Video Card not showing any output - Dell R720 Server

Mo,

The server doesn't support using a 3rd party video card, as it conflicts with the embedded.video.

You can try disabling the embedded video via the Integrated Devices in the BIOS, but there is no guarantee it will work.

Hi Chris, please could you confirm why you believe the R720 does not support GPU cards? Your reply indicates that the R720 has embedded graphics which would conflict with a PCI GPU card, such as a ATI FirePro or nVidia Tesla, but Dell actually offer the R720 factory ordered with GPU cards?

Are you saying that there is some factory process whereby the embedded graphics are disabled/removed when the system is ordered with the GPU emablement option? If not, I can;t see any reason why a PCI GPU card would not work in the R720, unless there is some other issue that I am not aware of (such as modified BIOS etc installed onto server when the GPU option is factory selected)?

Are you able to clarify?

Thanks,

RIchard.

Here is my interpretation:

The R720 supports "internal graphics processing units" ... "for extreme computing power ... which can provide accelerated performance for a variety of applications, including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and HPC implementations"

The fact that Dell calls these "internal" GPU's leads me to believe that they are not necessarily intended to connect externally to a monitor(s), but solely for providing graphics processing for the server - its applications and its clients ... and you still continue to use the server's console through its embedded video subsystem.

Supported GPU's:
NVIDIA M2090 (double wide)
NVIDIA M2075 (double wide)
NVIDIA M2070Q (double wide)
NVIDIA M2070 (double wide)
AMD V7800P FirePro™ (single wide)

In addition, as this is a pretty advanced feature they are talking about, it is possible that Dell wrote specific support for these particular cards into the BIOS, and other cards not matching their requirements will not work, because the BIOS has not been told how to allocate resources for/to them.

http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/dell-poweredge-r720-r720xd-technical-guide.pdf

If using the iDRAC, since it is integrated into the onboard video, it is possible it will not allow the onboard video to be disabled while the iDRAC is in use.  

Dell does have a system configuration tool, so that is a possibility.

Well, the main reason for my post was that I currently have a R720xd server with a Tesla M2070Q installed. This GPU is on the list of supported GPUs for the R720 and in theory there is no reason why it shouldn't also work in the R720xd, since the internals of the two servers are near identical.

However, when I have the Tesla card driver installed in Windows Server 2012, I get blue screen server crashes at random intervals after server startup, ranging from 10 minutes to 40 minutes.

At the moment, I can't explain why the blue screen crashes are happening, but it does not seem to happen with Windows Server 2008 R2. That's why I was interested why Chris believed that GPUs were not supported.

Also, I notice you have specified that the V7800P GPU is supported by Dell, and this GPU does have an external display connector or it. So I think the theory of external displays is probably not quite accurate.

On the R720xd I can't see an obvious way to disable the onboard graphics in the BIOS, but in any case I would have thought this was required for iDRAC.

@mo1one; can you confirm that the iDRAC interface and virtual console still work even though you have disabled the onboard graphics?

I did not do anything special. Option was available in the BIOS and I just disabled the onboard video.

This may not be the possible reason but only "after" adding the new GPU, I had restarted the server to the BIOS option and disabled the onboard GPU. Could it be that system checks for atleast one GPU be in PCIE slot when that option in BIOS becomes enabled. This is because the system would need to have atleast one "active video output".

I do agree with you. However, I spoke to two senior Dell technical experts prior to deciding to try this approach, one in tech support and one in Dell OEM tech, and both told me it was heat-related. This is also the primary reason why they don't officially support CPUs over 115W TDP when a GPU is installed. Again, potential heat issues.

It was in fact Dell who sold me the Tesla M2070Q GPU card along with the server, on the basis that there was no reason why it wouldn't work, but theu don't officially support it. So, if there is really actual BIOS code in place to prevent it then that's not good and they have effectively lied to me by telling me '...there is no reason why it would not work..'

