Simplified access to the NVIDIA CUDA toolkit on SUSE Linux for HPC

Overview

The High-Performance Computing industry is rapidly embracing the use of AI and ML technology in addition to legacy parallel computing. Heterogeneous Computing, the use of both CPUs and accelerators like graphics processing units (GPUs), has become increasingly more common and GPUs from NVIDIA are the most popular accelerators used today for AI/ML workloads.

To get the full advantage of NVIDIA GPUs, you need to use the CUDA parallel computing platform and programming toolkit. The CUDA Toolkit includes GPU-accelerated libraries, a compiler, development tools and the CUDA runtime.

To get the full advantage of NVIDIA GPUs, you need to use NVIDIA CUDA, which is a general purpose parallel computing platform and programming model for NVIDIA GPUs. The NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit includes GPU-accelerated libraries, a compiler, development tools and the CUDA runtime.

CUDA supports the SUSE Linux operating system distributions (both SUSE Enterprise and OpenSUSE) and NVIDIA provides a repository with the necessary packages to easily install the CUDA Toolkit and NVIDIA drivers on SUSE.

To simplify installation of NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit on SUSE Linux Enterprise for High Performance Computing (SLE HPC) 15, we have included a new SUSE Module, NVIDIA Compute Module 15. This Module adds the NVIDIA CUDA network repository to your SLE HPC system. You can select it at installation time or activate it post installation. This module is available for use with all SLE HPC 15 Service Packs.

Note that the NVIDIA Compute Module 15 is currently only available for the SLE HPC 15 product.

Post-Installation Process via Yast

Installing via Yast

Start Yast and select System Extensions

After YaST checks the registration for the system, a list of modules that are installed or available is displayed.

Click on the box to select the NVIDIA Compute Module 15 X86-64

Notice that a URL for the EULA is included in the Details section. Please comply with the NVIDIA EULA terms.

Information on the EULA for the CUDA drivers is displayed.

Agree and click Next

You must trust the GnuPG key for the CUDA repository.

Click Trust

You will be given one more confirmation screen

Click Accept

After adding the repository, you can install the CUDA drivers.

Start Yast and select Software Management” then search for cuda

Select the cuda meta package and press Accept

A large number of packages will be installed

Press Continue to proceed

That’s it!

You are now ready to start using the CUDA toolkit to harness the power of NVDIA GPUs.

Summry

Managing heterogeneous computing environments has become increasingly important for HPC and AI/ML administrators. The NVIDIA Compute Module is one way we are working to make using these technologies easier to use.

About Jay Kruemcke

Jay Kruemcke is passionate about helping customers and partners achieve their goals. Jay is the Linux product line manager at Wind River Systems, responsible for embedded Linux operating system products including Wind River Linux and Wind River Linux Distro. Prior to Wind River, Jay was responsible for the SUSE Linux for High-Performance Computing, SUSE Linux for Arm, and SUSE Linux for Power servers. Jay released the first commercially supported Linux distribution for Arm in 2016. Jay has built an extensive career in product management based on being a bridge between customers and engineering teams. He has extensive experience in many areas including product positioning, driving future product directions, using social media for client collaboration, and evangelizing the capabilities and future directions of enterprise products. Jay had a long career at IBM including many roles in the Power and Cloud Engineering and Offering teams including being the product management owner for the AIX Unix operating system. In addition to his product management experience, Jay has held a variety of technology roles at including product marketing, manager of a technical architecture team, briefing center staff, SAP systems management consultant, and as a system programmer and administrator Jay also volunteers with the Boy Scouts in multiple roles and with ProductCamp Austin. The postings on this site solely reflect the personal views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of my employer. Follow me on twitter @smollinux and @phastflyer

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