GPU Adapter Details - OS Test

A graphics processing unit (GPU) adapter (also known as video card, graphics card, and video adapter) is a discreet card connected to one or more physical/virtual machines. The GPU adapter contains video RAM and a GPU chip and renders real-time 2D and 3D graphics applications, images, animations and video by performing rapid mathematical calculations. To perform such calculations at higher speed, the GPU adapter should be allocated with adequate memory on the virtual machine. Inadequate memory allocation and inefficient utilization of the GPU adapter can affect the processing of intensive tasks related graphics on the virtual machines, which in turn can adversely impact the performance of the applications operating on the VMs. Therefore, it is imperative that administrators should closely observe how well the GPU adapter uses the allocated and shared memory available to it. This way, a potential memory crunch can be proactively detected. This can be achieved with the help of the GPU Adapter Details - OS test.

The test auto-discovers the GPU adapters connected to each virtual machine on the virtual server and for each GPU adapter, reports the statistics related to memory utilization. This test also reveals how well the GPU is utilized for performing different tasks such as video decoding, processing 3D frames, etc. These metrics help administrators to judge whether/not adequate memory is available for use by the GPU adapters and identify the GPU adapter that is running out of memory.

This test is disabled by default. To enable the test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick the desired Component type, set Performance as the Test type, choose the test from the disabled tests list, and click on the < button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Citrix Hypervisor

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every combination of each virtual machine:GPU adapter on the virtual server.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.
Xen User, Xen Password and Confirm Password	To enable the eG agent to connect to the XenServer API for collecting statistics of interest, this test should login to the target hypervisor as a root user. Provide the name of the root user in the Xen User text box. Root user privileges are mandatory when monitoring a XenServer 5.5 (or below). However, if you are monitoring XenServer 5.6 (or above) and you prefer not to expose the credentials of the root user, then, you have the option of configuring a user with pool-admin privileges as the Xen User. If you do not want to expose the credentials of a root/pool-admin user, then you can configure the tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges to the XenServer. However, if this is done, then the Xen Uptime test will not run, and the Xen CPU and Xen Memory tests will not be able to report metrics for the control domain descriptor. To avoid such an outcome, do the following before attempting to configure the eG tests with a Xen User who has Read-only privileges to the Citrix Hypervisor: Modify the target hypervisor's configuration in the eG Enterprise. For this, follow the Infrastructure -> Components -> Add/Modify menu sequence, pick Citrix Hypervisor as the Component type, and click the Modify button corresponding to the target hypervisor. In the MODIFY COMPONENT DETAILS page that then appears, make sure that the os is set to Xen and the Mode is set to SSH. Then, in the same page, proceed to provide the User and Password of a user who has the right to connect to the XenServer console via SSH. Then, click the Update button to save the changes. Once this is done, you can configure the eG tests with the credentials of a Xen User with Read-only privileges. The password of the specified Xen User needs to be mentioned in the Xen Password text box. Then, confirm the Xen Password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.
SSL	By default, the Citrix Hypervisor is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the target hypervisor to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the target hypervisor using HTTPS. Note that a default SSL certificate comes bundled with every Citrix Hypervisor installation. If you want the eG agent to use this default certificate for communicating with an SSL-enabled Citrix Hypervisor, then no additional configuration is required. However, if you do not want to use the default certificate, then you can generate a self-signed certificate for use by the target hypervisor. In such a case, you need to explicitly follow the broad steps given below to enable the eG agent to communicate with the target hypervisor via HTTPS: Obtain the server-certificate for the Citrix Hypervisor Import the server-certificate into the local certificate store of the eG agent For a detailed discussion on each of these steps, refer to the Troubleshooting section of this document.
Inside View Using	By default, this test obtains the “inside view” of VMs using the eG VM Agent. Accordingly, the Inside view using flag is set to eG VM Agent by default. The eG VM Agent is a piece of software, which should be installed on every VM on a hypervisor. Every time the eG agent runs this test, it uses the eG VM Agent to pull relevant 'inside view' metrics from each VM. Once the metrics are collected, the eG agent then communicates with each VM agent and pulls these metrics, without requiring administrator privileges. Refer to Configuring the Remote Agent to Obtain the Inside View of VMs for more details on the eG VM Agent.
