Dedicated GPU VMware Arcgis for Server

[EnricoWenzlawe1]

Hello,

We have some Performanceproblems on our GIS-Server. We are using the Arcgis for Server 10.6.1 in an VMware-Environment.  We are thinking about the use of a dedicated GPU in the VMware ESX Host.

Has anyone experience with this kind of setting?

[George_Thompson]

Can you provide more details about the issues being experienced?

Are the VM resources maxed out?

What are the host resources looking like when these issues occur?

I do not think that GPU is used on all of the server service types. What type of services are being served?

[EnricoWenzlawe1]

In our eyes the VM resources are not maxed out.

Only the gis server is under pressure and run at 100% cpu, then a spezial service with a Server Object Extension is working.
The service generate a print pdf. The DB-Server is only by 30% and has nothing to work.

On the GIS-Server are only mapservices and some featureservices, total 30 services. The Configuration of active instance and
max instance are only by 2/3 or 1/2. (Ram 32GB Xeon E5-2667 v4 3.2Ghz)

Our IT is thinking, that the ArcGIS Server benefits from a dedicated GPU in the VMware ESX Host.

[JoshuaBixby]

Adding GPUs to a VM host won't improve an application's performance if the application isn't developed to utilize GPUs.  Whether you are talking about enterprise geodatabase (EGDB) functionality or web-services functionality, adding GPUs to a VM hosting ArcGIS Enterprise will have little to no benefit, assuming the machine is dedicated to ArcGIS Enterprise.  (The one exception to my above statement is ArcGIS Notebook Server, which can benefit from GPUs, but that wasn't mentioned in the OP).

Why exactly is your IT department thinking GPUs will benefit ArcGIS Enterprise?  What documentation are they reading?

[EnricoWenzlawe1]

Hello Joshua,

thank you for the assessment. Our IT has only the idea that ArcGIS Enterprise
profit by use of a GPU. But after your answer, i think this is not the right way
to solve our performance problem.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Extra GPU resources might have been the answer if you were running ArcGIS Pro on a VM, which you aren't. ArcGIS Pro needs both heavy CPU and GPU resources, but ArcGIS Enterprise is a different product.