NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance
Installation Guide
21 September 2016
Document version 1.0
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© 2016 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
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Document build number 277731
ii NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide © 2016 NVIDIA Corporation
Contents
1 Introduction to Quadro VCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Description of the VCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 What’s in the box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Community support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Quickstart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Quadro VCA specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1.1 Hardware components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1.2 Physical dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1.3 Front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1.4 Power requirements and consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1.5 Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1.6 Acoustic profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.1 Operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.1.1 Operating system setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.1.2 Linux user accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.1.3 Linux security setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.2 Iray and the VCA Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2.2.1 Directory layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 Hardware installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1 Rack mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.1 Setup location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2 Rack installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2.1 Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.1.2.2 Installing the outer rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.2.3 Installing the box into the rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2 Connecting cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2.1 Keyboard and monitor for console access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2.2 Connecting power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2.3 Ethernet connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.4 InfiniBand connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.5 Setup Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5 Software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.1 System setup using Linux commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5.3 InfiniBand setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.4 Software updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4.1 Listing currently installed packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4.2 Updating an existing installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4.3 Installing new software packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.5 Iray Queue Manager setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.5.1 Installing Iray Queue Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
© 2016 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide iii
5.5.2 Starting the queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.5.3 Stopping the queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.5.4 Using Iray Queue Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.6 Factory reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.6.1 Creating a bootable thumb drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.6.2 Resetting the hard drives to the factory settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.7 Installing third-party software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.7.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.7.2 Setting up a third-party run script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.7.3 Updating the VCA Manager database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.8 Testing the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.8.1 VCA Manager tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.8.2 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
6 Warranty and licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
iv NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide © 2016 NVIDIA Corporation
1 Introduction to Quadro VCA
1 Introduction to Quadro VCA
1.1 Description of the VCA
Accelerate design and VFX workflows with NVIDIA®Quadro®Visual Computing Appliance
(VCA), the fastest way to interactive, photorealistic digital 3D models and scenes. This is
a powerful network-attached appliance that harnesses the power of the highest-performing
NVIDIA GPUs. It’s accessible to anyone on the network, easily integrated into design workflows, and effortlessly scales to multiple VCAs to minimize the time to noiseless, physicallybased global illumination. This means that you can now deliver photograph-quality images
faster than ever before.
1.2 What's in the box
Be sure to inspect each piece of equipment shipped in the packing box. If anything is missing
or damaged, contact your supplier.
What’s included with your Quadro VCA:
•
Welcome card
•
Power cables (4)
•
Quadro VCA (with rails for rack mounting)
1.3 Community support
The NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Forum (https://forum.nvidia-arc.com/) includes a
forum for the Quadro VCA user community. Go to this forum to post and to search for answers to your questions. Be sure to check out the useful tips and relevant product information
posted by the Quadro VCA engineering and product support teams.
© 2016 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide 1
2 Quickstart
2 Quickstart
This section describes how to to configure the hostname and the static IP address of the VCA.
Check the mapping of the network ports shown in the following figure before starting this
procedure.
Mapping of network ports in the VCA
Note:
•
Installing a required driver: The first time you connect a machine to a VCA by
using a connection port, you are prompted to install a driver. After the driver is
successfully installed and the machine is rebooted, you can configure VCA
interfaces.
•
Submitting settings: After you make changes to a section in the VCA Setup page,
you must click Submit. If you leave fields empty in a section, you must still click
Submit before continuing to the next section.
•
Configuring network settings: You can configure all network settings from the
VCA Setup page or a Linux shell.
To configure from the VCA Setup page, the hostname, and the static IP address or DHCP
address of all network interfaces of the VCA:
1 Change the IP address of the external machine to 192.168.124.2.
2 Connect to the VCA Setup page:
2.1 Connect the external machine to the eth2 interface (marked in blue in the illustra-
tion) by using an Ethernet cable
2.2 Connect the eth3 interface to your local LAN.
2 NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide © 2016 NVIDIA Corporation
2 Quickstart
2.3 Connect a browser to http://192.168.124.10:14000.
Note:
•
For more information about changing various parameters, see "System setup
using the VCA Manager" (page 14).
•
If your network has a DHCP server running, the eth3 interface is
automatically connected to it.
3 To change the network settings of an interface to a static IP address, use the network
parameter section of the Setup page:
3.1 Add a static IP address
3.2 Add a gateway
3.3 Add a network mask
If you are not sure what to enter, ask your system administrator.
Note:
•
From this Setup page, you can switch an interface to a static IP address or to
DHCP as often as you want.
•
If you do not want to change the network settings of an interface to a static IP
address, leave this section empty and click Submit.
4 To test the performance of the Quadro VCA, perform a render test by clicking Start Test.
5 After you have completed and submitted all sections, a Restart button is displayed in
the upper left corner of the form. Click Restart to restart the VCA Manager.
