Overview

This page provides an explanation and solutions for the following error message from NVIDIA Nsight Visual Studio Edition - Analysis - Legacy CUDA Profiler:
   ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM The user running the target application does not have permission to access NVIDIA GPU Performance Counters on the target device.
For general information about this error including Solutions and Administration, please see NVIDIA Development Tools Solutions - ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM: Permission issue with Performance Counters.

Solutions for this issue

To get the desired behavior (see chart below) when profiling,

1. Have a system administrator enable access to the NVIDIA performance counters using the Administration instructions
2. Run the application being profiled with administrative privileges by right-clicking on
• Nsight Monitor and selecting "Run as administrator"
• Visual Studio and selecting "Run as administrator". Nsight Legacy CUDA Profiler will automatically launch the Nsight Monitor with administrative privileges on demand (unprivileged monitor cannot already be running)
     Note: Even if you are logged in with an Administrator account, you will have to explicitly run Nsight Monitor as administrator

Nsight Visual Studio Edition Legacy CUDA Profiler Behavior

1. Version 2019.1.1 found in the stand-alone DevZone release

   Mode[1]	User[2]	Expected Behavior
   Restricted Profiling	Admin[3]	Profiling produces normal results
   Restricted Profiling	non-Admin	No Profiling is possible. All attempts to profile will result in reports with only the following error message: ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM: The user does not have permission to access NVIDIA GPU Performance Counters on the target device. (See the following link for instructions to enable permissions and get more information: http://www.open-lab.net/ERR_NVGPUCTRPERM).
   Unrestricted Profiling	Admin[3]	Profiling produces normal results
   Unrestricted Profiling	non-Admin	Profiling produces normal results
   [1] Mode set by system administrator using the Administration instructions [2] Privilege level of user running target application being profiled on target device [3] Admin user privilege achieved by right-clicking on Nsight Monitor and selecting "Run as administrator" prior to launching the Legacy CUDA Profiler in NsightVSE Visual Studio and selecting "Run as administrator". Nsight Legacy CUDA Profiler will automatically launch the Nsight Monitor with administrative privileges on demand (unprivileged monitor cannot already be running)         Note: Even if you are logged in with an Administrator account, you will have to explicitly run Nsight Monitor as administrator

2. Version 2019.1.0 found in the CUDA 10.1 release

   Mode[1]	User[2]	Expected Behavior
   Restricted Profiling	Admin[3]	Profiling produces normal results
   Restricted Profiling	non-Admin	No Profiling is possible. All attempts to profile will result in reports with only the following error message: The user does not have permission to access NVIDIA GPU Performance Counters on the target device. (See the following link for instructions to enable permissions and get more information: http://www.open-lab.net/NVSOLN1000).
   Unrestricted Profiling	Admin[3]	Profiling produces normal results
   Unrestricted Profiling	non-Admin	Profiling produces normal results
   [1] Mode set by system administrator using the Administration instructions [2] Privilege level of user running target application being profiled on target device [3] Admin user privilege achieved by right-clicking on Nsight Monitor and selecting "Run as administrator" prior to launching the Legacy CUDA Profiler in NsightVSE Visual Studio and selecting "Run as administrator". Nsight Legacy CUDA Profiler will automatically launch the Nsight Monitor with administrative privileges on demand (unprivileged monitor cannot already be running)         Note: Even if you are logged in with an Administrator account, you will have to explicitly run Nsight Monitor as administrator