Nvidia Quadro Visual Computing Appliance Installation Manual

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NVIDIA Quadro Visual Computing Appliance

Installation Guide

NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Center

Fasanenstraße 81

10623 Berlin

Germany

phone +49.30.315.99.70

fax +49.30.315.99.733

arc-ofﬁce@nvidia.com

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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 ARC GmbH.

The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. NVIDIA ARC GmbH 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 ARC GmbH. Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are hereby acknowledged.

Document build number 240290

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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

2 Quickstart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

3 Quadro VCA speciﬁcation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.1.1 Hardware components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.1.2 Physical dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.1.3 Front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.1.4 Power requirements and consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.1.5 Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.1.6 Acoustic proﬁle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.2 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2.1 Operating system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2.2 Operating system setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2.3 Linux user accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2.4 Linux security setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.2.5 Iray and the VCA Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3.2.6 Directory layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4 Hardware installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1 Rack mounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1.1 Setup location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4.1.2 Rack installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4.1.3 Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4.1.4 Installing the outer rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4.1.5 Installing the box into the rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

4.2 Connecting cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.2.1 Keyboard and monitor for console access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.2.2 Connecting power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4.2.3 Ethernet connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.2.4 InﬁniBand connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.2.5 Setup Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5 Software installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5.1 System setup using Linux commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5.2 System setup using the VCA Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

5.3 InﬁniBand setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.4 Software updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.4.1 Listing currently installed packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.4.2 Updating an existing installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5.4.3 Installing new software packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.5 Factory reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.5.1 Creating a bootable thumb drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5.5.2 Resetting the hard drives to the factory settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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0 Contents

5.6 Installing third-party software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.6.2 Setting up a third-party run script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.6.3 Updating the VCA Manager database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5.7 Testing the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5.7.1 VCA Manager tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5.7.2 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

6 Warranty and support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

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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:



Welcome card



Power cables (4)



Quadro VCA (with rails for rack mounting)

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

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2 Quickstart

Note



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.



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.



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.

2.3 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".



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.

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3 Quadro VCA specification

6 Set the IP address of the external machine back to what it was before (DHCP).

7 Reconnect to https:// VCA-IP-address-or-hostname.

8 Accept the certiﬁcate warning.

9 Login to the VCA Manager again:

User Name: admin Password: admin

You can run the VCA setup procedure more than once. From the Setup page, you can change the IP address of an interface:



To a static IP address



From one static IP address to another (changing the hostname, gateway or network mask)

Note

When you change the interface to a static IP address, the IP address of the InﬁniBand interface is changed automatically.

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

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3 Quadro VCA specification 3.1 Hardware

3.1.2 Physical dimensions

Feature Description

Form factor 4U Rack mount

Width 18.2" (462mm)

Height 7.0" (178mm)

Depth 29" (737mm)

Gross weight 100lbs (45.4kg)

Color Dark Gray

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

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.

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3.1 Hardware 3 Quadro VCA specification

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) at 10A. If one of the power supplies fails at 110V, it will continue to run on the remaining three supplies. For a 240V connection, up to two power supplies may fail and the system can still run with full load.

The maximum power consumption with all system resources under full load is 2800W (at an ambient temperature of 35◦C). Idle power consumption is 350W (at an ambient temperature of 25◦C).

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.

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3 Quadro VCA specification 3.2 Software

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.

3.2.1 Operating system

3.2.2 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.

3.2.3 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.

3.2.4 Linux security setting

The iptables application is enabled and running by default.

All ports are blocked with the following exceptions:

Port Description

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.

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4 Hardwareinstallation

3.2.5 Iray and the VCA Manager

The installed versions of Iray are:



NVIDIA Iray 2014.5.3



NVIDIA Iray 2014.5



NVIDIA Iray 2015

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

3.2.6 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.

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 sufﬁ-

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4 Hardwareinstallation 4.1 Rack mounting

cient 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

4.1.3 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.

Installing the VCA in a rack

4.1.4 Installing the outer rails

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

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4.1 Rack mounting 4 Hardware installation

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.

4.1.5 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 Hardwareinstallation 4.2 Connecting cables

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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4.2 Connecting cables 4 Hardware installation

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.

Mapping of network ports in the VCA

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).

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5 Software installation 5.2 Systemsetup using the VCA Manager

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.

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-or-hostname :14000.

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5.2 Systemsetup 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 Systemsetup 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 success-

fully, an image is displayed within two minutes.

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5.2 Systemsetup using the VCA Manager 5 Software installation

Restart VCA Manager

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-or-hostname

11 Accept certiﬁcate warning to get to the VCA Manager

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5 Software installation 5.4 Software updates

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.

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.

Notes:

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 Man-

ager 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 list installed nvidia-vca*

5.4.2 Updating an existing installation

Notes:



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 Factory reset 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 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 install name_of_the_selected_nvidia_package

5.5 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.

Notes:



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.

5.5.1 Creating a bootable thumb drive

Prerequisites:



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



A thumb drive with at least 16GB of memory and formatted in FAT32

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

1 On a Windows PC (XP/Vista/7/8) connected to the Internet:

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5 Software installation 5.5 Factory reset

1.1 Download the ISO image ﬁle from

ftp://10.20.186.8/iray_install/iray_install.20141002.iso (8.4GB).

1.2 Download USB Universal Installer (UUI), version 1.9.4.8 or later, from

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

(1MB).

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

to verify the drive letter of the thumb drive.

Notes:

2.1 Ensure that the thumb drive is formatted in FAT32.

2.2 Backup any important ﬁles on the thumb drive before you continue. The thumb

drive will be completely overwritten.

3 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:

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

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

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

Notes:

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

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

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

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

dow, remove the thumb drive from the Windows PC.

5.5.2 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.

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5.6 Installing third-party software 5 Software installation

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 soft-

ware.

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.

5.6 Installing third-party software

5.6.1 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.

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".

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

tion. For more information, refer to "Updating the VCA Manager database".

5.6.2 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

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5 Software installation 5.7 Testing the installation

Note

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

5.6.3 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.

5.7 Testing the installation

5.7.1 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-or-hostname

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

2 Accept certiﬁcate warning.

3 Login to the VCA Manager.

User Name: admin Password: admin

Page 25

5.7 Testing the installation 5 Software installation

VCA Manager Login window

4 Reserve all available nodes.

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

VCA Manager Overview window

5 Check if the cluster startup was successful.

Page 26

5 Software installation 5.7 Testing the installation

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.

Page 27

6 Warranty and support

5.7.2 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

6 Warranty and support

See the following documents:



Quadro VCA software end user license agreement:

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



Quadro limited hardware warranty — VCA:

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

MetaSL users: If you have MetaSL shaders that you want to use, they must be manually installed on each VCA. Please note that support for MetaSL will be deprecated in the near future and it is recommended that you switch to MDL (MDL materials do not have to be installed on the VCA). If you require more information, contact the Quadro VCA support team at iray-vca-support@nvidia.com.

Nvidia Quadro Visual Computing Appliance Installation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual