As shown in Figure 16, PCIe slot 2 is used with the GRID M6 card.
You can use Cisco UCS Manager to perform firmware upgrades to the NVIDIA GPU cards in managed Cisco UCS C240 M4 servers.
Note: VMware ESX virtual machine hardware Version 9 or later is required for vGPU and vDGA configuration. Virtual machines with hardware Version 9 or later should have their settings managed through the VMware vSphere Web Client.
Install the NVIDIA GRID Software
Three packages are required for VMware ESXi host setup, as shown in Figure 17:
● The GRID license server installer
● The NVIDIA GRID Manager software, which is installed on VMware vSphere ESXi; the NVIDIA drivers and software that are installed in Microsoft Windows are also in this folder
● The GPU Mode Switch utility, which changes the cards from the default Compute mode to Graphics mode
Install the NVIDIA GRID License Server
The NVIDIA GRID vGPU is a licensed feature on Tesla M6 and M60 cards. A software license is required to use the full vGPU features on a guest virtual machine. An NVIDIA license server with the appropriate licenses is required.
This section summarizes the installation and configuration process for the NVIDIA GRID 2.0 license server.
To get an evaluation license code and download the software, register at http://www.nvidia.com/grid-evaluation. The steps shown here use the Microsoft Windows version of the license server installed on Windows Server 2012 R2. A Linux version of the license server is also available.
The GRID 2.0 license server requires Java Version 7 or later. Go to Java.com and install the latest version.
3. Extract and open the NVIDIA-ls-windows-2015.12-0001 folder. Run setup.exe (Figure 18).
4. Click Next (Figure 19).
3. Accept the license agreement and click Next (Figure 20).
4. Accept the Apache license agreement and click Next (Figure 21).
5. Choose the desired installation folder and click Next (Figure 22).
6. The license server listens on port 7070. This port must be opened in the firewall for other machines to obtain licenses from this server. Select the “License server (port 7070)” option.
7. The license server’s management interface listens on port 8080. If you want the administration page accessible from other machines, you will need to open up port 8080. Select the “Management interface (port 8080)” option.
8. Click Next (Figure 23).
9. The Pre-installation Summary and Repair Installation options automatically progress without user input (Figure 24).
10. When the installation process is complete, click Done (Figure 25).
Configure the NVIDIA GRID 2.0 License Server
Now configure the NVIDIA Grid license server.
1. Log in to the license server site with the credentials set up during the registration process at nvidia.com/grideval. A license file is generated from https://nvidia.flexnetoperations.com.
2. After you are logged in, click Create License Server.
3. Specify the fields as shown in Figure 26. In the License Server ID field, enter the MAC address of your local license server’s NIC. Leave the ID Type set to Ethernet. For the Alias and Site Name, choose user-friendly names. Then click Create.
4. Click the Search License Servers node under Grid Licensing.
5. Click your license server ID (Figure 27).
6. Click Map Add-Ons and choose the number of license units out of your total pool to allocate to this license server (Figure 28).
After the add-ons are mapped, the interface will look like Figure 29, showing 128 units mapped, for example.
7. Click Download License File and save the .bin file to your license server (Figure 30).
Note: The .bin file must be uploaded into your local license server within 24 hours of its generation. Otherwise, you will need to generate a new .bin file.
8. On the local license server, browse to http://<FQDN>:8080/licserver to display the License Server Configuration page.
9. Click License Management in the left pane.
10. Click Browse to locate your recently download .bin license file. Select the .bin file and click OK.
11. Click Upload. The message “Successfully applied license file to license server” should appear on the screen (Figure 31).
Deploy the NVIDIA GRID vGPU Software
This section summarizes the installation process for configuring an ESXi host and virtual machine for vGPU support. Figure 32 shows the components used for vGPU support.
Configure the VMware ESXi Host Server for vGPU
This section outlines the installation process for configuring a VMware ESXi host for vGPU support.
As stated earlier, the NVIDIA GRID vGPU is a licensed feature on Tesla M6 and M60 cards. A software license is required to use the full vGPU features on a guest virtual machine. An NVIDIA license server with appropriate licenses is required (Figure 33).
1. Download the NVIDIA GRID GPU driver pack for VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0.
2. Enable the ESXi shell and the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol on the vSphere host from the Troubleshooting Mode Options menu of the vSphere Configuration Console (Figure 34).
