GPU support for 3D graphics in RHEV

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5

Issue

  • What is the road map for supporting multiple host side connections to one or more GPU's to support client VDI connection that are utilizing 3D graphics (Open GL 2.1 - 4.2)?

  • Is it possible to use Aero on my Windows 7 guest in RHEV? When I try to enable Aero, Windows is showing this error:

    Video device can't handle 3D rendering

  • Are there any alternates to VDI that would allow thin clients to take advantage of host GPU hardware?

Resolution

At the time of this writing, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.X does not support GPU acceleration or 3D graphics in a virtual machine.

However, a Request for Feature Enhancement (RFE) has been filed to add 3D acceleration support to kvm virtual machines, which RHEV uses. This RFE is being tracked in a private Red Hat Bug # 991235. For more information or to also request this feature, please open a case with Red Hat Support1.

Work is being done upstream with the Virgil project to create a simple acceleration solution that works well enough for Desktop 3D and OpenGL applications inside the guest. Virgil doesn't require specific licenses or proprietary code and should work with cards from multiple vendors.

Note: This only deals with guest capabilities. Spice client hardware acceleration is handled separately.

  1. How do I open and manage a support case on the Customer Portal? ↩︎

Root Cause

In RHEV 3.x, only 2D video devices are supported, however there are plans that will allow 3D devices from the host to be passed to VMs:

  • This will be implemented using VFIO.
  • Currently, VFIO is not stable and only supports a few specific devices in upstream kernels. Support for this is expected in RHEL 7 or later.

Further, when using SPICE, the protocol uses the video device on the connecting client, rather than the device on the VM:

  • SPICE does this by sending processing instructions to the client rather than already rendered images.
  • While SPICE can use 3D client devices, the SPICE protocol itself does not yet support 3D rendering.

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