Author: Greg Gutmann
Affiliation: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nvidia University Ambassador, Nvidia DLI
Introduction
In this post, I will outline what is needed to install and run several of Nvidia’s profiling tools.
WARNING: This was written on September 15th, 2020. The versions and processes involved may change over time. I am using CUDA 11.0, but CUDA 11.1 has already been released.
Nvidia Visual Profiler: nvvp
After installing CUDA version 11.0, nvvp is located in:
/usr/local/cuda-11.0/bin/
You must install a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.8 to use nvvp as mentioned in [Nvidia’s documentation]. I used [OpenJDK].
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
Then to run the nvvp, use the following command, assuming you are also using the same OpenJDK.
nvvp -vm /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64/bin/java
Nsight Systems: nsight-sys
If using CUDA 11.0 Nsight systems should already be installed in /usr/local/cuda-11.0/bin/ as nsight-sys.
If it is already installed, you can skip the next subsection and go to “Running Nsight Systems.”
Process for Installing or Getting a Newer Version
By following the first link below, line 2, you should find something similar to the following image, then click the “Download Now” button.
// Nsight-systems page https://developer.nvidia.com/nsight-systems // Nsight Systems Documentation https://docs.nvidia.com/nsight-systems/InstallationGuide/index.html
When I went through this process a few days ago, the newest version was 2020.3, whereas now 2020.4 is available, as shown in the image below. So with frequent updates, you will need to remember your paths will be slightly different than the ones in this post.
I chose the linux host .run installer.
After downloading, you will need to change permissions on the .run file; keep in mind the version number. At the time, I ran the following line below in a terminal window.
sudo chmod +x NVIDIA_Nsight_Systems_Linux_2020.3.1.72.run sudo ./NVIDIA_Nsight_Systems_Linux_2020.3.1.72.run
You can use the space bar to scroll faster for license agreement.
Then during the installation process, some of the important things to watch out for are lines such as the following.
install path: [ default is /home/one/nsight-systems-2020.3.1 ] To uninstall the Nsight Systems 2020.3.1, please delete "/home/one/nsight-systems-2020.3.1"
Running Nsight Systems
Nsight Systems is located at the following locations for me since it came with CUDA 11.0 and I installed it after the fact as well:
/usr/local/cuda-11.0/bin/ /home/greg/nsight-systems-2020.3.1/bin
You can run by typing nsight-sys in a terminal from any directory, but you may encounter permission issues.
So instead, I ran the following to run Nsight Systems with elevated permissions:
sudo /home/greg/nsight-systems-2020.3.1/bin/nsight-sys
[Nvidia Profiling Documentation]
Possible Warnings When Profiling
I received several warnings that some metrics were not collected due to the “perf paranoid level.” To work around this, I ran the following command, but be cautious when doing so as you may be making your system more vulnerable:
sudo sh -c 'echo 1 >/proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid'
A post by Nvidia which covers this a bit: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-nsight-systems-containers-cloud/
Nsight Compute: ncu-ui
If using CUDA 11.0 Nsight compute should already be installed in /usr/local/cuda-11.0/bin/ as ncu-ui.
If it is already installed, you can skip the next subsection and go to “Running Nsight Compute.”
Process for Installing or Getting a Newer Version
Nsight Compute can be found at the following link; it has also been updated in the past few days, from version 2020.1.2 to 2020.2.0. Click the green download button, then choose the Linux version.
https://developer.nvidia.com/nsight-compute
Then I ran the following commands after downloading to change permissions on the run file and then run the installer. Watch for a difference in versions.
sudo chmod +x nsight-compute-linux-2020.1.2.4-28820667.run sudo ./nsight-compute-linux-2020.1.2.4-28820667.run
You can use the space bar to scroll faster for license agreement.
Then during the installation process, some of the important things to watch out for are lines such as the following.
Enter install path: [ default is /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute-2020.1 ] // Optional to say yes or no Would you like a symlink created at /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute? Existing folder will be deleted. (YES/NO): YES Location /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute/
Running Nsight Compute
Nsight Compute is located at the following locations for me since it came with CUDA 11.0, I installed it after the fact, and I added a symlink:
/usr/local/cuda-11.0/bin/ /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute-2020.1/ /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute/
You can run by typing ncu-ui in a terminal from any directory, but you may encounter permission issues.
I ran Nsight Compute with the following command:
sudo /usr/local/NVIDIA-Nsight-Compute/ncu-ui
Contact me if you would like to use the contents of this post. Thanks.
Copyright © 2020 by Gregory Gutmann