3. Upload the NVIDIA driver (vSphere Installation Bundle [VIB] file) to the /tmp directory on the ESXi host using a tool such as WinSCP (shared storage is preferred if you are installing drivers on multiple servers or using the VMware Update Manager).
4. Log in as root to the vSphere console through SSH using a tool such as Putty.
Note: The ESXi host must be in maintenance mode for you to install the VIB module. To place the host in maintenance mode, use the command esxcli system maintenanceMode set -enable true.
5. Enter the following command to install the NVIDIA vGPU drivers:
esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v /<path>/<filename>.VIB
The command should return output similar to that shown in Figure 35.
Note: Although the display shows Reboot Required: false, a reboot is necessary for the VIB file to load and for xorg to start.
6. Exit the ESXi host from maintenance mode and reboot the host by using the vSphere Web Client or by entering the following commands:
esxcli system maintenanceMode set -e false
reboot
7. After the host reboots successfully, verify that the kernel module has loaded successfully using the following command:
esxcli software vib list | grep -i nvidia
The command should return output similar to that shown in Figure 36.
Note: See the VMware knowledge base article for information about removing any existing NVIDIA drivers before installing new drivers: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2033434.
8. Confirm GRID GPU detection on the ESXi host. To determine the status of the GPU card’s CPU, the card’s memory, and the amount of disk space remaining on the card, enter the following command:
nvidia-smi
The command should return output similar to Figures 37, 38, depending on the cards used in your environment.
Note: The NVIDIA system management interface (SMI) also allows GPU monitoring using the following command (this command adds a loop, automatically refreshing the display): nvidia-smi –l.
9. By default, the M6 and M60 cards use Compute mode. They will need to be switched to Graphics mode, which is required for vGPU support. You will need to download the gpumodeswitch utility from the NVIDIA website. The example here uses the boot ISO file, which loads a Linux environment with the gpumodeswitch utility already loaded (Figure 39).
10. Mount the ISO file through the Cisco UCS Manager Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and reboot the host.
11. When the Linux shell loads, enter the following command (Figure 40):
gpumodeswitch --gpumode graphics --auto
Alternatively, you can install gpumodeswitch vib on the ESXi host and enter the same command.
NVIDIA Tesla M60 and M6 Profile Specifications
The Tesla M6 card has a single physical GPU, and the Tesla M60 card implements multiple physical GPUs. Each physical GPU can support several different types of virtual GPU. Each type of vGPU has a fixed amount of frame buffer space, a fixed number of supported display heads, and a fixed maximum resolution, and each is targeted at a different class of workload. Table 6 lists the vGPU types supported by GRID GPUs.
For more information, see http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-enterprise-resources.html.
Table 6. User Profile Specifications for NVIDIA Tesla Cards
| NVIDIA GRID Card |
Physical GPUs |
GRID vGPU |
Intended Use Case |
Frame Buffer (MB) |
Virtual Display Heads |
Maximum Resolution Per Display Head |
Maximum vGPUs per GPU |
Maximum vGPUs per Board |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-8Q |
Designer |
8192 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
1 |
2 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-4Q |
Designer |
4096 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
2 |
4 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-2Q |
Designer |
2048 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
4 |
8 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-1Q |
● Power user
● Designer
|
1024 |
2 |
4096 × 2160 |
8 |
16 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-0Q |
● Power user
● Designer
|
512 |
2 |
2560 × 1600 |
16 |
32 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-1B |
Power user |
1024 |
4 |
2560 × 1600 |
8 |
16 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-0B |
Power user |
512 |
2 |
2560 × 1600 |
16 |
32 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-8A |
Virtual application user |
8192 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
1 |
2 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-4A |
Virtual application user |
4096 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
2 |
4 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-2A |
Virtual application user |
2048 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
4 |
8 |
| Tesla M60 |
2 |
M60-1A |
Virtual application user |
1024 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
8 |
16 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-8Q |
Designer |
8192 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
1 |
1 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-4Q |
Designer |
4096 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
2 |
2 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-2Q |
Designer |
2048 |
4 |
4096 × 2160 |
4 |
4 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-1Q |
● Power user
● Designer
|
1024 |
2 |
4096 × 2160 |
8 |
8 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-0Q |
● Power user
● Designer
|
512 |
2 |
2560 × 1600 |
16 |
16 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-1B |
Power user |
1024 |
4 |
2560 × 1600 |
8 |
8 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-0B |
Power user |
512 |
2 |
2560 × 1600 |
16 |
16 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-8A |
Virtual application user |
8192 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
1 |
1 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-4A |
Virtual application user |
4096 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
2 |
2 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-2A |
Virtual application user |
2048 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
4 |
4 |
| Tesla M6 |
1 |
M6-1A |
Virtual application user |
1024 |
1 |
1280 × 1024 |
8 |
8 |
Prepare a Virtual Machine for vGPU Support
Use the following procedure to create the virtual machine that will later be used as the VDI base image.
