Nvidia Quadro VCA Installation Manual

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NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance

Installation Guide

21 September 2016 Document version 1.0

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This document is protected under copyright law. The contents of this document may not be translated, copied or duplicated in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of NVIDIA Corporation.

The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. NVIDIA Corporation and its employees shall not be responsible for incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use of this material or liable for technical or editorial omissions made herein.

NVIDIA and the NVIDIA logo are registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. imatter, IndeX, Iray, mental images, mental ray, and RealityServer are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

Document build number 277731

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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

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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

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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:

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Welcome card

•

Power cables (4)

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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

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Press once to turn the system on.

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Press once while running to turn the system off.

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Press and hold while running to force system shutdown.

System Power LED

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LED on when system is running

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3.1 Hardware 3 Quadro VCA specification

Alert modes

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A blue LED identiﬁes the system using the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).

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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.

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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.

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3.2 Software 3 Quadro VCA specification

3.2.1 Operating system

3.2.1.1 Operating system setup

Type Description

Base operating system CentOS 6.6 (Final)

NVIDIA driver 346.35 with ECC turned off

Mellanox InﬁniBand stack OFED Version 2.4

Note: The system has no X server installed.

3.2.1.2 Linux user accounts

•

There is one Linux user account on the system. Access this account either on the console, or with ssh, as follows:

•

Password: Nvidia-Arc

•

To login to the system to perform Iray or VCA Manager software updates, access the system either from the console login or via ssh.

•

To perform administrative tasks, use the sudo command.

3.2.1.3 Linux security setting

The iptables application is enabled and running by default.

All ports are blocked with the following exceptions:

22 Secure Shell access (sshd)

14000 VCA Manager connection port

443 VCA Manager https port

11000 Iray connection port

9090 Iray HTTP administration console

SELinux is turned off.

3.2.2 Iray and the VCA Manager

The installed versions of Iray are:

•

NVIDIA Iray 2014.5.3

•

NVIDIA Iray 2015

The installed version of the VCA Manager is VCA Manager Version 231000.8180.

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3 Quadro VCA specification 3.2 Software

3.2.2.1 Directory layout

Iray and the VCA Manager are installed in the directory /home/iray. This directory consists of the following subdirectories:

Subdirectory Description

cluster-server-version-buildnumber Iray 2014 installation

cluster-server-bunkspeed Iray 2014 for Bunkspeed Zoom

cluster-manager VCA Manager installation

cm VCA Manager startup scripts and VCA

Manager database.

Note the following:

•

The build number (buildnumber) consists of two parts, for example: 221133.2594. For compatability, the Iray client version has to be identical in the ﬁrst part and have an equal or higher version number for the second part. For Iray 2015, the client ﬁnds the correct server version itself.

•

The VCA Manager database contains the user accounts for the VCA Manager. The VCA Manager database is not overwritten when updating the VCA Manager.

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4 Hardware installation

4.1 Rack mounting

This section provides instructions on how to rack mount and connect your Quadro VCA. Following the steps in the order given should enable you to have the system operational within a minimal amount of time.

4.1.1 Setup location

Decide on a suitable location for setting up and operating the Quadro VCA. The location should be clean, dust-free, and well ventilated. Avoid areas where heat, electrical noise, and electromagnetic ﬁelds are generated. Locate the VCA near a grounded power outlet.

•

Leave enough clearance in front of the rack to enable you to open the front door completely ( 25").

•

Leave approximately 30" (76.2cm) of clearance in the back of the rack to allow for sufﬁcient airﬂow and ease in servicing.

•

Always make sure the rack is stable before adding or removing an Quadro VCA or any other component.

•

Keep the ambient temperature and humidity within the following ranges:

•

Temperature: 10◦C to 35◦C (50◦F to 95◦F)

•

Humidity: 8% to 90% (non-condensing)

4.1.2 Rack installation

4.1.2.1 Precautions

Caution: To prevent bodily injury when mounting or servicing the Quadro VCA in a rack, you must take special precautions to ensure that the system remains stable. The following guidelines are provided to ensure your safety.

