Linux
Windows
If you need GPUs for hardware accelerated graphics on a remote desktop or
for gaming, you can create virtual workstations that use
NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstations (vWS)
(formerly known as NVIDIA GRID).
NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstations (vWS) are ideal for running workloads that use
APIs such as Vulkan, OpenGL, or Direct3D on a cloud remote desktop.
When you select a GPU for a virtual workstation, Compute Engine adds an
NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) license to your VM. For more information
about pricing, see
GPU pricing
.
To set up an NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS), 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
Required NVIDIA driver versions
For L4, T4, P4, and P100 NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) running
on Compute Engine, the following NVIDIA driver versions are recommended:
- Linux : 535.54.03 or later
- Windows : 537.13 or later
Install driver for the NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS)
Complete the following steps on your VM.
For Linux operating systems, install the build tools for your Linux version.
CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum group install "Development Tools"
Debian/Ubuntu
Install the build tools.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential
sudo apt install -y libvulkan1
If you are using Ubuntu 22.04, update the
gcc
version for the NVIDIA
driver.
sudo apt install -y gcc-12
sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-12 12
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
For Linux operating systems, install the Linux kernel headers.
See
Verify the System has the Correct Kernel Headers and Development Packages Installed
in the NVIDIA documentation.
For all operating systems, install drivers.
Linux
Download the driver. For a full list of NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation
(vWS) drivers that you can use on Compute Engine, see
Drivers for the NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS)
.
For example, to download the NVIDIA 550.54.15 driver, run the following
command:
curl -O
https://storage.googleapis.com/nvidia-drivers-us-public/GRID/vGPU17.1/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.54.15-grid.run
Start the installer.
For example, to start the NVIDIA 550.54.15 driver, run the following
command:
sudo bash
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-550.54.15-grid.run
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
Depending on your version of Windows Server, download the
required NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) drivers.
For a full list of NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) drivers
that you can use on Windows VMs that are running on Compute Engine,
see
Drivers for the NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS)
.
Run the installer, and choose the
Express installation
.
After the installation is complete, restart the VM. When you restart,
you are disconnected from your session.
Reconnect to your instance using RDP or a PCoIP client.
This step is only required for Linux-based NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation
(vWS) with attached T4 or L4 GPUs.
If you installed an NVIDIA 510 or later driver, you need to disable the
GSP firmware.
See
Disabling GSP Firmware
in the Nvidia documentation. When completing this step,
keep the following in mind:
- Use
sudo
to run the commands to create and update the configuration file.
- To reboot the VM, you can use
sudo reboot
or
stop and start the VM
.
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 550.54.15 Driver Version: 550.54.15 CUDA Version: 12.4 |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| 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 T4 On | 00000000:00:04.0 Off | 0 |
| N/A 62C P0 28W / 70W | 0MiB / 15360MiB | 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?