Domain, Admin User, and Admin Password, and Confirm Password	By default, these parameters are set to none. This is because, by default, the eG agent collects 'inside view' metrics using the eG VM agent on each VM. Domain administrator privileges need not be granted to the eG agent if it uses this default approach to obtain the 'inside view' of Windows VMs.
Ignore VMs Inside View	Administrators of some high security XenServer environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more VMs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW parameter. Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of VM names, or VM name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all VMs on a Citrix Hypervisor host by default. Note: While performing VM discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the VMs configured in the IGNORE VMS INSIDE VIEW text box.
Exclude VMs	Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical VMs - for instance, VM templates - both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such VMs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of VMs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of VMs, VM name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs specification can be: xp,lin,win,vista. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all VMs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of VMs/VM name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of VMs.
Ignore Winnt	By default, the eG agent does not support the inside view for VMs executing on Windows NT operating systems. Accordingly, the IGNORE WINNT flag is set to Yes by default.
Webport	By default, in most virtualized environments, the target hypervisor listens on port 80 (if not SSL-enabled) or on port 443 (if SSL-enabled). This implies that while monitoring an SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent, by default, connects to port 443 of the server to pull out metrics, and while monitoring a non-SSL-enabled Citrix hypervisor, the eG agent connects to port 80. Accordingly, the webport parameter is set to 80 or 443 depending upon the status of the ssl flag. In some environments however, the default ports 80 or 443 might not apply. In such a case, against the webport parameter, you can specify the exact port at which the target hypervisor in your environment listens so that the eG agent communicates with that port.
Report by User	While monitoring a Citrix hypervisor, the Report by User flag is set to No by default, indicating that by default, the guest operating systems on the target hypervisor are identified using the host name specified in the operating system. On the other hand, while monitoring a Citrix hypervisor-VDI, this flag is set to Yes by default; this implies that in case of the Citrix hypervisor-VDI model, by default, the desktops will be identified using the login of the user who is accessing them. In other words, in VDI environments, this test will, by default, report measures for every username_on_virtualmachinename.
Report Powered OS	This flag becomes relevant only if the Report by User flag is set to ‘Yes’. If the report powered os flag is set to Yes (which is the default setting), then this test will report measures for even those VMs that do not have any users logged in currently. Such guests will be identified by their virtualmachine name and not by the username_on_virtualmachinename. On the other hand, if the report powered os flag is set to No, then this test will not report measures for those VMs to which no users are logged in currently.
DD Frequency	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.
Detailed Diagnosis	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.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Available GPU memory	Indicates the total amount of memory allocated for this GPU adapter on this VM.	MB
GPU memory used	Indicates the amount of memory that is utilized by this GPU adapters.	MB
GPU memory free	Indicates the amount of memory that is available for use by this GPU adapter.	MB	Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A consistent decrease in the value of this measure is indicative of a steady erosion of memory available for GPU, which if left unattended, can significantly impact GPU functioning.
GPU memory usage	Indicates the percentage of memory that is utilized by this GPU adapter.	Percent	A low value is desired for this measure. If the value of this measure grows very close to 100%, it indicates that the GPU will soon run out of memory resources. Such an occurrence will not only impact the functioning of the GPU card, but also the applications depend on it.
Total dedicated video memory	Indicates the total amount of dedicated video memory allocated this GPU adapter.	MB	The dedicated video memory or Video RAM (or VRAM) is a special type of RAM that works with your computer's GPU card/adapter. The video RAM holds information that the GPU needs, including game textures and lighting effects. This allows the GPU to quickly access the info and output video to your monitor.
Used dedicated video memory	Indicates the amount of dedicated video memory that is utilized by this GPU adapter.	MB	Ideally, a low value is desired for this measure. A high value for this measure indicates that the dedicated video memory is depleting rapidly. When the dedicated video memory is filled up, the GPU will rely on standard RAM for processing video frames and display textures. This in turn will seriously impact overall performance of the RAM.