•

The VCA should be mounted at the bottom of the rack if it is the only unit in the rack.

•

When mounting the VCA in a partially ﬁlled rack, load the rack from the bottom to the top with the heaviest component at the bottom of the rack.

•

If the rack is provided with stabilizing devices, install the stabilizers before mounting or servicing the VCA in the rack.

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4 Hardware installation 4.1 Rack mounting

Installing the VCA in a rack

4.1.2.2 Installing the outer rails

1 Adjust the brackets to the proper distance so that the rail ﬁts snugly in the rack.

2 Secure the rear of the outer rail with two M5 screws and the rear of the rack.

Note: The outer rail is adjustable from approximately 26" to 38.25" (66cm to

97.16cm).

3 Repeat steps 1-2 for the left outer rail.

4.1.2.3 Installing the box into the rack

1 Conﬁrm that the VCA has the inner rails attached and that you have already mounted

the outer rails into the rack.

2 Align the inner chassis rails with the front of the outer rack rails.

3 Slide the inner rails into the outer rails, keeping the pressure even on both sides (you

may have to depress the locking tabs when inserting). When the VCA has been pushed completely into the rack, you should hear the locking tabs "click" into the locked position.

Caution: Stability hazard — The rack stabilizing mechanism must be in place, or the rack must be bolted to the ﬂoor before you slide the VCA out for servicing. Failure to stabilize the rack can cause the rack to tip over.

Note: The rail assemblies shipped with the Quadro VCA ﬁt into a standard 19" rack.

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4.2 Connecting cables 4 Hardware installation

4.2 Connecting cables

Quadro VCA connectors

Connector Description

1 Do not use

2 10 GigE — SFP+

3 FDR 56 Gbit / s InﬁniBand

4 Power

5 Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) — RJ45

6 USB ports for connecting a keyboard during initial setup

7 1 GigE — RJ45

8 VGA display output console

4.2.1 Keyboard and monitor for console access

A VGA monitor can be connected to the VGA connector on the appliance.

A USB keyboard can be connected to any USB port.

Note: The VGA monitor and keyboard are not needed during normal operation.

4.2.2 Connecting power

Four power cables are shipped in the VCA kit. Connect these power cables to either a 110V (ac) or 240V (ac) outlet. A voltage of 240 is recommended for better power redundancy in the event of a failure of one of the power supplies.

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4 Hardware installation 4.2 Connecting cables

4.2.3 Ethernet connection

The following network connection ports are available:

Interface Description

ipmi IPMI interface

eth0 10 Gbit Ethernet

eth1 10 Gbit Ethernet

eth2 1 Gbit Ethernet

eth3 1 Gbit Ethernet

Connect the network cables from the Quadro VCA to a data center network Ethernet switch, using a Cat5, Cat5e, or Cat6 Ethernet cable.

4.2.4 InfiniBand connection

•

Connect the Quadro VCA to the InﬁniBand switch. The recommended switch is a Mellanox managed 56 Gbit / s FDR switch (tested conﬁguration: Mellanox SX6036). The number of ports may be different depending upon how many Quadro VCA nodes are connected.

•

If only two Quadro VCAs have to be connected, no extra switch is needed. Connect them directly with the InﬁniBand cable.

•

Use 56GB/s Mellanox Passive Copper Cables for connections up to four meters long. 56Gb/s Active Optical Cables from Mellanox should be used for longer distances than four meter between VCAs or the VCAs and the switch. Part numbers are available from the Mellanox website (www.melanox.de).

Mapping of network ports in the VCA

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4.2 Connecting cables 4 Hardware installation

4.2.5 Setup Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

1 Attach a VGA monitor and a keyboard to the VCA.

2 During boot of the VCA hit Delete.

3 The machine will stop booting into BIOS settings.

4 Select IPMI BMC Network Conﬁguration Change and change it to yes.

5 Change to a static IP address, gateway and netmask.

6 To improve security, change the login and password.

7 Reboot the machine.

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5 Software installation 5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager

5 Software installation

5.1 System setup using Linux commands

When booting and the Quadro VCA is connected on interface eth3 to local network DHCP will be used by default.

