[PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[mj]

Hi,

We are looking into windows remote desktop services, and would like to 
see how feasible it is to run it through our proxmox cluster.

Currently our VMs are all linux, so we have no experience with windows 
VMs on proxmox. I have read some of the docs on the pve wiki, like 
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_10_guest_best_practices

But looking for some practical guidance, like how well do windows VMs 
run under proxmox? Anything special to consider?

Thanks!

Re: [PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[Daniel Plominski]

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Re: [PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[Daniel Plominski]

Hello MJ,

we have a lot of Windows VMs running in our Proxmox Cluster.

The performance is very good, for most legacy / normal "2D" applications 
the software (RDP) rendering is sufficient.

For special applications (CAD software) we have additional graphics 
cards passed through via "GPU passthrough" (Intel & AMD servers).

This all works very well.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

DANIEL PLOMINSKI
Leitung IT | Head of IT

Telefon 09265 808-151 | Mobil 0151 58026316 | dpl@ass.de
PGP Key: https://pgp.ass.de/dpl@ass.de.asc
PGP Fingerprint: 74DBC06BD9F63187C4DF8934C96585A89CFC10B3

Company Logo

			ASS-Einrichtungssysteme GmbH 		
			ASS-Adam-Stegner-Straße 19 | D-96342 Stockheim

			Geschäftsführer: Matthias Stegner, Michael Stegner, Ralph Müller 		
			Amtsgericht Coburg HRB 3395 | Ust-ID: DE218715721
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Re: [PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[mj]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks very much for your encouraging words. Good to know that this is a 
viable path, also for windows VMs.

MJ

Op 18-01-2022 om 14:39 schreef Daniel Plominski:
> Hello MJ,
> 
> we have a lot of Windows VMs running in our Proxmox Cluster.
> 
> The performance is very good, for most legacy / normal "2D" applications 
> the software (RDP) rendering is sufficient.
> 
> For special applications (CAD software) we have additional graphics 
> cards passed through via "GPU passthrough" (Intel & AMD servers).
> 
> This all works very well.
> 
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen
> 
> DANIEL PLOMINSKI
> Leitung IT | Head of IT
> 
> Telefon 09265 808-151 | Mobil 0151 58026316 | dpl@ass.de
> PGP Key: https://pgp.ass.de/dpl@ass.de.asc
> PGP Fingerprint: 74DBC06BD9F63187C4DF8934C96585A89CFC10B3
> 
> Company Logo
> 
>              ASS-Einrichtungssysteme GmbH
>              ASS-Adam-Stegner-Straße 19 | D-96342 Stockheim
> 
>              Geschäftsführer: Matthias Stegner, Michael Stegner, Ralph 
> Müller
>              Amtsgericht Coburg HRB 3395 | Ust-ID: DE218715721
> Bottom_Line
> _______________________________________________
> pve-user mailing list
> pve-user@lists.proxmox.com
> https://lists.proxmox.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pve-user

Re: [PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[Daniel Plominski]

Hello Daniel Bayerdorffer,

Long story briefly explained on the example of an AMD server with NVIDIA 
graphics card (on Proxmox 6.4 / 7):

1. activate IOMMU, deactivate framebuffer

root@assg25:~# cat /etc/kernel/cmdline
root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/pve-1 boot=zfs amd_iommu=on iommu=pt video=efifb:off
root@assg25:~#
root@assg25:~# update-initramfs -u -k all

2. deactivate (nativ) Kerneldrivers

root@assg25:~# cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist radeon
blacklist nouveau
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist snd_hda_intel
root@assg25:~#

3. load vfio drivers

root@assg25:~# cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

vfio
vfio_iommu_type1
vfio_pci
vfio_virqfd

# EOF
root@assg25:~#

4. search for the appropriate graphics card entry

root@assg25:~#
root@assg25:~# lspci -v > /tmp/GPU_INFO
root@assg25:~#
root@assg25:~# grep -A 30 "Quadro P1000" /tmp/GPU_INFO

root@assg25:~# lspci -n -s 27:00
27:00.0 0300: 10de:1cb1 (rev a1)
27:00.1 0403: 10de:0fb9 (rev a1)
root@assg25:~#

