Serving VDI with RemoteFX Enabled

Trying to find any current information on RemoteFX and what GPUs we can use to run the feature in our Windows 7 VMs has been quite the challenge.

Our first stop in the process of finding information was this page:

• Microsoft TechNet: Hardware Considerations for RemoteFX

RemoteFX CPU Compatibility

The first hardware consideration has to do with the server hardware and its capabilities:

1. SLAT-enabled processor   The processor in the RemoteFX server must support Second-Level Address Translation (SLAT). In virtualization scenarios, hardware-based SLAT support improves performance. On Intel processors, this is called Extended Page Tables (EPT), and on AMD processors, it is called Nested Page Tables (NPT).
2. GPU   At least one graphics processing unit (GPU) is required on the RemoteFX server. The GPU driver must support DirectX 9.0c and DirectX 10.0. If more than one GPU is installed in the RemoteFX server, the GPUs must be identical. The GPU must have sufficient dedicated video memory that is separate from system memory.

Now, there are two links to hardware related articles just below the above but they have not been updated in quite a while. So, we are left searching about for any possible leads.

One of the configurations we are looking for is to deliver the virtual desktops via Hyper-V Failover Cluster. In order to do that, we must take note of the caveat stated in the TechNet article:

Important

To use Live Migration, the source and destination RemoteFX servers must have the same GPU installed.

We have seen it also noted that a server with multiple GPUs installed into the same server must use the same card.

AMD and NVIDIA

Since we have two major video card manufacturers that have mentioned RemoteFX we did some searching on their sites for anything related to it:

1. AMD (ATI) RemoteFX Search Results
• The FirePro product line is mentioned.
• A relatively recent article (August 15, 2011) on their site: AMD FirePro™ Wears Multiple Hats in the Data Center.
2. nVidia RemoteFX Search Results
• NVIDIA® Quadro® drives Microsoft RemoteFX
• 
• NVIDIA Tesla M2070Q

As we can see, a 1U form factor is definitely out for both manufacturer’s products. Both the AMD 4GB part and the NVIDIA Tesla 6GB part take up two PCI-E slots.

Now that we have an idea of what is available in GPUs we need to look at our server configurations. For now, there are not a lot of choices in 2U form factor that have more than one or possibly 2 PCI-E 2.0 16x slots in them.

When we go above 2U we have options but from what we can see at this point we are looking at 4 CPU server systems to gain access to more than two PCI-E 2.0 16x slots truly wired for 16 lanes.

Once we get into that level of server configuration the $8K sticker price for the Tesla M2070Q starts to look a little more palatable.

RemoteFX GPU Performance

We now have a better grasp on where to find the necessary GPUs, but what about performance?

From the TechNet article linked above we find this grid:

The first thing we see is that the display resolutions are going to be a bit difficult to work with due to the fact that most folks have either 22” to 24” wide LCD monitors on their desktop. The 24: may have enough vertical resolution to handle 1280x1024 but that is about it.

Note the required amount of GPU memory for each resolution and number of monitors. In most cases users will run a single monitor with a few exceptions.

For two monitors running 1280x1024 at 175MB each session a 6GB Tesla would host about 30 sessions per card.

• $8K/30 Sessions = $267/Session

For one monitor running 1920x1200 we are looking at about 25 sessions per 6GB Tesla.

• $8K/25 Sessions = $320/Session

Given a 36 month solution life that cost is actually quite reasonable.

RemoteFX and Clusters

Now the kicker, one of the driving reasons behind our looking into RemoteFX is a client that is looking to do VDI for 130 to 150 desktops _on a Hyper-V Failover Cluster_.

This means that if we are looking to build a robust two node Hyper-V Failover Cluster that each node must be configured to run the _entire_ VDI environment.

So, we will be looking at some alternatives that will allow us to run three or even four nodes connected to the same Promise VTrak E610sD RAID Subsystem that the LSI SAS Switches will allow us to do.

Direct Attached Storage via SAS 3Gbit or 6Gbit quad port connections out performs Gigabit based iSCSI (even with multiple Gigabit ports via MPIO) in so many ways plus MPIO configuration for the SAS connections is a lot easier to work with.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Device Manager Unknown Device? VEN_10DE and DEV_0AA3 – Check the PCI Database

After publishing our post on the Eee PC unknown chipset device (Asus Eee PC – Unknown Hardware - Coprocessor VEN_10DE&DEV_0AA3) that we needed to search for we received a couple of great pointers in a comment on that post.

