Install GRID drivers on GPU-accelerated compute-optimized and vGPU-accelerated Windows instances

Applicable instances

Only the following GPU-accelerated instance families for Windows support GRID driver installation using Cloud Assistant:

• vGPU-accelerated instance families for Windows: sgn8ia, vgn6i-vws, vgn7i-vws, and sgn7i-vws. For more information, see vGPU-accelerated instance families (vgn/sgn series). The supported GRID driver and CUDA versions for these instances are shown in the following table.

  Instance family	Selected public image version	NVIDIA GRID driver version	CUDA version
  sgn8ia	Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022	538.78	12.2
  vgn6i-vws, vgn7i-vws, and sgn7i-vws	Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022	475.14	11.4

• GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance families for Windows: gn8ia, gn8is, gn7i, gn6i, ebmgn8ia, ebmgn8is, ebmgn7i, and ebmgn6i. For more information, see GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance families (gn/ebm/scc series). The supported GRID driver and CUDA versions for these instances are shown in the following table.

  Selected public image version	NVIDIA GRID driver version	CUDA version
  Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022	538.78	12.2

Procedure

This topic uses a vgn6i-vws instance of the ecs.vgn6i-m4-vws.xlarge instance type in the China (Hangzhou) region as an example.

1. Log on to the ECS console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Maintenance & Monitoring > Cloud Assistant.

3. In the upper-left corner of the page, select the region where your target instance is located.

   

4. On the ECS Instances tab, find the target instance and click Run Command in the Actions column.

   

5. Create and run a Cloud Assistant command to install the GRID driver.

   1. In the Create Command panel, configure the parameters in the Command Information section.

      The following table describes the main parameters. Keep the default values for the other parameters. For more information, see Command parameters (console operations).

      Important

      You must set the parameters to the values provided in this topic. Otherwise, the Cloud Assistant command may fail.

      

      • ① Command Type: Select PowerShell.

      • ② Command Content: Enter or paste your command.

        • Cloud Assistant command for vgn6i-vws, vgn7i-vws, and sgn7i-vws instances:

          $InstalledPlugins = $(acs-plugin-manager --list --local)
          if ($($InstalledPlugins | Select-String "grid_driver_install"))
             {
               acs-plugin-manager --remove --plugin grid_driver_install
             } 
          acs-plugin-manager --fetchTimeout 0 --exec --plugin grid_driver_install

        • Cloud Assistant command for sgn8ia, gn8ia, gn8is, gn7i, gn6i, ebmgn8ia, ebmgn8is, ebmgn7i, and ebmgn6i instances:

          $InstalledPlugins = $(acs-plugin-manager --list --local)
          if ($($InstalledPlugins | Select-String "gpu_grid_driver_install"))
             {
               acs-plugin-manager --remove --plugin gpu_grid_driver_install
             } 
          acs-plugin-manager --fetchTimeout 0 --exec --plugin gpu_grid_driver_install

      • ③ Timeout: The timeout period for the command execution on the instance. If the command times out, Cloud Assistant stops the command process. Set this parameter to 600.

        Note

        The value of timeout must be a positive integer in seconds. The value must be in the range of 10 to 86,400 (24 hours). The default value is 60.

   2. Click Run to install the GRID driver using the Cloud Assistant command.

      After the Cloud Assistant command finishes running, check the execution details page. The output shown in the following figure indicates that a GRID driver was not installed before the command was run. You need to run the Cloud Assistant command only once to install the driver.

      

6. Verify that the GRID driver is installed and working.

   1. Restart the GPU-accelerated instance.

      For more information, see Restart an instance.

   2. Remotely connect to the GPU-accelerated instance.

      For more information, see Connect to an instance using Workbench.

   3. Right-click a blank area on the desktop and open the NVIDIA Control Panel to view the installed GRID driver version.

      

      The following result indicates that the new GRID driver is working correctly.

      

References

• On a vGPU-accelerated instance that runs Linux, you can install a GRID driver for general-purpose computing scenarios, such as AI, or for graphics acceleration and rendering scenarios, such as OpenGL, Direct3D, and cloud gaming. For more information, see Install a GRID driver on a vGPU-accelerated instance (Linux).

• To automatically load a GRID driver when you create a GPU-accelerated instance, you can select an image with a pre-installed GRID driver. For more information, see Load a GRID driver using an image with a pre-installed driver.