5. configure vfio.conf

root@assg25:~# cat /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf
options vfio-pci ids=10de:1cb1,10de:0fb9 disable_vga=1
root@assg25:~#

6. host reboot

sync
update-initramfs -u -k all
proxmox-boot-tool refresh
sync; reboot

7. create a windows vm in ovmf (uefi) mode, machine type: pc-q35-5.2, 
cpu with hidden and hv-vendor-id flag and gpu (hostpci) passthrough

root@assg25:/etc/pve/qemu-server# cat 216.conf
#
#term41gpu
#
#GPU - PCIe 27%3A00
#
agent: 1,type=virtio
balloon: 0
bios: ovmf
boot: order=virtio0;net0
cores: 12
cpu: host,hidden=1,hv-vendor-id=proxmox
efidisk0: local-zfs:vm-216-disk-1,size=1M
hostpci0: 27:00,pcie=1
machine: pc-q35-5.2
memory: 73728
name: term41gpu
net0: virtio=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX,bridge=vmbr107,firewall=1
numa: 1
ostype: win10
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
smbios1: uuid=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
sockets: 2
startup: order=116
virtio0: local-zfs:vm-216-disk-0,iothread=1,size=256G
vmgenid: XXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
root@assg25:/etc/pve/qemu-server#

8. install the windows server drivers from nvidia

https://www.nvidia.de/Download/driverResults.aspx/176988/de

9. activate the necessary RemoteFX settings using the active-directory 
group policies (or the local ones)

https://www.leadergpu.com/articles/483-how-to-enable-gpu-rendering-for-microsoft-remote-desktop-on-leadergpu-servers


ASS - Der Bildungseinrichter GmbH
Mit freundlichen Grüßen

DANIEL PLOMINSKI
Leitung IT | Head of IT

Telefon 09265 808-151 | Mobil 0151 58026316 | dpl@ass.de
PGP Key: https://pgp.ass.de/dpl@ass.de.asc
PGP Fingerprint: 74DBC06BD9F63187C4DF8934C96585A89CFC10B3

		 Company Logo

			ASS-Einrichtungssysteme GmbH 		
			ASS-Adam-Stegner-Straße 19 | D-96342 Stockheim

			Geschäftsführer: Matthias Stegner, Michael Stegner, Ralph Müller 		
			Amtsgericht Coburg HRB 3395 | Ust-ID: DE218715721
Bottom_Line

Re: [PVE-User] windows remote desktop services as VM on proxmox

[Daniel Plominski]

... possibly one more note on this ...

This solution works well for a handful of users on a Windows Server 2019 
Server VM as a Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) bound to a graphics 
card.
If a higher density of VMs per graphics card is required, there is no 
way around an NVIDIA GRID solution using VGPU licensing on VMware.
This is all a matter of investment.

There are projects where even consumer graphics cards with patched 
firmware allow similar virtual splitting into VGPUs.
However, this is not an option in the business environment.

An alternative to NVIDIA would be the hardware splitting of AMD Pro 
graphics card via SR-IOV.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

DANIEL PLOMINSKI
Leitung IT | Head of IT

Telefon 09265 808-151 | Mobil 0151 58026316 | dpl@ass.de
PGP Key: https://pgp.ass.de/dpl@ass.de.asc
PGP Fingerprint: 74DBC06BD9F63187C4DF8934C96585A89CFC10B3


		 Company Logo

			ASS-Einrichtungssysteme GmbH 		
			ASS-Adam-Stegner-Straße 19 | D-96342 Stockheim

			Geschäftsführer: Matthias Stegner, Michael Stegner, Ralph Müller 		
			Amtsgericht Coburg HRB 3395 | Ust-ID: DE218715721
Bottom_Line