• PCI Vendor and Device Lists (PCI Database)

The PCI Database makes it pretty straightforward for us to figure out what the device is and who made it.

1. Figure out the Vendor Code:
1. VEN_10DE = 0x10DE
1. 
2. Figure out the Device Code:
1. DEV_0AA3 = 0x0AA3
1. 
3. Highlight and search for the Chip Description and:
1. Bing Search Results for nForce 730i SMBus Controller (http://www.bing.com/search?q=nForce+730i+SMBus+Controller&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IE8SRC)
2. Result number four:
1. 
3. Click through and:
1. 

Wow, that was _so_ much simpler than trying to sift our way through all of the chaff that came up in our original searching.

Note that nForce driver v15.51 looks to be the most current version available for this chipset.

Another pointer given was to the Driver Easy utility site. Essentially, they keep track of every driver providing a one stop shop for loading the most recent drivers on a freshly installed OS (non-OEM image).

A technician’s license is $0.99/Computer loaded. For a small IT shop that does not keep a lot of driver content readily available this would be a good way of saving time for those one-off OS loads as it would save a lot of time hunting around for the right drivers.

For larger shops there would need to be an evaluation against current practices to see if there was value in using the Driver Easy tool.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Asus Eee PC – Unknown Hardware - Coprocessor VEN_10DE&DEV_0AA3

We have an Asus Eee PC 1201N that we have had here in the shop for a while. When we set it up we searched around for an unknown piece of hardware in the Device Manager and came up blank.

When we brought up the Hardware ID for the device:

Coprocessor Properties

PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0AA3&SUBSYS_84021043&REV_B1

Searching for the Device ID string brought up lots and lots of fluff.

Since the device was probably associated with the nVidia ION chipset we downloaded the latest ION driver:

After downloading and installing the driver the unknown device status remained.

After digging into the results for the device string a bit more we came across a site that wanted us to pay for the supposedly associated download. However, the site did give us a clue:

• “ . . . for your nVidia MCP79 Coprocessor.”

So, off we went to search out a driver based on the above. It took quite a while to find the needle in the haystack:

• NotebookReview.com New nVidia MCP79 Chipset Driver Posted

That forum post had a link to a Dell driver download. We clicked the Other Versions link see if there was a newer version of the driver which there was:

The download auto-installed the driver after it completed. We were able to then see that our unknown was now known:

The ReadMe.TXT file had enough information in it to point us to the generic nVidia download that also contains that driver set:

NFORCE Driver 15.56 WHQL approved.

Note behind the browser window we can see the various nVidia drivers installed by the Dell version. The nVidia NFORCE download shows the same list plus graphics related drivers so it is quite a bit heavier.

What we needed to do to resolve the unknown hardware after the fact:

1. Download the newest nVidia ION driver and install it.
2. Download the newest nVidia NFORCE driver and install it.

A link to nVidia’s Web site:

• www.nvidia.com

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

160GB Intel SSD Gen 2 Performance = WOW!

There have been a few blog posts here on the new second generation Intel Solid-State drives (post category search) lately.

A while back, we put together a box for a client that included an EVGA nVidia based motherboard (EVGA category search). We have had quite the odyssey with this particular system.

The Raptors have consistently broken the RAID 10 array we created via the onboard RAID setup. There has been no rhyme or reason to the array breaking. We even replaced the entire drive set with brand new drives hoping that it would be fixed. No joy there.

Each time the box visited the shop we made sure to update the BIOS on the motherboard and we were still hit with broken arrays.

So, we removed three of the four Raptors leaving the one behind for storage.

We installed a single Intel X25-M 160GB second generation SSD.

We then installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 retail in 12 minutes using our OCZ ATV Turbo as the source.

Both the SSD and Windows 7 Ultimate retail were provided to our client at no cost along with the labour to install all of their needed applications. We needed to make sure that we made things right.

The scary thing is that the single Intel SSD boots the entire Windows 7 Ultimate OS from start to finish in about 15 seconds! 15 Seconds!!!

• Original blog post on the system configuration.

We define a completed boot as having the ability to click on the Start Button and open any program in the recent list or pinned there.

