How to use a GPU server

Find out how to find and install the right drivers for your Leaseweb GPU server.

GPU servers at Leaseweb

At Leaseweb, a server equipped with a GPU can be installed with your operating system of choice, like any other server. However to make use of the GPU in your server, in some cases, manual installation of drivers is required. Since there are multiple options and driver versions change constantly, Leaseweb gives you the full freedom to use your driver of choice.

Driver options

The drivers supplied in the repositories of the most common operating systems may not support the latest hardware. Therefore it is necessary to obtain the drivers from other sources.

Using the free, open-source Linux Nouveau driver

The free, open-source Nouveau driver is shipped by default with your Linux distribution. Version 1.0.13 or higher is required, and Linux kernel version 4.12 or newer. At this moment, no major Linux distribution ships with these versions by default. Please refer to the distribution’s documentation on how to obtain a backported kernel version 4.12 or newer.

Installing the proprietary Linux NVIDIA driver for CUDA only

To install only the CUDA driver from NVIDIA, please follow the instructions in Chapter 4. Runfile Installation from the NVIDIA Cuda installation guide for Linux.

When installing NVIDIA drivers, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions provided in the End-user license agreement (EULA) of the NVIDIA drivers.

Installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver

When installing NVIDIA drivers, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions provided in the End-user license agreement (EULA) of the NVIDIA drivers.

Ubuntu

For Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04, a Personal Package Archive (PPA) is available at https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

You can use the following commands to add it to your system’s software sources and install the driver:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-graphics-drivers-384

Alternatively, you can also download and install the NVIDIA driver directly, see below.

Debian

In Debian, the proprietary NVIDIA drivers are part of the “non-free” selection of software packages.

For Debian 9 (Stretch) and Debian 8 (Jessie), please follow the instructions at the Debian Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers. Driver version 375 or higher is required.

Alternatively, you can also download and install the NVIDIA driver directly, see below.

Windows, CentOS 7

For Windows and CentOS 7, download and install the drivers provided by NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx.

How to use a GPU server