How-to configure a Virtual GPU on an existing virtual machine
Overview
This guide covers adding or removing an NVIDIA vGPU profile on an existing virtual machine in the ITS Private Cloud using the vss-cli command-line tool. By the end, your VM will have the requested vGPU profile attached (or removed) and be ready for driver installation.
The ITS Private Cloud vGPU offering is powered by NVIDIA L4 GPUs and supports both RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) profiles for graphics and mixed graphics+compute workloads, and Virtual Compute Server (vCS) profiles for headless AI/ML and compute workloads. Available profiles are listed in the next section.
vGPU is only available on the FD1 and FD2 fault domains. If your VM is on a different domain, this guide includes the steps to migrate it.
After attaching a vGPU, the VM still needs the NVIDIA guest driver installed and a license token configured before the GPU is usable. See:How-to configure and licence a provisioned vGPU
vGPU Profiles
To tailor to various needs, we have made available a range of vGPU profiles as shown below:
Profile | Frame Buffer | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
nvidia_l4-6c | 6GB | Mid-range compute, NLP inference, data science |
nvidia_l4-12c | 12GB | Large model inference, memory-intensive compute |
nvidia_l4-24c | 24GB | Full-GPU dedicated compute — AI training, large-scale inference |
nvidia_l4-6q | 6GB | High-end design, simulation, multi-monitor workflows |
nvidia_l4-8q | 8GB | High-res rendering, simulation, lighter AI inference |
nvidia_l4-12q | 12GB | Large model inference, scientific computing, hi-fi 3D |
nvidia_l4-24q | 24GB | Full-GPU dedicated workstation or compute VM |
Step by Step - Add vGPU profile
Step 1 — Ensure the virtual machine is running on FD1 or FD2
Check the current FD
vss-cli compute vm get {vm-id-or-name} domainIf not in FD1 or FD2 use one of the commands below to move it (this may take minutes to hours depending on storage size and disk type)
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} domain FD1-OR-
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} domain FD2Step 2 — Shut down or power off your virtual machine
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} state shutdownStep 3 — Add the required vGPU profile
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} gpu mk --profile nvidia_l4-6cStep 4 — Confirm the profile was applied
vss-cli compute vm get {vm-id-or-name} gpuStep 5 — Power on the virtual machine
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} state onNext Steps - Driver and License
Complete the GPU driver installation and licensing
If the vGPU creation fails, the reason is most likely because the profile is unavailable due to limited quantities.
Step by Step - Remove vGPU profile
Run vss-cli configure to configure your VSS credentials. If you have already done this, please go to next step.
Step 1 — Shut down or Power off your virtual machine
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} state shutdownStep 2 — Remove the GPU profile
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} gpu rm Step 3 — Confirm the GPU profile was removed
vss-cli compute vm get {vm-id-or-name} gpuStep 4 — Power on the virtual machine
vss-cli --wait compute vm set {vm-id-or-name} state on