4.4 nvidia-smi

nvidia-smi, the NVIDIA System Management Interface, is used to manage the environment in which Tesla-class NVIDIA GPU boards operate. It can report GPU status and control aspects of GPU execution, such as whether ECC is enabled and how many CUDA contexts can be created on a given GPU.

When nvidia-smi is invoked with the --help (-h) option, it generates a usage message that, besides giving a brief description of its purpose and command-line options, also gives a list of supported products. Tesla- and Quadro-branded GPUs are fully supported, while GeForce-branded GPUs get limited support.

Many of the GPU boards supported by nvidia-smi include multiple GPUs; nvidia-smi refers to these boards as units. Some operations, such as toggling the status of an LED (light emitting diode), are available only on a per-unit basis.

nvidia-smi has several modes of operation. If no other command-line parameters are given, it lists a summary of available GPUs that can be refined by the command-line options in Table 4.11. Otherwise, the other command-line options that are available include the following.

• List: The --list-gpus (-L) option displays a list of available GPUs and their UUIDs. Additional options to refine the listing are summarized in Table 4.11.

• Query: The --query (-q) option displays GPU or unit information. Additional options to refine the query are summarized in Table 4.12.

• Document Type Definition (DTD): The ---td option produces the Document Type Definition for the XML-formatted output of nvidia-smi. The --filename (-f) option optionally specifies an output file; the --unit (-u) option causes the DTD for GPU boards (as opposed to GPUs) to be written.

• Device modification: The options specified in Table 4.13 may be used to set the persistent state of the GPU, such as whether ECC (error correction) is enabled.

• Unit modification: The --toggle-led option (-t) may be set to 0/GREEN or 1/AMBER. The --id (-i) option can be used to target a specific unit.

Table 4.11 nvidia-smi List Options

Table 4.12 nvidia-smi Query Options

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Table 4.12 nvidia-smi Query Options (Continued)

Table 4.13 nvidia-smi Device Modification Options

Table 4.13 nvidia-smi Device Modification Options (Continued)