Hi
I seem to be having some sort of scaling issue when using a vGPU. This issue only happens on newly built XenApp VMs, all existing XenApp VMs are fine. If I use XenDesktop, there are no issues, this is purely a XenApp / Windows Server issue.
I’m using ESXi 6.0 U2, XenApp / XenDesktop 7.9, Windows 2012 R2 servers and I’ve tried either fully patched or brand new without any updates from an .iso. GPUs are M60 and I’m using 8GB profiles. Lots of CPU and RAM, resources are not the issue.
My GRID drivers are 362.56 for all my VMs.
Applications are varied, random NVIDIA demo type, Redway, generic 3D stuff you can just download and play with. At this stage, the applications are not important, because the issue isn’t with them.
Performance of the application is fine. But looking at the applications / desktop the visual experience is degraded, it’s as if the server isn’t seeing the GPU, but SMI and every monitoring tool I use is telling me the GPU is being used. Application FPS supports this.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
- The GPU is properly licensed and I’ve checked the license server to ensure a license is being checked out. I’ve also tried restarting the license server (just in case).
- The GPO to tell a XenApp server to “Use the hardware default graphics adapter….” is applied and I’ve been through the registry to ensure it is working.
- I’ve tried reinstalling the NVIDIA drivers then pushing out the new image. The fact that the drivers install at all, tell me the VM can see the GPU.
- I’ve tried building a brand new VM with no Windows Updates. I’ve also tried all current Windows updates.
- I’ve tried with no GPOs or Citrix Policies applied, but it’s only using the same Policies that other VMs are using.
- I’ve rebooted the physical host.
- I’ve tried disabling the VMware SVGA 3D adapter so that only the NVIDIA adapter is present and active.
- NVIDIA SMI shows that the GPU is assigned to the correct VM and the GPU is being used.
- DXDIAG says that the Citrix Display Driver is being used, Direct 3D Acceleration is “Enabled” and that there are “no problems found”.
- The issue is also validated by the fact that the resolution is completely wrong when opening a published application or logging onto the servers desktop, it looks like it’s scaled and running a lower resolution.
- Direct RDP does not have the same desktop and icon scaling issues, but I can tell it isn’t right when I look within an application at the fonts being used.
I’ve uploaded a few screenshots. Heaven is running at 1024x768 (although looking at the image, you’d never think that). The “Desktop Resolution” screenshots were taken from my MacBook Pro, which runs a 1920x1200 resolution when connecting to ICA resources and “SMI” shows that the GPU is being used.
The attached "RDP GPU.jpg" shows 2x RDP connections. The server on the left, is not experiencing the scaling issue, the server on the right is experiencing the issue. I can see this by looking at the font size on the monitor that is open. The one on the right is bigger than the one on the left, despite the desktop resolutions and icons being the same size. I know that when I access this through ICA, the whole desktop will be scaled.
I hope that makes sense. If it doesn’t, let me know and I’ll add some more content.
If anyone has any suggestions, that would be great.
Thanks
Ben
