GPU utilization

[shoe54]

How can I determine whether the Terminal Server is utilizing the GPU to encode the video stream for the WebPlayer?

Regards,

Shu

[fra81]

Hi Shu,

at the moment you have to look for this info in the logs. Session logs are located (by default) inside directories starting with the ‘C-‘ prefix in the ‘/usr/NX/var/log/node’ location. More info on how to retrieve the logs in https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00697. If GPU is used for encoding, you will see in the ‘session’ file something like:

Info: Using H.264 hardware encoder.

Note that in future versions of NoMachine this info will also be available in the client GUI.

[shoe54]

According to https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00706 under Section 2.3, does it mean that the Terminal Server Evaluation is not able to utilize the hardware GPU for encoding?

Thanks,

Shu

[Britgirl]

Hi, section 2.3 refers to software encoding which is used when the H.264 software encoder is present on the server. The H.264 codec is not shipped in the evaluation.

Hardware encoding is possible regardless of the NoMachine server you have – the free version, an evaluation even – provided there are the right GPU capabilities in place. From the article:

1. NoMachine and H.264 hardware acceleration

NoMachine supports H.264 hardware acceleration for these types of sessions:
(i) Connections to the remote physical desktop.
(ii) Linux virtual desktops without activating X11 vector graphics mode.

1.1. On server side

NoMachine supports H.264 hardware encoding provided by graphics cards with Nvidia Kepler microarchitecture and later.

1.2. On client side

NoMachine software on the user’s computer (i.e. NoMachine used as a client or Enterprise Client) supports the H.264 hardware decoding on Windows and Mac hosts with hardware accelerated video cards (GPUs). No further action is required.

and from https://www.nomachine.com/AR10K00706
In the case of web sessions, H.264 codec is supported from v. 6 provided all the following requirements are met:
(i) H.264 hardware or software encoding is available on the remote host where NoMachine sessions are run.
(ii) The browser supports WebRTC/HTML5 and H.264.
(iii) support for WebRTC is enabled on the NoMachine Server.

 

[shoe54]

Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I’ve met those requirements but the GPU doesn’t seem to be utilized. I’ve set up a virtual desktop with X11 vector graphics mode disabled:

AgentX11VectorGraphics 0

I have attached the session logs. There are 3 log files, the 1001 log file is generated when the server starts up even when there are no client connections established. The 1002 and 1003 log files are generated when a single client connection is established via the WebPlayer.

Nowhere in the session logs does it indicate that the hardware encoder is being used. In addition, there is a line in the 1002 log:

Warning: Can’t load H.264 codec library.

Hope you can help.

Thanks.

Attachments:

1. virtual_desktop_without_x11_vector.1001.txt
2. virtual_desktop_without_x11_vector.1002.txt
3. virtual_desktop_without_x11_vector.1003.txt

[Britgirl]

Are you sure WebRTC is enabled? Without WebRTC there will be no video encoding.

Can you submit here a screenshot of your Display settings? (Connection menu->Display->Display settings)

[Author]

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