1. Using the vSphere Web Client, create a new virtual machine. To do this, right-click a host or cluster and choose New Virtual Machine. Work through the New Virtual Machine wizard. Unless another configuration is specified, select the configuration settings appropriate for your environment (Figure 41).
2. Choose “ESXi 6.0 and later” from the “Compatible with” drop-down menu to be able to use the latest features, including the mapping of shared PCI devices, which is required for the vGPU feature (Figure 42).
3. In customizing the hardware of the new virtual machine, add a new shared PCI device, select the appropriate GPU profile, and reserve all virtual machine memory (Figures 43 and 44).
Note: If you are creating a new virtual machine and using the vSphere Web Client's virtual machine console functions, the mouse will not be usable in the virtual machine until after both the operating system and VMware Tools have been installed. If you cannot use the traditional vSphere Client to connect to the virtual machine, do not enable the NVIDIA GRID vGPU at this time.
4. Install and configure Microsoft Windows on the virtual machine:
a. Configure the virtual machine with the appropriate amount of vCPU and RAM according to the GPU profile selected.
b. Install VMware Tools.
c. Join the virtual machine to the Microsoft Active Directory domain.
d. Choose “Allow remote connections to this computer” on the Windows System Properties menu.
Install the NVIDIA vGPU Software Driver and Citrix HDX 3D Pro Agent
Use the following procedure to install the NVIDIA GRID vGPU drivers on the desktop virtual machine and to install the HDX 3D Pro Virtual Desktop Agent to prepare this virtual machine to be managed by the XenDesktop controller. To fully enable vGPU operation, the NVIDIA driver must be installed.
Before the NVIDIA driver is installed on the guest virtual machine, the Device Manager shows the standard VGA graphics adapter (Figure 45).
1. Copy the Windows drivers from the NVIDIA GRID vGPU driver pack downloaded earlier to the primary virtual machine.
2. Copy the 32- or 64-bit NVIDIA Windows driver from the vGPU driver pack to the desktop virtual machine and run setup.exe (Figure 46).
Note: The vGPU host driver and guest driver versions need to match. Do not attempt to use a newer guest driver with an older vGPU host driver or an older guest driver with a newer vGPU host driver. In addition, the vGPU driver from NVIDIA is a different driver than the GPU pass-through driver.
3. Install the graphics drivers using the Express option (Figure 47). After the installation has been completed successfully (Figure 48), restart the virtual machine.
Note: Be sure that remote desktop connections have been enabled. After this step, console access may not be usable to the virtual machine when connecting from a vSphere Client.
4. To start the HDX 3D Pro VDA installation, mount the XenApp and XenDesktop 7.12 or later ISO image on the virtual machine or copy the Feature Pack VDA installation media to the virtual desktop virtual machine.
5. Install Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro Virtual Desktop Agent (Figure 49). Reboot when prompted to do so.
6. Reboot the virtual machine after the VDA for HDX 3D Pro has been installed successfully (Figure 50).
7. After the HDX 3D Pro Virtual Desktop Agent has been installed and the virtual machine rebooted successfully, install the graphics applications, benchmark tools, and sample models that you want to deliver to all users. Refer to this blog for a list of graphics tools that you can use for evaluation and testing purposes: http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/08/13/citrix-hdx-the-big-list-of-graphical-benchmarks-tools-and-demos/.
Verify That Applications Are Ready to Support vGPU
Validate the successful installation of the graphics drivers and the vGPU device.
Open Windows Device Manager and expand the Display Adapter section. The device will reflect chosen profile (Figure 51).
Note: If you see an exclamation point next to the display adapter, a problem has occurred.
The following are the most likely the reasons:
● The GPU driver service is not running.
● The GPU driver is incompatible.
Configure the Virtual Machine for an NVIDIA GRID vGPU License
You need to point the primary image to the license server so the virtual machines with vGPUs can obtain a license.