A unique hostname is preset.

To change the default settings (hostname, IP address, default route), log in either on the console or per ssh as user iray and run:

sudo system-config-network

This will modify the following system ﬁles:

•

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth<N>

•

/etc/sysconfig/network

•

/etc/hosts

Note: Contact your network system administrator to add the hostname of the Quadro VCA to DNS.

5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager

Network settings can be changed from the VCA Manager interface if you are not familiar with Linux.

1 Connect a second machine (for example, your laptop) to the conﬁguration port eth2.

2 Set this second machine to any IP address from the 192.168.124.0 network.

3 Connect to http://VCA-IP-address.

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5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager 5 Software installation

VCA Setup Page

A ﬁeld must be submitted to activate a change. Any ﬁeld may be used and can be left blank.

4 The serial number of the Quadro VCA is displayed on the top left corner of the window.

Please follow the link to register the system.

5 VCA Pool name will change the name that is displayed when connecting with the VCA

Manager.

VCA Pool name

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5 Software installation 5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager

6 Change administrator password of the VCA Manager (default is admin:admin).

VCA Manager admin password

7 Change network parameters for network interfaces to either a static IP address or a

DHCP address.

A VCA Manager restart is necessary when changing IP addresses. The VCA Manager Restart button is displayed when all ﬁelds of the form are submitted.

Network setup

8 Start Test will test the rendering performance of the system. If the test runs successfully,

an image is displayed within two minutes.

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5.3 InfiniBand setup 5 Software installation

9 If the network settings were altered it is now necessary to press the Restart button.

This will restart the VCA Manager with the new network parameters.

10 Connect a browser to the VCA’s new IP address. Using the IP address or the hostname,

enter the following in the browser’s address input window:

https://VCA-IP-address

11 Accept certiﬁcate warning to get to the VCA Manager.

5.3 InfiniBand setup

The conﬁgured InﬁniBand network is 192.168.123.0. The system comes pre-conﬁgured with a random IP address from that network.

Restart VCA Manager

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5 Software installation 5.4 Software updates

Running the VCA Setup procedure will alter that IP address 192.168.123.xxx, where xxx are the last 8 bits of the chosen IP address for eth2. For example, if the static IP address is

172.16.0.214, the InﬁniBand address will be set to 192.168.123.214.

InﬁniBand is only used for internal communication between the Iray instances on different nodes and does not need to be routed to any other network.

5.4 Software updates

This section describes how to upgrade an existing installation and how to ﬁnd and install new software.

Note:

1 For updates and installations, the Quadro VCA must be connected to the Internet.

2 When upgrading the VCA Manager on multiple Quadro VCAs (cluster), the VCA

Manager has to be shutdown before upgrading. It can be shutdown from the VCA Manager tools menu.

3 If you use multiple VCAs in a rack, each VCA has to be updated individually.

5.4.1 Listing currently installed packages

To display a list of currently installed packages, run:

sudo yum --disablerepo="*local*" list installed "nvidia-vca*"

5.4.2 Updating an existing installation

Note:

•

For Iray, the latest version number is always incremented if a new version is incompatible with older versions due to client-server protocol changes.

•

Incompatible versions are not installed as an upgrade, but require a new install operation.

1 Login to the system with the iray Linux account and run the yum package management

utility.

sudo yum check-update "nvidia*"

2 To upgrade your complete installation, run:

sudo yum upgrade "nvidia*"

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5.5 Iray Queue Manager setup 5 Software installation

3 To upgrade a particular package, replace nvidia* with the selected package name.

5.4.3 Installing new software packages

1 To get a list of all software packages in the repository, see http://pkg.nvidia-arc.com.

When a software package is updated:

•

The new version is added to the repository.

•

The old version is still downloadable from the repository.

2 To get a list of new software packages, if any, run:

sudo yum --disablerepo="*local*" list "nvidia*"

When you run the yum list installed command, the most recently installed version of a software package is displayed in the list.

