GPUDirect Storage
lastmod 2025-12-18created 2025-12-181 edits
is the core kernel driver (nvidia-fs.ko) of NVIDIA GPUDirect Storage (GDS) technology, a technology that transfers data directly from storage (local NVMe, network storage, etc.) to GPU memory to reduce CPU overhead and maximize data movement speed. It is essential for relieving bottlenecks and raising GPU utilization in AI, HPC (high-performance computing), and data science workloads, and it is installed and runs on the system through the nvidia-fs package (including DKMS).
Key features and functions
- GPUDirect Storage (GDS) support: performs DMA (Direct Memory Access) directly from the storage controller to GPU memory without going through the CPU.
- Kernel module (nvidia-fs.ko): the core driver, loaded at system boot, that manages communication between the file system and the GPU.
- Performance gains: greatly improves input/output (I/O) performance when processing large datasets, so the GPU can use data faster.
- Support for various storage: used with various file systems and network storage solutions such as NVMe, Lustre, and NFS.
- nvidia-fs-dkms package: a package that automatically rebuilds the driver on kernel updates in Linux distributions such as Ubuntu.
nvidia-fs.ko
Kernel module. The core driver, loaded at system boot, that manages communication between the file system and the GPU.