Install drivers for NVIDIA RTX virtual workstations

If you have graphics-intensive workloads, such as 3D visualization, you can create virtual workstations that use NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstations (formerly known as NVIDIA GRID).

When you select a GPU for a virtual workstation, Compute Engine adds an NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation license to your VM. For more information about pricing, see GPU pricing.

To set up an NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation, you need to do the following:

  1. Create a VM with virtual workstation enabled.
  2. Install a driver for the virtual workstation.

After you create your virtual workstation, you can connect to it using a remote desktop protocol such as Teradici® PCoIP or VMware® Horizon View.

Before you begin

Install driver for the NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation

  1. Install the build tools for your Linux version.

    Debian/Ubuntu 

    sudo apt install build-essential

    CentOS/RHEL

    Run the following commands:

    1. sudo yum group install "Development Tools"
    2. elfutils-libelf-devel

    SLES

    • SLES 12

      sudo zypper install -t pattern devel_basis
      sudo zypper install gcc8

    • SLES 15

      sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-development-tools/15/x86_64
      sudo zypper install gcc8

  2. Install the Linux kernel headers. See Verify the System has the Correct Kernel Headers and Development Packages Installed in the Nvidia documentation.

  3. Install drivers.

    Linux

    1. Download the driver. For a full list of NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation drivers that you can use on Compute Engine, see Drivers for the NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation.

      For example, to download the NVIDIA 470.63 driver, run the following command:

      curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/nvidia-drivers-us-public/GRID/GRID13.0/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-470.63.01-grid.run

    2. Start the installer.

      For example, to start the NVIDIA 470.63 driver, run the following command:

      sudo bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-470.63.01-grid.run

    3. During the installation, choose the following options:

      • If you are prompted to install 32-bit binaries, select Yes.
      • If you are prompted to modify the x.org file, select No.

    Windows Server

    1. Depending on your version of Windows Server, download the required NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation drivers. For example, to download the NVIDIA 471.68 drivers, choose one of the following:

      For a full list of NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation drivers that you can use on Compute Engine, see Drivers for the NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation.

    2. Run the installer, and choose the Express installation.

    3. After the installation is complete, restart the VM. When you restart, you are disconnected from your session.

    4. Reconnect to your instance using RDP or a PCoIP client.

Verify that the driver is installed

Linux

Run the following command:

nvidia-smi

The output of the command looks similar to the following:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.63.01    Driver Version: 470.63.01    CUDA Version: 11.4     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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  Tesla T4            On   | 00000000:00:04.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   71C    P8    21W /  70W |      0MiB / 15109MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

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

Windows Server

  1. Connect to your Windows instance using RDP or a PCoIP client.

  2. Right-click the desktop, and select NVIDIA Control Panel.

  3. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, from the Help menu, select System Information. The information shows the GPU that the VM is using, and the driver version.

What's next?