Even a set of four VelociRaptors configured in a RAID 10 array can’t touch that and they are fast too!

Since installing an Intel 80GB SSD in the Netbook, and soon the Tecra will be getting a 160GB version, bumping out the spindle for an SSD has been an easy sell to our clients.

They can see the visible excitement in me when I am demonstrating a full OS boot in 20 seconds on a Netbook with Windows 7 Pro and an SSD for a drive. Then the application performance for opening them as well as flipping around between open windows and more is pretty impressive on a Netbook.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

nVidia Quadro NVS Notebook Driver Choking on Windows 7 x64

Ack! A pulsing to black screen is happening!

For whatever reason, the nVidia Quadro video driver started hiccupping today.

Not once, not twice, but four times the screen went black on the laptop then came back with a ”Windows has recovered from a driver failure” error.

The reliability report says:

The details contained in the reliability report:

Now, the recommended course of action is to download and install the newest nVidia driver for this particular video card. But, since the laptop is not too old, that is not really an option.

Here is hoping that nVidia will not be having too many driver issues on the new Windows 7 operating system.

If memory serves correct, there were a lot of driver issues with nVidia products on Windows Vista. Let’s hope that this is not going to be the case on Windows 7.

So, now we wait to see when a newer version of the driver arrives and whether it resolves the problem.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

EVGA 790i Ultra RAID Error – Drive Failure

We built this system for one of our clients a while back: EVGA 790i Ultra MB and Kingston RAM.

The system came back to us a couple of days ago due to a RAID array error message.

Nothing out of the ordinary was going on when the system spontaneously locked up on the user.

The RAID array consists of four (4) 150GB Western Digital Raptor drives configured in a RAID 1+0 (BIOS indicates 0+1 which is incorrect).

Of the two pairs, one in each managed to survive the array malfunction. Thus, the array and subsequently the OS survived the failure. We were able to boot into Windows Vista with no issues.

The puzzling aspect of getting things back together was how to reset the two failed drives.

We had taken the drives out of the system and ran the Western Digital utility that does an extensive disk scan and both came up error free.

The RAID BIOS does not make it too clear how we need to reset the failed array members either.

We ended up deleting the entries in the RAID BIOS array management for the two drives that were in error state. Once we did that, they appeared as available and we were able to add them back to the array by highlighting them and setting the array into rebuild mode. Remember, all we are doing is adding the second drive that will mirror the original drive in the RAID 1+0 array (nVidia calls it RAID 0+1 in the BIOS).

The catch to an array rebuild on this setup is that we need to boot into an OS before the rebuild starts.

When we went to reboot, Windows Vista complained about missing NLS data. So, something had changed with the resetting of the “failed” drives.

We booted into the ShadowProtect Recovery Environment to verify that everything was intact on the C: drive, which it was, but we were not able to get any further. We tried copying the NLS files over but that did not work.

So, we deleted the array in the RAID BIOS, recreated it, and attempted to restore our ShadowProtect image that we took just prior to messing around with the system. That restore attempt failed.

We finally learned the proper methodology for using ShadowProtect with Windows Vista for any backup/restore operation: First Successful Windows Vista ShadowProtect Restore! No Winload.exe Error! (previous blog post)

We had not run the preparation step indicated in the above blog post on the Windows Vista OS so we ended up needing to rebuild the box from scratch.

Once the box had been fully installed, one of the hard drive array members choked and caused the system to lock up. Perhaps we have finally found the culprit of the original array failure! We changed that drive out for a new drive using the array delete and create process and are now well into a burn-in process with no hiccups.

This time, we ran the above prep steps and then imaged the system using ShadowProtect before breaking the RAID array. We were able to then successfully restore the Windows Vista OS.

The failed drive in this case was not a part of the original pair of “failed” drives. Hopefully we now have the source of the problem. The burn-in will continue to run until our client picks up the box late Monday afternoon.

The burn-in produced no array failures and our client was happy with the system when we followed up at the end of last week.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

Vista x64 RTM - Stop 0x0000007e on EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard

A relatively new client of ours wanted us to figure out why their system was not able to "SLI" on a pair of EVGA 8800GTX Ultra video cards in the system. They had recently picked up a game that they wanted to run on a larger high resolution monitor. There was also a need to tune up the system after about a year of usage.