To be honest, the whole thing works and is fine, the only issue I have so far is that with Win Server 2012 I get these random crashes and blue screens varying from 10 to 40 minutes after server power-up. Other than that the cards are recognised fine and don;t appear to cause any issues in the BIOS layer or at anytime other than when the nVidia driver is installed in Windows. In fact, without the Windows nVidia driver installed the problem does not occur and the system runs quite happily, but obviously the Tesla card is pretty much useless in that configuration because it shows with an yellow exclam in device manager so is unusable for RemoteFX.

I have a support case open with nVidia to see if they can tell me why the blue screen crashes are happening, but they don't appear to be overly helpful currently....

In the technical guide for the 720/720xd, it specifically says that GPU's are not supported on the xd.

@mo1one

can you confirm how you disabled the onboard graphics in the R720? When I go into BIOS on my R720xd, the option to disable onboard graphics is greyed out? Is the option available on the R720 always, or did you do something specific to allow it to be disabled?

Yes, I am aware of that. However, the two servers are near-identical. The reason the technical guide states GPUs are not supported is related to heat issues and heat buildup inside the chassis, so it's not supported due to cooling. It's for a similar reason that the RD1000 tape drive is not supported on the R720 when a GPU is installed, but is otherwise supported. So, that's not to say it won;t work, just that it's not officially supported.

As mo1one has confirmed, the V4900 GPU works fine in the R720 even though Dell say that 'only passive-cooled GPUs are supported'.

So, whilst I fully appreciate that Dell do not officially support GPUs in the R720xd, I cannot see any reason why it would not actually work. Although, (and I have asked my Dell rep this same question) what I am not clear on is whether it is a requirement that onboard graphics are disabled in the R720 to support a GPU. This is not clear, and I do not have a R720 to test with at the moment.

The interesting thing is that the onboard graphics disablement option does not seem to be available on the R720xd (option greyed out) but I have no idea why, as there is no reason not to allow it to be disabled as far as I can see?

I don't see anywhere in the TG that says GPU's are not supported in the xd for that reason.  Sure, there may not be a good reason for it not to work, but on the other hand, there may be a good reason.  I am ALL for doing the "unsupported", but sometimes there is a good reason for it, and sometimes it just doesn't work.

I'm not trying to convince you to give up ... just offering what has not been mentioned so far.  Good luck.

True. My GPU is installed in the server. However, I wonder if the problem is that because I need to use the onboard graphics to 'see' the BIOS screens maybe it cannot be disabled because it is in use at the point in time I am trying to disable it. With my Tesla card, there is no VGA/DVI connection to connect a monitor to, so I am not sure if there is any way not to use the onboard graphics but still get to the BIOS screens.

I am actually using virtual console of iDRAC to access the screens, but I guess it could be the same problem there. Or it could be that Dell have deliberately prevented this option from being disabled on the R720xd, but if that was the case then I'm not sure why it would even show in BIOS and would have expected it to be hidden.

I have asked Dell if there is any way to acheive turning off the enbedded graphics, because it's not obvious to me how it can be done. Even on the R720 I am not sure how Dell would have done it themselves without using the embedded graphics to 'view' the BIOS screens, unless they somehow auto-load a preconfigured BIOS with this setting disabled by default.

Hi Chris,

thanks for the reply. Please can you just confirm something for me....I have installed a M2070Q in a R720xd server, but the option to disable onboard graphics is still disabled in my BIOS, I am accessing BIOS via iDRAC virtual console.

Are you able to confirm if the R720xd should also allow this to be disabled in the same way as the R720 (same BIOS between the two servers) and if so, how should I get to the point where the option is available to disable, as it's still greyed out on my machine?

Interestingly, I am having an issue with the M2070Q card in both WDDM mode and also TCC (GPGPU) mode; I am making an assumption this is some kind of conflict, but I can't seem to see what the issue is. The fact that is also happens in GPGPU mode is wierd as that should cause no conflicts with the onboard graphics?

Thanks,

Richard.