vGPU usage overview

Virtual GPU (vGPU) enables Kingsoft Cloud GPU Elastic Compute (GEC) instances to host virtual GPU instances. You must use vGPU instances in combination with the following components:

• GRID driver: a program that is installed on vGPU instances. You must install the GRID driver to use the features of vGPU.
• License server: a server that centrally manages licenses and assigns licenses to vGPU instances.
• License: a document that is used to activate the GRID driver on a vGPU instance.

vGPU instances support the following types of licenses. Different licenses can be used for different purposes.

• vDWS license: is suitable for Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) workstations and professional graphics and image processing workstations. You can use the vDWS license to support vGPU instances or OpenGL on GEC instances of the computing instance type.
• vPC license: is suitable for video editing and rendering scenarios where graphics and images of up to 4K resolution are supported.
• vCS license: is suitable for deep learning scenarios and provides enhanced GPU utilization through GPU slicing.

The following figure shows the relationship among vGPU instances, the GRID driver, the license server, and licenses.

To use the features of vGPU, perform the following steps:

1. Purchase a vGPU instance.

   When you purchase a vGPU instance, you can select a standard image or contact Kingsoft Cloud customer service to obtain an image with the GRID driver pre-installed.

   For more information about how to purchase a vGPU instance, see Create a GEC instance.

2. Obtain a license file. You can purchase a license from NVDIA or contact Kingsoft Cloud customer service to obtain a license file.

3. Build a license server and import the license file to the license server.

   For more information, see Set up a license server.

4. Install and activate the GRID driver on the vGPU instance.

   Select the installation and activation methods for your operating system:

   • For Windows, see Install and activate the GRID driver (Windows).
   • For Linux, see Install and activate the GRID driver (Linux).

5. (Optional) Install the GRID driver on other GEC instances to enable the instances to have the graphics and image computing capabilities of vGPU.

   For more information, see Install the GRID driver on a GPU Computing instance.