Configuration of WVDGPUAppTest

GPU-accelerated computing is the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) together with a CPU to accelerate scientific, analytics, engineering, consumer, and enterprise applications. GPU-accelerated computing enhances application performance by offloading compute-intensive portions of the application to the GPU, while the remainder of the code still runs on the CPU.

In GPU-enabled AVD environments, if users accessing graphic virtual applications complain of slowness , administrators must be able to instantly figure out what is causing the slowness – is it because adequate GPU resources are not available to the host? Or is it because of excessive utilization of GPU memory and processing resources by a few virtual applications on the host? Accurate answers to these questions can help administrators determine whether/not:

• The host is sized with sufficient GPU resources;
• The GPUs are configured with enough graphics memory;

Measures to right-size the host and fine-tune its GPU configuration can be initiated based on the results of this analysis. This is exactly what the WVDGPUAppTest test helps administrators achieve!

To help with better utilization of resources, you can track the GPU usage rates of your instances. When you know the GPU usage rates, you can then perform tasks such as setting up managed instance groups that can be used to autoscale resources based on needs.

The default parameters associated with this test are as follows:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed.

• In the HOST text box, the IP address of the host for which the test is to be configured has to be specified.

• Specify the port at which the specified HOST listens to in the PORT text box. By default, this is NULL.

• This test uses NVIDIA WMI (NVWMI) to pull metrics on GPU usage by applications. For this test to run therefore, you need to install NVWMI on the target Azure Virtual Desktop. If the NVWMI is installed in its default directory, then this test will automatically discover the location of NVWMI and use it for pulling the desired metrics. This is why, the NVIDIA Home parameter is set to none by default. However, if you have installed NVWMI in a different directory, then you have to explicitly configure the path to that installation directory against the NVIDIA Home parameter.

• By default, the REPORT BY DOMAIN NAME flag is set to Yes. This implies that by default, the detailed diagnosis of this test will display the domainname\username of each user who accessed an application on the AVD. This way, administrators will be able to quickly determine which user logged into the AVD from which domain. If you want the detailed diagnosis to display only the user name of these users, set this flag to No.

• The DD FREQUENCY parameter refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD FREQUENCY .

• To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG suite embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the DETAILED DIAGNOSIS capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

  The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability.

  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS check box will appear in this page. Clicking on this check box will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of “none” in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.