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E2E Deployment and Operations Guide with Switchless Networking: Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies
Deployment Introduction Solution Overview Solution Deployment Switchless Architecture with Network ATC References GPU Integration
GPU Integration
Installing and configuring GPUs on AX platforms
Deploy GPU devices using Discrete Device Assignment (DDA)
GPU partitioning
Day 1 operations Managing and monitoring clusters with Windows Admin Center Dell OpenManage Integration with Windows Admin Center Updates and maintenance References

GPU partitioning

GPU partitioning

  • On Azure stack HCI servers with version 22H2 and forward there is the capability for GPU partitioning (GPU-P) which can be leveraged for different workloads such as artificial intelligence. Not all GPUs support partitioning, currently Dell supports partitioning on the A2 and A16 GPUs for Azure stack HCI servers. We strongly recommend using Windows Admin Center for GPU-P to avoid mistakes and for a streamlined visual experience.

    Dell servers will not come with a GPU-P driver. The driver required for GPU-P requires separate licensing from NVIDIA, For more information about licensing options and benefits of GPU-P see: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/virtual-solutions/. There is a host driver for GPUs partitioning and there's also a guest (VM) driver for GPU-P, without both drivers and the correct license activated GPU-P will not work.

    Once both drivers are installed, Microsoft documentation on how to configure GPU-P can be found here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-stack/hci/manage/partition-gpu?tabs=windows-admin-center. It is highly recommended to use WAC and the GPU extension.

    Host and guest driver download and install instructions

    1. To download the drivers, proceed to https://nvid.nvidia.com/ and log in with your enterprise account.
    2. Click Nvidia licensing portal then on the left side click SOFTWARE DOWNLOADS.

      All the available software are listed for download.

    3. To locate Microsoft Azure stack HCI, apply filters PRODUCT FAMILY: VGPU and PLATFORM: Microsoft Azure Stack HCI.
    The output is as shown in the following screen shot.


    This package contains the host and drivers. Before proceeding to install the GPU-P drivers, remove any DDA drivers if previously installed.

    • For more information on installing the virtual GPU Manager for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, see Section 2.7.1. : Installing the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager for Microsoft Azure Stack of the Virtual GPU Software User Guide.

    • For more information on installing the software graphics driver on Windows, see Section 4.1. Installing the NVIDIA vGPU Software Graphics Driver on Windows of the Virtual GPU Software User Guide.

    Once both host and guest drivers are installed, activate the license on the guest VM to start using GPU-P. Details for doing so are outlined in the 5.2. Configuring a Licensed Client on Windows section of the Virtual GPU Software User Guide.