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# Install GPU Media Server

Media Server can use a graphics card (GPU) to perform some processing tasks. Using a GPU rather than the CPU can significantly increase the speed of training and analysis tasks that use Convolutional Neural Networks.

Tasks that benefit from a GPU are:

- Image classification (when you use a Convolutional Neural Network classifier).
- Face demographics analysis.
- Face recognition.
- Object detection.
- Vehicle make recognition.

Before starting, ensure that your server has a GPU that meets the system requirements.

## Install Media Server

You can download GPU Media Server from the Big Data Download Center. The Media Server executable installed by the IDOL Server installer does not have support for GPU acceleration.

NOTE:

If you install GPU Media Server on Ubuntu, Micro Focus recommends that you install a headless version of Ubuntu server.

To install GPU Media Server, follow the steps described in Install Media Server from the ZIP Package.

## Install the NVIDIA CUDA Driver

To use a GPU to accelerate processing, you must install the NVIDIA driver version 376.51 or later on Linux or NVIDIA driver version 375.26 or later on Windows. This can be installed independently, or by installing the CUDA toolkit version 8.0. Micro Focus recommends installing the driver only because this is easier and faster, and only installs the required components.

To install the NVIDIA CUDA driver on Windows

- Download the driver from http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk. If asked to choose a "Download Type", select "Optimal Driver for Enterprise" because this option provides stable, supported drivers. After downloading the driver, run the installation program as an administrator, and follow the on-screen instructions.

To install the NVIDIA CUDA driver on Linux

1. Verify that your machine is running a supported operating system. Run the following command:

       lsb_release -a

   The operating system is described:

       Distributor ID: Ubuntu
       Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
       Release:        14.04
       Codename:       trusty

2. Verify that a CUDA-compatible card is available. Run the following command:

       lspci | grep -i nvidia | grep -i VGA

   This should produce output similar to:

       0f:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106GL [Quadro 2000] (rev a1)
       28:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK110GL [Quadro K6000] (rev a1)

   You must verify that one or more of these GPUs support CUDA Compute Capability version 3.0 to 6.1. In the previous example, the Quadro 2000 GPU is not supported.

3. Install the essential utilities required to install the NVIDIA driver, by running the following command.

       sudo apt-get install build-essential

4. Install the NVIDIA driver by running the following commands.

       sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
       sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
       sudo apt-get update
       sudo apt-get install nvidia-376
       sudo reboot

5. Verify that the driver installation was successful by running the `nvidia-smi` command. The driver version must be reported as the following version (or later):

       376.51

## Configure the GPU (Windows only)

Perform this step only if you are running Media Server on Windows. This step is not necessary on Linux.

To use a GPU to accelerate Media Server processing tasks, you must place the GPU in TCC mode. In this mode the graphics card is used for computation only and does not provide output for a display. Unless you use TCC mode, the GPU does not provide adequate performance and can be slower than using a CPU. Many GPUs are not in TCC mode by default, so you must place the card in TCC mode using the `nvidia-smi` tool.

## Verify that Media Server is Using the GPU

To determine whether Media Server can use your GPU, start Media Server and open the application log. The log should show the following after Media Server starts:

    GPU devices available for use
    GPU deviceID 0 (Hex PCIBusId: ..)
    GPU deviceID 1 (Hex PCIBusId: ..)
    GPU deviceID 2 (Hex PCIBusId: ..)
    GPU deviceID 3 (Hex PCIBusId: ..)
    GPU mode used for MediaServer
    GPU Memory: ... bytes free ... bytes total ... bytes free to allocate
    GPU deviceID currently used: 2 (Hex PCIBusId: ..)

If the machine has more than one GPU, you might need to set the configuration parameter `GPUDeviceID`, to specify which GPU to use. To find out which GPU device ID corresponds to which GPU, match the PCI Bus ID logged by Media Server to the PCI Bus ID output by the `nvidia-smi` command, which also provides the GPU name.

If installation was unsuccessful, the application log shows this message instead:

    CPU mode used for MediaServer

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