How to Identify Faulty GPU Slot in Server with Ubuntu Command

To identify a faulty GPU slot in a server running Ubuntu, you can use a combination of system commands and utilities. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you through the process:

1. Check GPU Information with lspci

The lspci command lists all PCI devices, including GPUs. To identify the GPU devices, you can use:

lspci | grep -i vga

This will list all VGA-compatible devices (including GPUs). Note the device IDs and the names of the GPUs listed.

2. Check GPU Status with nvidia-smi (for NVIDIA GPUs)

If you have NVIDIA GPUs, the nvidia-smi command provides detailed information about NVIDIA GPUs and their statuses:

nvidia-smi

This will show you information like GPU utilization, memory usage, and any potential errors.

3. Examine System Logs

System logs can provide information about hardware errors. You can check system logs for GPU-related messages:

dmesg | grep -i gpu
dmesg | grep -i error

These commands will search for GPU-related or error-related messages in the kernel ring buffer.

4. Use lshw to List Hardware Information

The lshw command provides detailed information about the hardware in your system. To get details about the GPU, use:

sudo lshw -C display

This will give you information about the display adapters (GPUs) in your system, including any errors or warnings.

5. Check GPU Utilization and Performance

To monitor GPU performance, especially if you suspect the GPU is faulty due to performance issues, you can use tools like watch with nvidia-smi:

watch -n 1 nvidia-smi

This command will refresh the nvidia-smi output every second, allowing you to monitor real-time GPU performance and errors.

6. Check for Hardware Issues

You can also use the smartctl utility to check the health of the GPU if it supports SMART monitoring (usually for SSDs and HDDs, but some GPU tools might support similar checks).

7. Review GPU-Specific Tools

For AMD GPUs, use tools like radeontop:

sudo apt install radeontop
radeontop

For Intel GPUs, you might use intel_gpu_top:

sudo apt install intel-gpu-tools
sudo intel_gpu_top

8. Test GPU Functionality

Sometimes, using stress tests or benchmark tools can help identify faulty GPUs. Tools like CUDA (for NVIDIA) or OpenCL benchmarks can be useful.

Summary

To diagnose a faulty GPU in a server running Ubuntu:

1. Use lspci to list PCI devices and check for GPU.
2. Use nvidia-smi for NVIDIA GPUs or lshw -C display for general GPU information.
3. Check system logs with dmesg.
4. Monitor GPU performance with watch and nvidia-smi.
5. Use GPU-specific tools and stress tests if needed.

By combining these commands and tools, you should be able to identify and diagnose issues with your GPU.

Conclusion

It is very easy to find a faulty GPU slot in the best GPU dedicated server running Ubuntu; you can easily utilize a mixture of various system utilities as well as commands. So, there is an above-mentioned complete guide to successfully overcoming this problem.