Installation guideline for NVIDIA drivers - Elastic GPU Service

If your GPU-accelerated instances are not configured with drivers, you must install NVIDIA drivers to ensure the performance of your instances. The driver types that you can install on the instances may vary based on the scenarios and the instance families. This topic describes how to create GPU-accelerated instances and install NVIDIA drivers on the instances in different scenarios.

Drivers and instances

Driver type

You can install the following NVIDIA drivers on Alibaba Cloud GPU-accelerated instances:

GPU driver: drives physical GPUs.
GRID driver: accelerates graphics processing.

The driver types and the installation methods may vary based on multiple factors, such as scenarios, instance families, and OSs. The following figure shows how to select driver types and install drivers in different scenarios. 2021-08-24_18-41-43

Instance type

This topic is applicable to GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instances and vGPU-accelerated instances. Instances that are equipped with the same GPU model share the same installation method.

GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instances: gn7s, gn7e, gn7i, gn7, gn6i, gn6e, gn6v, gn5i, gn5, ebmgn7e, ebmgn7i, ebmgn7, ebmgn6ia, ebmgn6e, ebmgn6v, ebmgn6i, ebmgn5, ebmgn5i, sccgn6, and sccgn6e For more information, see GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance families.
vGPU-accelerated instances: vgn5i, vgn6i, vgn7i-vws, and sgn7i-vws (with shared CPUs). For more information, see vGPU-accelerated instance families.

Note The preceding lists include only available GPU-accelerated instances. If you are using a GPU-accelerated instance that has been phased out, you can refer to the driver installation methods for instances that have the same GPU model. For example, both ebmgn7i and gn7i instance families are equipped with NVIDIA A10. Hence, the same driver installation method applies to instances in these two instance families.

Driver installation method

Install drivers on GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instances

The following information describes driver types that you can install and provides instructions on how to install the drivers in different scenarios:

Common computing scenarios such as deep learning and AI

Note The gn7, gn7e, ebmgn7 and ebmgn7e instance families are suitable only for general computing workloads, such as deep learning, AI, and scientific computing, instead of graphics-intensive workloads. You need to install GPU drivers for instances that belong to these instance families.


Instance family	OS	Driver type	Installation method
GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instances, such as gn6i and gn5i instance families	Linux, such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, or SUSE Linux	GPU drivers	Method 1 (recommended): Create a Linux GPU-accelerated instance configured with a GPU driver. Tip: Choose this method if you selected Auto-install GPU driver when creating a GPU-accelerated instance from a public image. Note The drivers are installed when the instances are started for the first time. Method 2: Manually install a GPU driver. Create a GPU-accelerated instance: Create a GPU-accelerated instance that is not configured with a driver. Manually install a driver: Install a GPU driver on a GPU-accelerated compute-optimized Linux instance. Tip: Choose this method when the public images of the required OS types or versions are not available.
	Windows, such as Windows Server	GPU drivers	Create a GPU-accelerated instance: Create a GPU-accelerated instance that is not configured with a driver. Manually install a driver: Install a GPU driver on a GPU-accelerated compute-optimized Windows instance. Note GPU-accelerated Windows instances do not support automatic installation for GPU drivers.

Graphics-intensive workloads such as OpenGL and Direct3D


Instance family	OS	Driver type	Installation method
GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instances, such as gn6i and gn5i instance families (aside from gn7, gn7e, ebmgn7, and ebmgn7e)	Linux, such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, or SUSE Linux	GPU drivers	Method 1 (recommended): Create a Linux GPU-accelerated instance configured with a GPU driver. Tip: Choose this method if you selected Auto-install GPU driver when creating a GPU-accelerated instance from a public image. Note When the instances are started for the first time, the drivers are installed. Method 2: Manually install a GPU driver. Create a GPU-accelerated instance: Create a GPU-accelerated instance that is not configured with a driver. Manually install a driver: Install a GPU driver on a GPU-accelerated compute-optimized Linux instance. Tip: Choose this method when the public images of the required OS types or versions are not available.
	Windows, such as Windows Server	GRID drivers	Method 2: Manually install a GRID driver. Apply for GRID licenses: submit a ticket . Manually install a driver: Install a GRID driver on a GPU-accelerated compute-optimized Windows instance or a vGPU-accelerated Windows instance. Tip: Choose this method when the images your purchase are not configured with GRID drivers, or you cannot find suitable images in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. Method 3: Create a GPU-accelerated instance that is not configured with a driver. Tip: Choose this method when you already have a GRID license, and want to purchase GPU-accelerated instances. Note After you create the GPU-accelerated instances, you must manually install GRID drivers on the instances. Contact your license provider to obtain instructions on how to install the drivers.

Install drivers on vGPU-accelerated instances

vGPU-accelerated instances are configured with vGPUs based on the mediated pass-through method. You can install only GRID drivers on these instances. The following information describes driver types that you can install and provides instructions on how to install the drivers in different scenarios:

Note However, some GPU-related features may be unavailable on the vGPU-accelerated instances because the NVIDIA GRID licenses are not activated for the GPUs used by the instances. If you want to use these features, we recommend that you create vGPU-accelerated instances from images that have activated GRID licenses. You can also bring your own GRID licenses to use these features.

Common computing scenarios such as deep learning and AI


Instance family	OS	Driver type	Installation method
vGPU-accelerated instance families, such as vgn5i, vgn6i and vgn7i-vws instance families	Linux, such as Alibaba Cloud Linux, CentOS, Ubuntu, or SUSE Linux	GRID drivers	Apply for GRID licenses: submit a ticket . Manually install a driver: Install a GRID driver on a Linux vGPU-accelerated instance.

Graphics-intensive workloads such as OpenGL and Direct3D


Instance family	OS	Driver type	Installation method
vGPU-accelerated instance families, such as vgn5i, vgn6i, and vgn7i-vws	Windows, such as Windows Server	GRID drivers	Method 2: Manually install a GRID driver. Apply for GRID licenses: submit a ticket . Manually install a driver: Install a GRID driver on a GPU-accelerated compute-optimized Windows instance or a vGPU-accelerated Windows instance. Tip: Choose this method when the images your purchase are not configured with GRID drivers, or you cannot find suitable images in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace. Method 3: Create a GPU-accelerated instance that is not configured with a driver. Tip: Choose this method when you already have a GRID license, and want to purchase GPU-accelerated instances. Note After you create the vGPU-accelerated instances, you must manually install GRID drivers on the instances. Contact your license provider to obtain instructions on how to install the drivers.