Install drivers for NVIDIA RTX virtual workstations

Linux Windows

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:

Create a VM with virtual workstation enabled.
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

If you want to use the command-line examples in this guide, do the following:
1. Install or update to the latest version of the Google Cloud CLI.
2. Set a default region and zone.
If you want to use the API examples in this guide, set up API access.

Install driver for the NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation

Install the build tools for your Linux version.

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt install build-essential

CentOS/RHEL

sudo yum group install "Development Tools"

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

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

Caution: The drivers provided in this section are for use with Compute Engine only. If you need drivers for other platforms, see the NVIDIA Driver Download page.
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 525.60 driver, run the following command:
```
curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/nvidia-drivers-us-public/GRID/vGPU15.0/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-525.60.13-grid.run
```
2. Start the installer.
  
  For example, to start the NVIDIA 525.60 driver, run the following command:
```
sudo bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-525.60.13-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 a full list of NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation drivers that you can use on Windows VMs that are running 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 525.60.13    Driver Version: 525.60.13    CUDA Version: 12.0     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| 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 P100-PCIE...  On   | 00000000:00:04.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   39C    P0    27W / 250W |      0MiB / 16384MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   1  Tesla P100-PCIE...  On   | 00000000:00:05.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   39C    P0    28W / 250W |      0MiB / 16384MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   2  Tesla P100-PCIE...  On   | 00000000:00:06.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   36C    P0    25W / 250W |      0MiB / 16384MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
|   3  Tesla P100-PCIE...  On   | 00000000:00:07.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   33C    P0    27W / 250W |      0MiB / 16384MiB |      0%      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

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

Windows Server

Connect to your Windows instance using RDP or a PCoIP client.
Right-click the desktop, and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
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?

To monitor GPU performance, see Monitoring GPU performance.
To handle GPU host maintenance, see Handling GPU host maintenance events.
To optimize GPU performance, see Optimizing GPU performance.