Although old versions of the software package are not displayed in the list, they are still downloadable from the repository. For example, if you install the VCA Manager from the repository server, the existing installation is overwritten. However, you can still download older versions of the software packages from the repository.

3 To select and install a new package, run:

sudo yum --disablerepo="*local*" install name-of-the-selected-nvidia-package

5.5 Iray Queue Manager setup

Iray Queue Manager is an Iray-based, multi-user application for remote batch rendering on the VCA. The browser-based user interface enables you to reserve nodes for rendering, manage the render queue, download rendering results, and conﬁgure Iray Queue Manager to suit your requirements.

The following sections describe how to install Iray Queue Manager on the VCA, initialize a batch render queue, and use Iray Queue Manager to manage the render queue.

5.5.1 Installing Iray Queue Manager

Note: You need to install or upgrade Iray Queue Manager on one VCA only.

To install Iray Queue Manager:

1 Ensure that the latest version of VCA Manager is installed. If you are upgrading Iray

Queue Manager, ensure that Iray Queue Manager is not running.

2 At the command line, enter:

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5 Software installation 5.5 Iray Queue Manager setup

sudo yum –disablerepo="*local*" install "nvidia-vca-iray-server*"

The latest version of Iray Queue Manager is installed.

3 From the VCA Manager home page, click the link Go to Queue, which is near the top

of the page.

The Queue page for Iray Queue Manager is displayed. On the left side of the Queue page is the navigation panel; the displayed list of page links is determined by your login status: system administrator or VCA user.

5.5.2 Starting the queue

To start the queue in Iray Queue Manager:

1 Log in as the Iray Queue Manager administrator.

The user ID and password are admin.

2 From the navigation panel on the left, click Settings.

The Settings page is displayed.

3 From the Settings page, go to the Resources section. It is recommended that you log in

as Iray Queue Manager administrator. The user ID and password are admin.

Note: If you do not want to log in as Iray Queue Manager administrator, create a new account in the VCA Manager and use this new user ID and password to log in.

When a connection to the VCA is established, a conﬁrmation message is displayed in the top right corner of the page. In the following steps, you select VCA nodes and start the queue for Iray Queue Manager.

4 From the navigation panel on the left, click Queue.

The Queue page is displayed.

5 From the Queue page, click Start Queue.

The Reserve Cluster dialog is displayed.

6 In the Reserve Cluster dialog, check how many VCA nodes are currently available for

your use. Specify the number of VCA nodes that you want to reserve and click the Reserve button.

The Reserving Cluster button is activated. When your reservation is successful, the Stop Queue button is displayed; the queue is active and ready to render submitted jobs.

5.5.3 Stopping the queue

To stop the queue in Iray Queue Manager:

1 Login as the Iray Queue Manager administrator.

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5.6 Factory reset 5 Software installation

The user ID and password are admin.

2 From the navigation panel on the left, click Queue.

The Queue page is displayed.

3 From the Queue page, click Stop Queue.

The Start Queue button is displayed. The queue is no longer active.

5.5.4 Using Iray Queue Manager

To use Iray Queue Manager:

1 After you have started the queue for Iray Queue Manager, logout as Iray Queue Manager

administrator.

2 Login using your VCA user ID and password.

After Iray Queue Manager is started, you can submit a job using one of the companion Iray plugins. When a job is successfully submitted it is displayed on the Queue render page under the heading Jobs. With certain limitations, you can change the order of your jobs in the render queue by dragging and dropping the + icon.

Two tabular reports are displayed on the Queue page:

•

Queue report: Administrators and users get a complete list of jobs in the render queue.

•

Done report: Administrators get a complete list of rendered jobs. Each user gets a custom report listing their rendered jobs only.

You can view and download rendered images from the Results page.

For more information about the purpose and use of the various pages, see the Iray Server documentation.

5.6 Factory reset

To reset Quadro VCAs to the initial factory settings, perform the following steps:

1 Create a bootable thumb drive that contains a factory reset image.

2 Reset the hard drives to the initial factory settings by using the bootable thumb drive.

Note:

•

When you reset the hard drives, all data is lost and the internal SSD drives are completely overwritten.