Note: The license settings persist across reboots. These settings can also be preloaded through register keys.
1. In the Microsoft Windows Control Panel, double-click NVIDIA Control Panel (Figure 52).
2. Select Manage License from the left pane and enter your license server address and port (Figure 53).
3. Select Apply.
After the desktops are provisioned, use the following steps to verify the vGPU deployment in the XenDesktop environment.
Verify That the NVIDIA Driver Is Running on the Desktop
Follow these steps to verify that the NVIDIA driver is running on the desktop:
1. Right-click the desktop. In the menu, choose NVIDIA Control Panel to open the control panel.
2. In the control panel, select System Information to see the vGPU that the virtual machine is using, the vGPU’s capabilities, and the NVIDIA driver version that is loaded (Figures 54 and 55).
Verify NVDIA License Acquisition by Desktops
A license is obtained before the user logs on to the virtual machine after the virtual machine is fully booted (Figure 56).
To view the details, select Licensed Clients in the left pane (Figure 57).
Verify the NVDIA Configuration on the Host
To obtain a hostwide overview of the NVIDIA GPUs, enter the nvidia-smi command without any arguments (Figure 58).
This section presents additional configuration options detailed in Citrix product documentation.
Install Citrix HDX 3D Pro Virtual Desktop Agent Using the CLI
When you use the installer's GUI to install a VDA for a Windows desktop, simply select Yes on the HDX 3D Pro page. When you use the CLI, include the /enable_hdx_3d_pro option with the XenDesktop VdaSetup.exe command.
To upgrade HDX 3D Pro, uninstall both the separate HDX 3D for Professional Graphics component and the VDA before installing the VDA for HDX 3D Pro. Similarly, to switch from the standard VDA for a Windows desktop to the HDX 3D Pro VDA, uninstall the standard VDA and then install the VDA for HDX 3D Pro.
Install and Upgrade NVIDIA Drivers
The NVIDIA GRID API provides direct access to the frame buffer of the GPU, providing the fastest possible frame rate for a smooth and interactive user experience. If you install NVIDIA drivers before you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, NVIDIA GRID is enabled by default.
To enable GRID on a virtual machine, disable Microsoft Basic Display Adapter from the Device Manager. Run the following command:
Montereyenable.exe -enable -noreset
Then restart the VDA.
If you install NVIDIA drivers after you install a VDA with HDX 3D Pro, GRID is disabled. Enable GRID by using the MontereyEnable tool provided by NVIDIA.
To disable GRID, run the following command:
Montereyenable.exe -disable –noreset
Then restart the VDA.
Use the Citrix HDX Monitor tool (which replaces the Health Check tool) to validate the operation and configuration of HDX visualization technology and to diagnose and troubleshoot HDX problems. To download the tool and learn more about it, go to https://taas.citrix.com/hdx/download/.
Optimize the Citrix HDX 3D Pro User Experience
To use HDX 3D Pro with multiple monitors, be sure that the host computer is configured with at least as many monitors as are attached to user devices. The monitors attached to the host computer can be either physical or virtual.
Do not attach a monitor (either physical or virtual) to a host computer while a user is connected to the virtual desktop or the application providing the graphical application. Doing so can cause instability for the duration of a user's session.
Let your users know that changes to the desktop resolution (by them or an application) are not supported while a graphical application session is running. After closing the application session, a user can change the resolution of the Desktop Viewer window in Citrix Receiver Desktop Viewer Preferences.
When multiple users share a connection with limited bandwidth (for example, at a branch office), Citrix recommends that you use the “Overall session bandwidth limit” policy setting to limit the bandwidth available to each user. This setting helps ensure that the available bandwidth does not fluctuate widely as users log on and off. Because HDX 3D Pro automatically adjusts to make use of all the available bandwidth, large variations in the available bandwidth over the course of user sessions can negatively affect performance.
For example, if 20 users share a 60-Mbps connection, the bandwidth available to each user can vary between 3 Mbps and 60 Mbps, depending on the number of concurrent users. To optimize the user experience in this scenario, determine the bandwidth required per user at peak periods and limit users to this amount at all times.
For users of a 3D mouse, Citrix recommends that you increase the priority of the generic USB redirection virtual channel to 0. For information about changing the virtual channel priority, see Citrix article CTX128190.
Use GPU Acceleration for Microsoft Windows Server DirectX, Direct3D, and WPF Rendering
DirectX, Direct3D, and WPF rendering is available only on servers with a GPU that supports display driver interface (DDI) Version 9ex, 10, or 11.
