Setting Up for Linux Desktops

Table Of Contents
Add a vDGA Pass-Through Device to a RHEL 6 Virtual Machine
To configure a RHEL 6 virtual machine to use vDGA, you must add the PCI device to the virtual machine.
With this step, the physical device on the ESXi host can be passed through for use on the virtual
machine.
Prerequisites
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Verify that the Linux virtual machine is prepared for use as a desktop. See Create a Virtual Machine
and Install Linux and Prepare a Linux Machine for Remote Desktop Deployment.
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Verify that Horizon Agent is not installed on the Linux virtual machine.
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Verify that the NVIDIA GRID GPU PCI device was made available for DirectPath I/O pass-through on
the host. See Enable DirectPath I/O for NVIDIA GRID on a Host.
Procedure
1 Log in to the RHEL 6 guest operating system as a local user configured with sudo rights.
2 In vSphere Web Client, select the virtual machine and, under the VM Hardware tab, click Edit
Settings.
3 In the New device menu, select PCI Device.
4 Click Add and select the PCI device from the drop-down menu.
5 Click Reserve all memory and click OK.
You must reserve all virtual machine memory to enable the GPU to support vDGA.
6 Power on the virtual machine and open vSphere console to connect to the machine.
7 Verify that the NVIDIA GRID device is passed through to the virtual machine.
Open a terminal window and run the following command:
lspci | grep NVIDIA
The XX:00.0 VGA-compatible controller is displayed. For example:
NVIDIA Corporation GK104GL [GRID K2]
Install the NVIDIA Display Driver for vDGA
To install the NVIDIA display driver for vDGA, you must disable the default NVIDIA driver, download the
NVIDIA display drivers, and configure the PCI device on the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
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Verify that the PCI device was added to the RHEL 6 virtual machine. See Add a vDGA Pass-Through
Device to a RHEL 6 Virtual Machine.
Setting Up Horizon 7 for Linux Desktops
VMware, Inc. 41