The system configuration as it came to us:

• Intel QX6850 Quad Core Extreme
• Asus Maximus Formula X38 motherboard
• 4GB Crucial BallistiX DDR2
• EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra PCI-E Video (pair)
• 74GB Raptor (OS), 400GB Seagate (storage), and 500GB Seagate (storage)
• 1KW PSU
• Antec Nine Hundred Case
• Windows Vista Ultimate x86

Anyone catch the reason the nVidia SLI function was not available?

In this particular case, our client had gone to one of the local computer stores in the city to get the components needed to setup a new system.

At that time, about a year ago, DDR3 memory was hard come by and extremely expensive. So, it looks as though the sales clerk had move our client into the Asus Maximus Formula for its DDR2 capability.

The sales clerk missed something very important in the process: The Asus Maximus Formula was an ATI CrossFire enabled board! With the ATI setup, the video card bridge comes with the video cards. With the nVidia setup, the bridge comes with the motherboard. ATI CrossFire and nVidia SLI motherboards are not cross compatible. That is, one cannot plug in a pair of SLI video cards into a CrossFire based motherboard and expect to get nVidia SLI to function.

Since the video cards were also made by EVGA, and we had access to the EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Mainboard, that was the direction that we recommended and our client accepted.

Once we had the EVGA motherboard and a set of 4GB DDR3 1,333MHz Kingston memory, everything went together relatively well.

One caveat we ran into was the length of the video cards versus the hard drive cage setup in the Antec 900. We needed to move the cages a step out to enable the video cards and the Raptors to work together in relatively the same space.

EVGA 8800GTX Ultra snugged up to the 150GB WD Raptor

We were fortunate in that the SATA data cable on the back of the Raptor was able to fit just so in behind the EVGA's plastic housing.

When installing Windows Vista Ultimate x64 RTM on the system, we had the full 4GB of RAM installed on the motherboard.

During the initial spool up of the Windows Vista setup routine we received a BSOD with a 0x0000007E indicator and that was it.

It has been our experience on the Intel side of things that Windows setup will fail with more than 2GB of RAM installed on the motherboard. It looks like the nForce chipset suffers the same problem.

Once we removed two of the 1GB RAM sticks to bring things down to 2GB on the motherboard, setup proceeded as expected.

The system was fast! Vista Ultimate x64 installed in no time flat.

One thing to keep in mind when setting the system up is to not plug in a network cable into either of the NIC ports. Make sure to install the EVGA nForce 790i board drivers first, then the nVidia video card drivers and the requisite reboots.

The EVGA motherboard had production BIOS P01 installed out of the box. No matter what we tried we could not get the second video card recognized without a Vista BSOD.

So, we needed to update the EVGA nForce 790i Series BIOS (EVGA support forum) to the most recent version which was P05p released the day before yesterday. P05 would not allow the second video card to be recognized either.

For the SLI or dual card setup to work properly for us:

1. Single card to start.
2. Update the BIOS (record those settings and restore to defaults before updating)
• Note that any RAID configuration would not be lost when the RAID controller was disabled.
• Make sure to enable the RAID controller and set the appropriate drives after the update.
3. Reboot
4. Make the requisite BIOS settings changes.
5. Power down.
6. Install the second SLI video card and the SLI bridge.
7. Boot into the OS.
8. The nVidia drivers will probably need to be reinstalled.
• The BIOS update and second video card wiped out our nVidia driver setup.
9. Reboot and engage SLI if required.
• The driver will pop up the management screen after the reboot.

Once we finished getting the SLI function going, the system was pretty much good to go.

There was one more snag, but that one will go into a separate post.

There certainly is an art to overclocking systems. Looking through the forums with all of the discussions around system hardware configurations and BIOS settings for all of the different variables was mind boggling!

Here was the existing components with the components we added:

• Intel QX6850 Quad Core Extreme (existing)
• EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI Motherboard
• 4GB Kingston KVR1333D3N8/1G (PDF spec sheet)
• EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra PCI-E Video (pair) (existing)
• 300GB Western Digital Raptor 10K RPM in RAID 0+1 (4 150GB Raptor drives)
• Zalman CNPS9700NT CPU cooler
• Antec Nine Hundred Case (existing)
• 1200 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower 4 Rail PSU

Here is how the system spec'd out on the Windows Vista Experience Index:

5.9 across the board! Time to update that assessment. ;)

Neat :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.