OpenStack vGPU

Introduction

OpenStack is an open-source cloud computing platform that allows users to manage and control a pool of computing resources, including virtual machines (VMs). One of the key features of OpenStack is its ability to support virtual Graphics Processing Units (vGPUs), which enables users to leverage the power of GPUs for their workloads.

In this article, we will explore how to use OpenStack with vGPUs, including the necessary configurations and code examples.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, you will need:

  • An OpenStack deployment with support for vGPUs enabled.
  • An image with GPU drivers pre-installed.
  • The OpenStack command-line client (openstack CLI) installed.

Configuring OpenStack for vGPU

To use vGPUs in OpenStack, you need to configure the following components:

  1. Compute Service: Enable the NVIDIA GPU passthrough feature by adding the following configurations in the nova.conf file:
[DEFAULT]
enabled_apis = osapi_compute,metadata
enabled_hypervisors = qemu,nvidia
compute_driver = nova.virt.libvirt.LibvirtDriver

[libvirt]
virt_type = qemu

  1. Image Service: Create an image with GPU drivers pre-installed. You can do this by either using an existing image and installing the drivers or building your own image with the necessary GPU drivers.

  2. Flavor: Create a flavor with vGPU support. A flavor defines the characteristics of a VM, including the number of vCPUs, memory, disk space, and other resources. To enable vGPU support, add the following extra specs to the flavor:

- "resources:VGPU": "1"
- "accel:device_profile": "gpu"

Example: Launching a VM with vGPU

To launch a VM with vGPU support, follow these steps:

  1. Step 1: Create a new security group to allow the necessary network traffic:
$ openstack security group create vgpu
  1. Step 2: Add the required rules to the security group:
$ openstack security group rule create --protocol tcp --dst-port 3389 vgpu
$ openstack security group rule create --protocol tcp --dst-port 22 vgpu
  1. Step 3: Launch the VM with the desired flavor, image, and security group:
$ openstack server create --flavor <flavor> --image <image> --security-group vgpu vgpu-vm
  1. Step 4: Assign a floating IP to the VM:
$ openstack floating ip create <external-network>
$ openstack server add floating ip vgpu-vm <floating-ip>

Sequence Diagram

The following sequence diagram illustrates the steps involved in launching a VM with vGPU support:

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant OpenStack
    participant ComputeNode
    participant ImageService
    participant GPU

    User->>OpenStack: Launch VM with vGPU
    OpenStack->>ComputeNode: Reserve resources
    ComputeNode->>ImageService: Retrieve image
    ComputeNode->>GPU: Activate vGPU
    ComputeNode->>ComputeNode: Launch VM
    ComputeNode->>User: VM ready

Conclusion

OpenStack with vGPU support allows users to harness the computational power of GPUs for their workloads. By following the necessary configurations and using the provided code examples, you can easily launch VMs with vGPU support in an OpenStack environment.

Remember to ensure that your OpenStack deployment has the necessary configurations in place and that you have the required image and flavor with vGPU support.

Keep exploring the capabilities of OpenStack and vGPUs to leverage the power of GPUs for your cloud computing needs.