Multiple VMs 1 GPU

[Benasurus]

Hello LTT Forums,

 

I wanted to setup a LAN party for my mates and me but wanted to avoid the logistical issue of moving many PCs and the fact they have very weak PCs. I have seen that it is possible to virtualise a GPU so it can be used by multiple VMs. My plan was to have monitors with a cheap thin client hooked up and pop a GPU in my DL160 G6 and create a couple virtual desktops. I was wondering if anyone has done this before and how they did it? Thanks

 

HP Proliant DL160 G6 Single Xeon E5520 @ 2.26GHz - Quad Core with HT 4GB DDR3-1333 2x 250GB SATA HDDs P410 Raid Controller

Spare Parts 2x 72.8GB 15K SAS HDDs (1 makes a clicking sound so I have assumed is damaged and should not be used)

 

I am already planning upgrade to 2 Hexacores and 32GB of RAM. The NVIDIA Quadro K2000 looked like a suitable GPU as I am limited to PCIe x16 Gen2 and 1 FH/FL Slot.

I am on a limited budget so I can't afford a GRID K1 or similar.

[themctipers]

Find the two gamers one CPU video on LTT 

[Benasurus]

 

That involves 2 GPUs and my server chassis only supports as single slot Full Height/ Full Length GPU. So I was looking for information on GPU virtualisation.

[legopc]

There is way more involved then throwing in a gpu, creating some vdi's and game away. I would recommend looking into it more on something like the vmware forums. And unless you are playing openttd, a k2000 isnt going to cut it for multiple people.

[jj9987]

You can dedicate 1 or more GPUs to one operating system, but you can not dedicate a GPU to multiple operating systems/virtual machines.

[DieselWeasel]

yeah i havent seen any software around that will let two VMs use the same GPU. I'm running something like ine the video 2 gamers one tower. But you got me thinking. What does Nvidia use for their streaming thing? Do you think they have such techonolgy to devide one gpu for multiple VMs

[DieselWeasel]

also two hexa core cpus are not a lot. You didn't say how many VMs you want to create. You neet to know that you need some RAM for the hypervisor and sometimes dedicated cpu cores. If you want a good gaming machine that means at least 8gb per VM and 4 cores. + lets say 4 gbs for the hypervisor

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can do that. something like multipoint will let you have multiple users on one system, but you can't play games. 

[samiscool51]

12 hours ago, themctipers said:

Find the two gamers one CPU video on LTT 

problem

unRAID needs a dedicated GPU per opereating system, something like this isn't possible

something like Hyper-v or that VMware virtualisation opereating system (keeping forgetting it's name) allows for what he's intending it for, multiple clients to use one device

[Falconevo]

This question comes up a lot and it is incredibly unlikely to hit consumer based graphics chips and driver sets.  It is currently only available within the enterprise product sphere and is expensive, you may be able to get a GPU second hand off eBay for the job, some Nvidia K series cards to come up from time to time but still aren't cheap.

 

This won't work without specific hardware and drivers for the job.  What you need is an Nvidia K or M series card or AMD FirePro S equivalent

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-technology.html

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/server#

 

With the right Virtualisation platform such as Citrix Xen Server or VMWare ESXi/Horizon you can do this but you have to pay extortionate licensing for the VMWare side of it luckily Citrix Xen is open source.

TLDR, needs specific hardware, drivers and virtual stack to work.