● On Windows Server 2008 R2, DirectX and Direct3D require no special settings to use a single GPU.
● On Windows Server 2012, RDS sessions on the remote desktop session host server use the Microsoft Basic Render driver as the default adapter. To use the GPU in RDS sessions on Windows Server 2012, enable the “Use the hardware default graphics adapter for all Remote Desktop Services sessions” setting in the group policy by choosing Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment.
● On Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012, all DirectX and Direct3D applications running in all sessions use the same single GPU by default. To enable experimental support for distributing user sessions across all eligible GPUs for DirectX and Direct3D applications, create the following settings in the registry of the server running Windows Server sessions:
◦ [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "DirectX"=dword:00000001
◦ [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "DirectX"=dword:00000001
● To enable WPF applications to render using the server's GPU, create the following settings in the registry of the server running Windows Server sessions:
◦ [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Multiple Monitor Hook] "EnableWPFHook"=dword:00000001
◦ [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Multiple Monitor Hook] "EnableWPFHook"=dword:00000001
Experimental support is provided for GPU acceleration of CUDA and OpenCL applications running in a user session. This support is disabled by default, but you can enable it for testing and evaluation purposes.
To use the experimental CUDA acceleration features, enable the following registry settings:
● [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "CUDA"=dword:00000001
● [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "CUDA"=dword:00000001
To use the experimental OpenCL acceleration features, enable the following registry settings:
● [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "OpenCL"=dword:00000001
● [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Citrix\CtxHook\AppInit_Dlls\Graphics Helper] "OpenCL"=dword:00000001
Use the OpenGL Software Accelerator
The OpenGL Software Accelerator is a software rasterizer for OpenGL applications such as ArcGIS, Google Earth, Nehe, Maya, Blender, Voxler, CAD, and CAM. In some cases, the OpenGL Software Accelerator can eliminate the need to use graphics cards to deliver a good user experience with OpenGL applications.
Important: The OpenGL Software Accelerator is provided as is and must be tested with all applications. It may not work with some applications and is intended as a solution to try if the Windows OpenGL rasterizer does not provide adequate performance. If the OpenGL Software Accelerator works with your applications, you can use it to avoid the cost of GPU hardware.
The OpenGL Software Accelerator is provided in the Support folder on the installation media, and it is supported on all valid VDA platforms.
Try the OpenGL Software Accelerator in the following cases:
● If the performance of OpenGL applications running in virtual machines is a concern, try using the OpenGL accelerator. For some applications, the accelerator outperforms the Microsoft OpenGL software rasterizer that is included with Windows because the OpenGL accelerator uses SSE4.1 and AVX. The OpenGL accelerator also supports applications using OpenGL versions up to Version 2.1.
● For applications running on a workstation, first try the default version of OpenGL support provided by the workstation's graphics adapter. If the graphics card is the latest version, in most cases it will deliver the best performance. If the graphics card is an earlier version or does not deliver satisfactory performance, then try the OpenGL Software Accelerator.
● 3D OpenGL applications that are not adequately delivered using CPU-based software rasterization may benefit from OpenGL GPU hardware acceleration. This feature can be used on bare-metal devices and virtual machines.
The combination of Cisco UCS Manager, Cisco UCS C240 M4 Rack Servers and B200 M4 Blade Servers, NVIDIA Tesla cards running on VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0, and Citrix XenDesktop 7.12 provides a high-performance platform for virtualizing graphics-intensive applications.
By following the guidance in this document, our customers and partners can be assured that they are ready to host the growing list of graphics applications that are supported by our partners.
● Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers and B-Series Blade Servers:
◦ https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10265/
● Cisco HyperFlex hypervconverged servers:
◦ https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/hyperconverged-infrastructure/hyperflex-hx240c-m4/index.html
● NVIDIA:
◦ http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-technology.html
● Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop 7.12:
◦ http://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/7-12.html
◦ https://www.citrix.com/products/xenapp-xendesktop/hdx-3d-pro.html
◦ http://blogs.citrix.com/2014/08/13/citrix-hdx-the-big-list-of-graphical-benchmarks-tools-and-demos/
● Microsoft Windows and Citrix optimization guides for virtual desktops:
◦ http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125874
◦ https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX216252
● VMware vSphere ESXi and vCenter Server 6:
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