•

BIOS settings are not reset. If the IPMI network was conﬁgured to a static IP address, that value remains unchanged after the factory reset procedure is completed.

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5 Software installation 5.6 Factory reset

5.6.1 Creating a bootable thumb drive

Prerequisites:

•

An ISO image ﬁle. Contact your reseller for more information.

•

A Windows PC (XP/Vista/7/8) connected to the Internet

•

A thumb drive with at least 16GB of memory and formatted in FAT32. The thumb drive will be completely overwritten so backup any ﬁles you want to keep.

To create a bootable thumb drive that contains a factory reset image, perform the following steps:

1 Ensure that you have an ISO image ﬁle. If you do not have this ﬁle, contact your reseller.

2 From a Windows PC (XP/Vista/7/8) connected to the Internet: Download USB Univer-

sal Installer (UUI), version 1.9.4.8 or later, from

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ (1MB).

3 Insert a thumb drive (minimum 16GB) into the Windows PC. Click on Start > Computer

to verify the drive letter of the thumb drive.

Note:

3.1 Ensure that the thumb drive is formatted in FAT32.

3.2 Backup any important ﬁles on the thumb drive before you continue. The thumb drive will be completely overwritten.

4 Launch the Universal-USB-Installer executable (version 1.9.4.8 or later). From the Uni-

versal USB Installer Setup dialog, perform the following steps:

4.1 From the Step 1 pull-down menu, select Try Unlisted Linux ISO.

4.2 Under Step 2, click Browse and locate the iray_install.YYYYMMDD.iso image.

4.3 From the Step 3 pull-down menu, select the target USB device.

Note:

4.3.1 Ensure the drive letter matches that of your thumb drive.

4.3.2 Check the Format checkbox if your thumb drive needs reformatting.

4.4 Click Create to write the ISO image to your thumb drive.

5 After the message "Installation Done, Process Complete" is displayed in the output win-

dow, remove the thumb drive from the Windows PC.

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5.7 Installing third-party software 5 Software installation

5.6.2 Resetting the hard drives to the factory settings

Prerequisite: A bootable thumb drive that contains a factory reset image.

To reset hard drives to the factory settings, perform the following steps:

1 Shut down the Quadro VCA cluster.

From the top-right settings menu of the VCA Manager Web interface, select Shutdown VCA Managers. Conﬁrm shutdown.

2 For each node in the cluster, repeat the following steps:

2.1 Power down the Quadro VCA system using one of the following methods:

•

From IPMI web interface (if so conﬁgured):

From the System Summary main page, click the Power Down option.

•

From local console or via ssh terminal:

2.1.1 Login to the VCA where username/password is iray/Nvidia-Arc

2.1.2 At the command line, enter: shutdown -P now

•

Press the front power button

2.2 On the back of the Quadro VCA, insert the bootable thumb drive, which contains the factory reset image, into an available USB port.

2.3 Power up the Quadro VCA.

Note: Ensure you are near the console and keyboard, or IPMI interface, connected to the Quadro VCA node being reset.

2.4 As soon as the NVIDIA Logo screen is displayed, press F11 to invoke the Boot menu.

2.5 From the Boot menu, select PMAP, which is the factory reset thumb drive.

Wait while the system boots from this USB device.

2.6 At the NVIDIA Logo screen, press Enter to install the Quadro VCA system software.

2.7 After the IRAY-SERVER login: prompt is displayed, remove the thumb drive.

2.8 For each Quadro VCA node in the cluster, repeat steps 2.1 to 2.7.

5.7 Installing third-party software

5.7.1 Overview

To connect third-party software for use with the VCA Manager, perform the following steps:

1 Install the software under the Iray account to avoid permission problems.

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5 Software installation 5.7 Installing third-party software

2 Create a run script and copy it into /home/iray/cm/satellite. For more information,

refer to "Setting up a third-party run script" (page 24).

3 Add the run script to the VCA Manager database, which stores all persistent infor-

mation. For more information, refer to "Updating the VCA Manager database" (page

24).

