Installing GRID® drivers for virtual workstations

To support the GPUs on your virtual workstations, you need to install a GRID driver.

Before you begin

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

Installing GRID 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.

For a full list of NVIDIA drivers that you can use on Compute Engine, see GRID® drivers for virtual workstations.

Linux

1. Download the GRID driver. For example, to download the NVIDIA 410.92 driver, run the following command:

   curl -O https://storage.googleapis.com/nvidia-drivers-us-public/GRID/GRID7.1/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.92-grid.run

2. Start the installer. To start the NVIDIA 410.92 driver, run the following command:

   sudo bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.92-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 one of the following NVIDIA GRID drivers:

   • Windows Server 2019.
   • Windows Server 2016.
   • Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)

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.

Verifying that the GRID driver is installed

Linux

Run the following command:

nvidia-smi

The output of the command looks similar to the following:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 410.92                Driver Version: 410.92                     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  Tesla P100-PCIE...  On   | 00000000:00:04.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   34C    P0    26W / 250W |      0MiB / 16276MiB |      0%      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

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?

• Learn more about GPUs on Compute Engine.
• 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.