Free dedicated video memory	Indicates the amount of dedicated video memory that is available for use by this GPU adapter.	MB	A high value is desired for this measure. If the value of this measure is very low, it indicates that the GPU does not have adequate memory for processing video frames.
Dedicated memory usage	Indicates the percent of dedicated video memory that is utilized by this GPU adapter.	Percent	Use the detailed diagnosis of the this measure to find out the names of top-10 applications that are over-utilizing the dedicated memory. Administrators can also find out the percentage of dedicated memory utilized by each application, PID of each application and path to a folder where each application image is stored.
Total system shared memory	Indicates the total amount of system memory that can be utilized by this GPU adapter.	MB	Shared memory represents system memory that can be used by the GPU. Shared memory can be used by the CPU for processing normal system tasks needed or as “video memory” for the GPU while processing video tasks.
Used system shared memory	Indicates the amount of system memory that is utilized by this GPU adapter.	MB	Typically, shared memory will be used for GPU tasks only if the dedicated video memory (VRAM) runs out. A high value for this measure therefore implies that the GPU adapter is contenting for limited VRAM. Moreover, since shared memory is essentially RAM, excessive usage of shared memory can slow down the adapter. This is why, a low value is desired for this measure.
Free system shared memory	Indicates the amount of system memory that is available for use by this GPU adapter.	MB	The value of this measure should be high.
System shared usage	Indicates the percentage of system memory that is utilized by this GPU adapter.	Percent	Typically, shared memory will be used for GPU tasks only if the dedicated video memory (VRAM) runs out. A high value for this measure therefore implies that the GPU adapter is contenting for limited VRAM. Moreover, since shared memory is essentially RAM, excessive usage of shared memory can slow down the adapter. This is why, a low value is desired for this measure. Use the detailed diagnosis of the this measure to find out the names of top-10 applications that are over-utilizing the system shared memory. Administrators can also find out the percentage of dedicated memory utilized by each application, PID of each application and path to a folder where each application image is stored.
System video memory	Indicates the amount of system video memory that can be used by this GPU adapter.	MB
Total committed memory	Indicates the total amount of committed memory allocated for this GPU adapter.	MB	Use the detailed diagnosis of the Total committed memory measure to find out the names of top-10 applications that are over-utilizing the GPU committed memory. Administrators can also find out the percentage of dedicated memory utilized by each application, PID of each application and path to a folder where each application image is stored.
GPU utilization	Indicates the percentage of this GPU adapter utilized in this VM.	Percent	A value close to 100% is a cause of concern which requires further investigation. Compare the value of this measure across the GPU adapters to know the GPU adapter that is being over-utilized. The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the names of top-10 applications in descending order based on the percentage of overall GPU utilization. Administrators can also find out the PID of application and path to a folder where the application image is stored.
3D utilization	Indicates the percentage of this GPU adapter utilized for processing 3D frames.	Percent	Compare the value of this measure across the GPU adapters to identify the GPU adapter that is being over-utilized. The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the names of top-10 applications in descending order based on the percentage of GPU utilized for processing 3D frames. Administrators can also find out the PID of application and path to a folder where the application image is stored.
Video decode utilization	Indicates the percentage of this GPU adapter utilized for performing video decoding process.	Percent	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the names of top-10 applications in descending order based on the percentage of GPU utilized for video decoding process. Administrators can also find out the PID of application and path to a folder where the application image is stored.
Copy utilization	Indicates the percentage of this GPU adapter utilized for copying operations.	Percent	The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the names of top-10 applications in descending order based on the percentage of GPU utilized for copying operations. Administrators can also find out the PID of application and path to a folder where the application image is stored.
Video processing utilization	Indicates the percentage of this GPU adapter utilized for processing video frames.	Percent	Compare the value of this measure across the GPU adapters to figure out which GPU adapter is over-utilized for processing video frames.