This page describes the graphics capabilities of Linux virtual machines (VMs) that serve as sources for VMware Horizon 8 desktop pools. You can configure the currently supported Linux distributions to take advantage of NVIDIA virtual shared pass-through graphics acceleration (vGPU) capabilities on the ESXi host.
Note: The information on this page and its sub-pages is applicable only to Linux VMs. For information about graphics requirements and capabilities for physical Linux machines, see
Prepare a Physical Linux Machine for Desktop Deployment.
Horizon Agent only supports vGPU capabilities for Linux VMs, and does not support virtual dedicated graphics acceleration (vDGA).
Note: For information about the NVIDIA graphics cards and Linux distributions that support vGPU capabilities, see
https://docs.nvidia.com/grid/latest/product-support-matrix/index.html.
Keep in mind the following points when configuring a Linux desktop to support vGPU capabilities:
Caution: Before you begin, verify that Horizon Agent is not installed on the Linux virtual machine. If you install Horizon Agent before you configure the machine to use NVIDIA vGPU, required configuration parameters in the
xorg.conf file are overwritten, and NVIDIA vGPU does not work. You must install Horizon Agent after the NVIDIA vGPU configuration is completed.
- You must use the NVIDIA Linux VM display driver that matches the ESXi host GPU driver (.vib). See the NVIDIA website for information about driver packages.
- To support vGPU capabilities on cloned VMs, first complete the graphics setup in the base VM and then clone the VMs. The graphics settings work for cloned VMs and no further settings are required.
