You can edit graphics settings for supported graphics implementations.

vSphere supports multiple graphics implementations.
  • VMware supports 3d graphics solutions from AMD, Intel and NVIDIA.
  • NVIDIA GRID support.
  • Allows single NVIDIA vib to support both vSGA and vGPU implementations.
  • Provides vCenter GPU performance charts for Intel and NVIDIA.
  • Enables graphics for Horizon View VDI desktops.
  • You can create a VM with and up to 16 vGPU devices. HWv21 must be enabled on ESXi and vCenter.
You can configure host graphics settings, and customize vGPU graphics settings on a per VM basis.
Note: In this chapter, "Memory" refers to physical RAM.

View GPU Statistics

You can view detailed information for a host graphics card.

You can see GPU temperature, utilization, and memory usage.
Note: These statistics are only displayed when the GPU driver is installed on the host.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the host.
  2. Click the Monitor tab and click Performance.
  3. Click Advanced and select GPU from the drop-down menu.

Add an NVIDIA GRID vGPU to a Virtual Machine

If an ESXi host has an NVIDIA GRID GPU graphics device, you can configure a virtual machine to use the NVIDIA GRID virtual GPU (vGPU) technology.

NVIDIA GRID GPU graphics devices are designed to optimize complex graphics operations and enable them to run at high performance without overloading the CPU.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that an NVIDIA GRID GPU graphics device with an appropriate driver is installed on the host. See the vSphere Upgrade documentation.
  • Verify that the virtual machine is compatible with ESXi 6.0 and later.

Procedure

  1. Right-click a virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
  2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, select Add New Device and select New PCI Device from the drop-down menu.
  3. Expand the New PCI device, and select the NVIDIA GRID vGPU passthrough device to which to connect your virtual machine.
    Note: Full memory reservation will be applied automatically, it's required for PCI device.
  4. Select a GPU profile.
    A GPU profile represents the vGPU type.
  5. Click OK.

Results

The virtual machine can access the device.

Configuring Host Graphics

You can customize the graphics options on a per host basis.

Prerequisites

Virtual machines should be powered off.

Procedure

  1. Select a host and select Configure > Hardware > Graphics.
  2. Under Host Graphics, select Edit.
  3. In the Edit Host Graphics Settings window, select:
    Option Description
    Shared VMware shared virtual graphics
    Shared Direct Vendor shared passthrough graphics
  4. Select a shared passthrough GPU assignment policy.
    1. Spread VMs across GPUs (best performance)
    2. Group VMs on GPU until full (GPU Consolidation)
  5. Click OK.

What to do next

After clicking OK, you must restart Xorg on the host.

Configuring Graphics Devices

You can edit graphics type for a video card.

Prerequisites

Virtual machines must be powered off.

Procedure

  1. Under Graphics Devices, select a graphics card and click Edit.
    1. Select Shared for VMware shared virtual graphics.
    2. Select Shared Direct for Vendor shared passthrough graphics.
  2. Click OK.

Results

If you select a device, it shows which virtual machines are using that device if they are active.

What to do next

After clicking OK, you must restart Xorg on the host.

Migrating VMs with vGPUs

You can migrate VM's that have vGPUs.

Starting with vSphere 8.0 U2, DRS can automatically migrate VMs with vGPUs. When the DRS Cluster Advanced Options are set and the Estimated VM Device's Stun Time for a VM is lower than the VM Device's vMotion Stun Time limit, DRS will automate VM migrations.

To enable this functionality, make sure the infrastructure meets the following requirements:

  • Healthy vSphere Lifecycle Services (See KB 91891)
  • Configure the VM's vGPU devices through vCenter only
  • Healthy vMotion network (vMotion NICs setup)

If these requirements are met, add the following DRS Cluster Advanced Options:

DRS Cluster Advanced Options Value
PassthroughDrsAutomation

1
LBMaxVmotionPerHost 1

For vGPU VMs with Stun Times exceeding the "vMotion Stun Time Limit" (Default 100 seconds), a VI Admin can add the following DRS Cluster Advanced Option:

DRS Cluster Advanced Options Value
VmDevicesStunTimeTolerated <number of seconds, greater than any VM's Estimated Stun Time in the Cluster> (Default 100 seconds)

Or you can modify the "vMotion Stun Time Limit" in the VM Configuration > > VM Options tab > Advanced section.

For earlier releases:

For Maintenance Mode evacuations, please refer to KB 88271 vGPU Virtual Machine automated migration for Host Maintenance Mode in a DRS Cluster.

If VM placement issues arise, reduce DRS Automation to Partially Automated please see Edit Cluster Settings for more information.

You can manually migrate VMs with vGPUs to another host. See Using vMotion to Migrate vGPU Virtual Machines in the vCenter Server and Host Management guide for more information.

Configuring vGPU Size

You can adjust the vGPU size in vCenter.

vGPU profiles on a single physical GPU can have different types or sizes. This means, for example, you can run vGPU VM profiles with 16GB compute and 4GB graphics simultaneously on a single device. This allows you greater flexibility with vGPU workloads and better utilization of devices with mixed vGPU workloads.

You can activate or deactivate heterogeneous sizes on a per-device basis. Activating this feature reduces the maximum number of instances of some profiles. For example, the A16-1Q profile supports 24 instances when the feature is deactivated, but it supports 16 instances when it is activated. You may prefer to deactivate the feature on some devices in order to maximize capacity for their workloads.

Procedure

  1. Browse to the ESXi host.
  2. You can adjust vGPU size under: Configure > Hardware > Graphics > Graphics Devices .
  3. Select vGPU Mode and choose either SameSize or MixedSize. The default value is SameSize.
    • SameSize indicates the sizes are homogeneous.
    • MixedSize indicates the sizes can be heterogeneous.

Results

When editing a graphics device, the following message is displayed. 
Settings will take effect after restarting the host or xorg service.

This is required when you edit vGPU size.