6 Set the IP address of the external machine back to what it was before (DHCP).
7 Reconnect to https://VCA-IP-address.
8 Accept the certificate warning.
9 Login to the VCA Manager again:
User Name: admin
Password: admin
Note: When you change the interface to a static IP address, the IP address of the
InfiniBand interface is changed automatically.
© 2016 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide 3
3 Quadro VCA specification 3.1 Hardware
3 Quadro VCA specification
3.1 Hardware
3.1.1 Hardware components
Feature Description
GPU 8 M6000-VCA
GPU Memory 12 GB per GPU
CUDA cores 23040
CPU cores 40
System memory 256 GB
Storage 4x 500 GB
Network 1x IPMI, 2x 1 GigE, 2x 10 GigE (SFP+), 1x FDR 56 Gbit / s InfiniBand
3.1.2 Physical dimensions
Feature Description
Form factor 4U Rack mount
Width 18.2" (462mm)
3.1.3 Front panel
Quadro VCA front panel
The front panel of the Quadro VCA contains the power button as well as indicator lights.
Power button
•
Press once to turn the system on.
•
Press once while running to turn the system off.
•
Press and hold while running to force system shutdown.
System Power LED
•
LED on when system is running
4 NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide © 2016 NVIDIA Corporation
3.1 Hardware 3 Quadro VCA specification
Alert modes
•
A blue LED identifies the system using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface
(IPMI).
•
A red LED indicates a hardware error such as a power failure, fan failure, or overheating.
Color Alert LED Behavior Status Description
Blue Off Normal mode operation
Red Off Normal mode operation
Blue Blink On when enabled by administrator
Red Solid System component overheat
Red 1 blink per second Power module failure
Red 4 blinks per second System fan failure
3.1.4 Power requirements and consumption
There are 4x 1600W redundant power supplies. The power supplies can accept either 110V
(ac) or 240V (ac) input.
With all system resources under full load, the maximum power consumption is 2800W (at an
ambient temperature of 35◦C). Idle power consumption is 350W (at an ambient temperature
of 25◦C).
The following table identifies valid power configurations:
Number of working
power supplies
4 (Normal mode) 700W 5.8A 2.9A 11.7A 11.7A 5.8A
3 (1 failed supply) 933W 7.8A 3.9A 15.6A 11.7A 7.8A
2 (2 failed supplies) 1400W 11.7A 5.8A
Max input
power per
power
supply
Max current draw per
power supply (amps at
2800W and 35C)
120V 240V
Worst case maximum current draw per circuit
Dual 120V/20A
circuits; 2 power
supplies per circuit
23.7A
(overloaded circuit)
(amps at 2800W and 35C)
Single 240V/20A circuit;
all power supplies on
same circuit
11.7A 11.7A
Dual 240V/20A
circuits; 2 power
supplies per circuit
The minimal requirements for a VCA are two 120V/20A circuits with two power supplies per
circuit. If any single power supply fails, the system will continue to operate at full load.
A circuit overload can occur when:
•
One whole circuit fails; or
•
Two power supplies on the same circuit fail.
With a maximum of two failed power supplies, a single 240V/20A circuit will support the
VCA running at full load. However, a fully redundant system requires two separate 240V/20A
curcuits with two power supplies per circuit; this configuration can tolerate the loss of any
two power supplies or one complete 240V/20A circuit.
© 2016 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide 5
3 Quadro VCA specification 3.2 Software
Caution:
1 Do not attempt to operate the VCA on two 120V/15A circuits. Any single failure of
either power supply or circuit leads to an overload condition.
2 It is recommended that you keep sustained current draw under 80% of the peak
rating. For example, the sustained current draw of a 20A circuit should not exceed
0.8*20 = 16A.
3.1.5 Ports
Type Description
VGA Available
USB 2x USB 2.0
Ethernet One IPMI Ethernet Port. Optionally, the IPMI port can
be used to monitor and manage the system, rather than
a local keyboard and monitor.
2x 1 Gb Ethernet Ports Connection to 1 Gbit Ethernet network
2x 10 Gb Ethernet Ports Connection to 10 Gbit Ethernet network
1x FDR 56 Gbit / s InfiniBand Connection to a managed InfiniBand switch
3.1.6 Acoustic profile
Fan speed Sound pressure level Description
Optimal 72 dBA The system is at full load
Full 83 dBA Fans can set to full speed in the BIOS. Full speed can also
be triggered by the system.
Sound measurements were made in an independent laboratory. The ambient sound level was
21 dBA, which represents an empty office environment.
3.2 Software
The Quadro VCA comes pre-installed with the operating system, Iray and the VCA Manager.
Iray is licensed to run on the Quadro VCA only.
6 NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance — Installation Guide © 2016 NVIDIA Corporation
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