Using cloud vGPUs/en
This page describes how to * allocate virtual GPU (vGPU) resources to a virtual machine (VM), * install the necessary drivers and * check whether the vGPU can be used. Access to repositories as well as to the vGPUs is currently only available within the Arbutus cloud.
Note
Please note that the documentation below only covers the vGPU driver installation. The CUDA toolkit is not pre-installed but you can install it directly from NVIDIA or load it from the CVMFS software stack.
Warning
If you choose to install the toolkit directly from NVIDIA, please ensure that the vGPU driver is not overwritten with the one from the CUDA package.
Supported flavours¶
To use a vGPU within a VM, the instance needs to be deployed on one of the flavours listed below. The vGPU will be available to the operating system via the PCI bus.
- g1-12gb-c3-35gb-125
- g1-24gb-c6-70gb-250
Preparation of a VM¶
Once the VM is available, make sure to update the OS to the latest available software, including the kernel.
Reboot the VM to have the latest kernel running.
It is recommended to install DKMS package, which is available via default repositories for all major distributions. If the dkms package doesn't install the kernel-header package automatically, it needs to be installed manually via the package manager of your distribution.
Download the 2 files listed below to your system.
- NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.105.08-grid.run
- kalpa-prod.tok
wget https://object-arbutus.alliancecan.ca/swift/v1/6c87c15eb7d2468daf3d2bd0c58bbfce/vgpu/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.105.08-grid.run
wget https://object-arbutus.alliancecan.ca/swift/v1/6c87c15eb7d2468daf3d2bd0c58bbfce/vgpu/kalpa-prod.tok
Install the Nvidia vGPU driver with
root@vgpudoc:/home/debian# chmod 755 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.105.08-grid.run && ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.105.08-grid.run
Tip
Options NVIDIA Proprietary and DKMS are recommended.
After a successful installation, reboot the system and verify via nvidia-smi that the OS has now proper access to the vGPU.
root@vgpudoc:/home/debian# nvidia-smi
Thu Apr 2 19:06:00 2026
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 580.105.08 Driver Version: 580.105.08 CUDA Version: 13.0 |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA H100L-1-12C On | 00000000:00:06.0 Off | On |
| N/A N/A P0 N/A / N/A | 1MiB / 12288MiB | N/A Default |
| | | Enabled |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MIG devices: |
+------------------+----------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
| GPU GI CI MIG | Shared Memory-Usage | Vol| Shared |
| ID ID Dev | Shared BAR1-Usage | SM Unc| CE ENC DEC OFA JPG |
| | | ECC| |
|==================+==================================+===========+=======================|
| 0 0 0 0 | 1MiB / 10565MiB | 16 0 | 1 0 1 0 1 |
| | 0MiB / 4096MiB | | |
+------------------+----------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=========================================================================================|
| No running processes found |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The vGPU is now accessible and needs to be licensed. Copy the token kalpa-prod.tok to /etc/nvidia/ClientConfigToken/.
Configure nvidia-gridd, via the command below.
Enable nvidia-gridd and verify its status.
systemctl enable --now nvidia-gridd
nvidia-gridd.service - NVIDIA Grid Daemon
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nvidia-gridd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2026-04-02 19:11:13 UTC; 19s ago
Invocation: 11dbb0370aee4ceeb1603481991037ec
Process: 836 ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-gridd (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 837 (nvidia-gridd)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 42042)
Memory: 2M (peak: 2.7M)
CPU: 307ms
CGroup: /system.slice/nvidia-gridd.service
ââ837 /usr/bin/nvidia-gridd
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc systemd[1]: Starting nvidia-gridd.service - NVIDIA Grid Daemon...
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: Started (837)
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc systemd[1]: Started nvidia-gridd.service - NVIDIA Grid Daemon.
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: vGPU Software package (0)
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: Ignore service provider and node-locked licensing
Apr 02 19:11:13 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: NLS initialized
Apr 02 19:11:14 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: Acquiring license. (Info: api.cls.licensing.nvidia.com; NVIDIA Virtual Compute Server)
Apr 02 19:11:16 vgpudoc nvidia-gridd[837]: License acquired successfully. (Info: api.cls.licensing.nvidia.com, NVIDIA Virtual Compute Server; Expiry: 2026-4-3 19:11:16 GMT)
Once gridd has received a valid licence, all features of the vGPU can be used. The licence renewal is handled via nvidia-gridd automatically.