5.7.2 Setting up a third-party run script

The following example is a simple run script for third-party software:

#!/bin/bash trap ’killall -9 third-party-process’ EXIT sh -c "third-party-process $1 $2 $3 $4 $5"

From the VCA Manager, a run script can get the following arguments:

Argument Description

$1 Unique multicast address for an allocated cluster

$2 Data connection port

$3 Head node IP address to which the client connects

$4 Head node (0,1)

$5 Size of the allocated cluster

Note: The value of third-party-process must be the binary that keeps running, not a shell script starting the binary process.

5.7.3 Updating the VCA Manager database

The VCA Manager uses an SQLite database. The following example shows how to add a third-party run script to this database:

cd /home/iray/cm sqlite -line cluster_manager.db \ "insert into scripts values(null,"Description Text", \ "/home/iray/cm/satellite_run_thirdparty",null,null");

For a VCA cluster, the third-party run script has to be added to all nodes since scripts are not automatically syncronized between the nodes.

Note: For third-party software, the VCA Manager icon does not switch from yellow to green.

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5.8 Testing the installation 5 Software installation

5.8 Testing the installation

5.8.1 VCA Manager tests

To test the installation:

1 Connect a browser to the VCA’s IP address.

In the browser’s address input window, enter:

https://VCA-IP-address

(using the IP address or hostname of your VCA).

2 Accept certiﬁcate warning.

3 Login to the VCA Manager.

User Name: admin Password: admin

VCA Manager Login window

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5 Software installation 5.8 Testing the installation

4 Reserve all available nodes.

Change the number of nodes to the maximum number available and click Reserve.

VCA Manager Overview window

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5.8 Testing the installation 5 Software installation

5 Check if the cluster startup was successful.

Click on "My Visual Computing Cluster". Cluster reservation is successful if the color of the cluster icons turns from yellow to dark green.

Quadro VCAs reserved

Quadro VCAs ready

6 Test InﬁniBand functionality. From the VCA Manager menu, select Test RDMA Con-

nection

7 Test Iray Rendering. From the VCA Manager menu, select Test Rendering The test suc-

ceeded if an image appears after about 2 minutes.

The Quadro VCA is now ready for connection from any remote Iray client software.

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5 Software installation 5.8 Testing the installation

5.8.2 Troubleshooting

If you are not able to connect from the remote client application to the Quadro VCA, perform the following steps:

1 Check that the ﬁrewall on both the client and server sides have ports 11000, 443 and

9090 unblocked. If necessary, check with your network system administrator on how to unblock these ports.

2 If all ports are unblocked and the application can still not connect, follow these steps:

2.1 Login as user iray on the Quadro VCA and check if Iray has started by searching for the string remote_server in the list of running processes:

ps -ef | grep remote_server

2.2 If that process is not running, check the logﬁle /home/iray/cm/cluster-manager.log on the reserved node.

2.3 If the log entries in /home/iray/cm/cluster-manager.log indicate multicast trafﬁc problems, contact the network administrator. It is possible that multicast trafﬁc may have been disabled on the local Ethernet switch. Also check the default route on the system.

3 Check if the VCA nodes can ping each other on the Ethernet interfaces. If this does not

produce in a live connection, check the default route on your Quadro VCA.

4 It must be possible to conﬁrm a network connection using ping to all VCA nodes. If

this is not possible, check the connections of the InﬁniBand cables.

5 To stop, start or restart Iray or the VCA Manager manually, run the following shell

commands on all VCA nodes:

/home/iray/cm/nvvca-cm [-s] start [-k] stop [-r] restart

6 Check if the processes cluster_manager and nodemgr_listener are running

7 To contact the Quadro VCA support team, send email to: iray-vca-support@nvidia.com

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6 Warranty and licensing

Hardware warranty and software licensing:

•

NVIDIA limited hardware warranty — VCA:

http://www.nvidia.com/vca/hw-warranty

•

NVIDIA VCA software end user license agreement:

http://www.nvidia.com/vca/eula

6 Warranty and licensing

Nvidia Quadro VCA Installation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual