7.0

Preparing for vDGA Capabilities
Virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA) provides direct pass-through to a physical GPU, providing
a user with unrestricted, dedicated access to a single vGPU. Before you attempt to create a desktop pool that
has vDGA capabilities, you must perform certain configuration tasks on the virtual machines and ESXi
hosts.
This overview is an outline of tasks you must perform in vSphere before you can create or configure
desktop pools in View Administrator. For complete information and detailed procedures, see the VMware
white paper about graphics acceleration.
NOTE Some Intel vDGA cards require a certain vSphere 6 version. See the VMware Hardware
Compatibility List at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php. Also, for Intel vDGA,
the Intel integrated GPU is used rather than discrete GPUs, as is the case with other vendors.
1 Install the graphics card on the ESXi host.
2 Install the GPU vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB).
3 Verify that VT-d or AMD IOMMU is enabled on the ESXi host.
4 Add a PCI device to the virtual machine and select the appropriate PCI device to enable GPU pass-
through on the virtual machine.
5 Reserve all memory when creating the virtual machine.
6 Configure virtual machine video card 3D capabilities.
7 Obtain the GPU drivers from the GPU vendor and install the GPU device drivers in the guest operating
system of the virtual machine.
8 Install VMware Tools and Horizon Agent in the guest operating system and reboot.
After you perform these tasks, you must add the virtual machine to a manual desktop pool so that you can
access the guest operating system using PCoIP or VMware Blast Extreme. In a PCoIP or VMware Blast
session, you can then activate the NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel display adapter in the guest operating system.
Preparing for NVIDIA GRID vGPU Capabilities
NVIDIA GRID vGPU provides direct access to the physical GPU on an ESXi host—so multiple users can
share a single GPU—using native graphics card drivers. Before you attempt to create a desktop pool that
has NVIDIA GRID vGPU capabilities, you must perform certain configuration tasks on the virtual machines
and ESXi hosts.
This overview is an outline of tasks you must perform in vSphere before you can create or configure
desktop pools in View Administrator. For complete information and detailed procedures, see the NVIDIA
GRID vGPU Deployment Guide for VMware Horizon 6.1.
1 Install the graphics card on the ESXi host.
2 Install the GPU vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB).
3 Verify that VT-d or AMD IOMMU is enabled on the ESXi host.
4 Enable GPU device pass-through on the ESXi host.
5 Add a shared PCI device to the virtual machine and select the appropriate PCI device to enable GPU
pass-through on the virtual machine.
After you add a shared PCI device, you see a list of all supported graphics profile types that are
available from the GPU card on the ESXi host.
6 Reserve all memory when creating the virtual machine.
Chapter 12 Provisioning Desktop Pools
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