NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver.

Question

I'm trying to install the NVidia drivers on an Azure virtual machine, but when I run the nvidia-smi command, I get the error:

NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

The virtual machine is a Standard NC4as T4 v3, with an Ubuntu 22.04 Server image.

The Video card is an NVidia Tesla T4 (TU104GL).

I'm tried to follow the NVidia installation Guide: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html#verify-you-have-a-cuda-capable-gpu , using the ubuntu-drivers-common package and also tried to install the NVidia GPU Driver Extension, but all fails.

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Environment Data:

lspci | grep -i nvidia

0001:00:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU104GL [Tesla T4] (rev a1)

uname -m && cat /etc/*release

x86_64

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu

DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04

DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy

DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"

PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"

NAME="Ubuntu"

VERSION_ID="22.04"

VERSION="22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"

VERSION_CODENAME=jammy

ID=ubuntu

ID_LIKE=debian

HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"

SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"

BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"

UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

gcc --version

gcc (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~22.04) 11.4.0

Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO

warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Answer 1

@Leandro Escaldelai

The driver installed by default through NVIDIA GPU Driver Extension does not include NVIDIA GRID drivers. You will need to install these separately for NC4as T4 v3. You can download and install the driver after installing the GPU Extension. Details on how to install GRID Drivers for Linux are here.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you still need assistance or have further questions.

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Answer 2

I follow this Article and works fine:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/linux/n-series-driver-setup?source=recommendations