NVIDIA vGPU Xorg Service Dependencies in vSphere 7.0 U1 and Later

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The following symptoms or error messages related to the X.Org Server service:

• Service Alerts: Warnings or alerts indicating that the "x.org server service is not running" on ESXi hosts
  
  
• Power-on Failures: Virtual machines with vGPU profiles fail to power on with errors such as:
  Could not initialize plugin 'libnvidia-vgx.so' for vGPU 
The amount of graphics resource available in the parent resource pool is insufficient


• Configuration Errors: When modifying graphics device settings, vCenter may report: another instance of xorg is running, exiting
  
  
• VDI Impact: Unable to start VDI guests on multiple ESXi hosts

Environment

• Versions: ESXi 7.0 Update 1 and later, including ESX 9.x
• Hardware: NVIDIA GPUs utilizing vGPU profiles (e.g., NVIDIA A2, A16)

Cause

As of vSphere 7.0 Update 1, Broadcom introduced a design change where the Xorg service is no longer required for graphics devices operating in vGPU mode. In this mode, the ESXi host interacts directly with the cards via the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager contained within the NVIDIA VIBs, and the Xorg service may not start by default

Resolution

Follow these steps to verify and manage graphics service dependencies:

1. Verify NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager:
• Run the command nvidia-smi in the ESXi shell to determine if the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager has successfully loaded and can see the physical GPUs
  
  
2. Determine Service Requirements:
• vGPU Mode: Confirm that the VM is set to Shared Direct (vGPU). In this mode, Xorg is not required; proceed with assigning vGPU profiles normally.
• vSGA Mode (Shared): If utilizing Shared Mode (vSGA), the Xorg service must be running. Note that vSGA is not supported on all graphics cards.
  
  
3. Address Visibility or Initialization Issues:
• If NVIDIA devices are not listed or if plugin initialization errors occur, ensure the GPU mode is correctly set to Shared Direct in the host configuration.
• If the issue persists, reinstalling the NVIDIA VIB may resolve visibility issues at the ESXi host level.
  
  
4. Service Configuration (vSGA only):
• Navigate to Host > Configure > System > Services.
• Locate X.Org Server, click Edit Startup Policy, and set it to Start and stop with host. Ensure the service is marked as Running

Additional Information

Installing and configuring the NVIDIA VIB on ESXi

Virtual Shared Graphics Acceleration