Setup Your Environment for vSGA

Configure the ESXi host

To enable vSGA feature, configure the ESXi host by performing the following high-level steps.

Verify that the ESXi host is compatible with ESXi 8.0 Update 2 or later.

Install the graphics card on the ESXi host.
Place the host in maintenance mode. For more information, see Place a Host in Maintenance Mode.
Install the associated GPU graphics card VIB files on the host. For example, run the following ESXCLI command.
esxcli software vib install -v $PWD/VendorName-vsga-driver_x.y.z-1OEM.a.b.c.vib
In the vSphere Client, verify that the GPU graphics card is in Shared mode.
1. Select the host and navigate to Configure > Hardware > Graphics.
2. Click the Graphics Device tab and check the Configured Type column.
3. To change the vGPU Mode, select the graphics card and click Edit.
  The Edit Graphics Device Settings window appears.
4. Select Shared and click OK.
Reboot the host and exit the maintenance mode.
To verify that at least one driver VM starts, from the SSH terminal, run the crx-cli list command.

After you configure the ESXi host, you must setup the VM general settings.

Table 1. General Settings of a VM
Setting	Description
Hardware Version	Make sure that the VM is of the latest hardware version that all hosts support. Right-click the VM and select Compatibility. If Upgrade VM Compatibility is not active, the VM is compatible with the latest hardware version. The minimum hardware version is 11. For DirectX 11.0 and OpenGL 4.3, the hardware version must be compatible with ESXi 8.0 and later.
CPU	The required number of CPUs depend on the usage and is determined by the actual workload. To obtain optimal performance, allocate 2 virtual CPUs to the VM.
Memory	The virtual hardware memory size depends on the usage and the number of applications that are running inside the VM. Set the memory size of the VM to 4 GB if the VM runs 3D applications. 2 GB if the VM runs basic productivity applications.
Network Adapter	Select the VMXNET 3 adapter type.
SCSI Controller	Select the LSI Logic SAS controller type. For the highest workloads using local flash-based storage, use VMware Paravirtual.
Other Devices	Remove all devices that are not used, such as COM, LTP, DVD, or floppy.

To enable vSGA, configure the VM by performing the following high-level steps.

To enable 3D graphics, select the Enable 3D Support check box. For more information, see How do I Configure 3D Graphics.
Set 3D Renderer to Automatic or Hardware.
Select the size of the graphics 3D Memory.
- 512 MB if the VM runs basic productivity applications.
- 2048 MB if the VM runs 3D applications. For maximum consolidation, set the 3D Memory size to the minimum required by the guest OS applications. Guest operating systems typically cannot use more graphics memory than half of the available system memory. Therefore, to run larger graphics workloads, you must increase the Guest OS memory.

After you configure the general settings for a VM, download and install the corresponding VMware Tools version in the VM.

Click the Display tab. You should see the following parameters.

Table 2. Device panel and Driver panel parameters
Device Panel	Drivers Panel
Name: VMware SVGA 3D Device Type: Full Display Device	Direct3D DDI: 11.1 Feature levels: 11_0, 10_1, 10_0, 9_3, 9_2, 9_1 Driver Model: WDDM 1.2

Table 3. VMware Tools version support for WDDM, DirectX, and OpenGL
VMware Tools Version	Max WDDM Version	Max DirectX Version	Max OpenGL Version
VMware Tools 10.0	WDDM 1.0	DirectX 10.0	OpenGL 3.3
VMware Tools 10.3.2	WDDM 1.0	DirectX 10.1	OpenGL 3.3
VMware Tools 11.1.5	WDDM 1.1	DirectX 11.0	OpenGL 4.1
VMware Tools 12.0	WDDM 1.2	DirectX 11.0	OpenGL 4.3

After you configure the general settings for a VM, install Open VM Tools (open-vm-tools) in the Linux VM.

Install Open VM Tools. For more information, see Install Open VM Tools.
Verify that the VMware graphics driver is installed.
To make sure that OpenGL applications work in the VM, install Mesa in the VM and verify that the OpenGL version is 3.3 or later.
For example, run the following command glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version".

Verify the vmwgfx drm (direct rendering manager) driver version by using the drm_info tool.

For example, run the following script.

drm_info | head -n 2
Node: /dev/dri/card0
───Driver: vmwgfx (Linux drm driver for VMware graphics devices) version 2.20.0 (20211206)