Overview

This page provides an explanation and solutions for the following cuptiGetLastError() code when using the NVIDIA CUPTI libary API:
CUPTI_ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGES
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,

Have a system administrator enable access to the NVIDIA performance counters using the Administration instructions
Run the application being profiled with administrative privileges

On Windows targets: Launch the target application by right-clicking on the application and selecting "Run as administrator"
On Linux targets: Launch the target application with 'sudo' or as a user with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability set

For the NVIDIA CUPTI libary API found in the CUDA Toolkit version 10.2

Mode^[1]	User^[2]	Expected Behavior
Restricted Profiling	Admin^[3]	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce normal results
Restricted Profiling	non-Admin	For profiling APIs, cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGES and no profiling is possible. For tracing APIs, cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS and tracing APIs produce normal results.
Unrestricted Profiling	Admin^[3]	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce normal results
Unrestricted Profiling	non-Admin	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce 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 On Windows targets: Launching the target application by right-clicking on the application and selecting "Run as administrator On Linux targets: Launching the target application with 'sudo' or as a user with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability set

For the NVIDIA CUPTI libary API found in the CUDA Toolkit version 10.1

Mode^[1]	User^[2]	Expected Behavior
Restricted Profiling	Admin^[3]	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce normal results
Restricted Profiling	non-Admin	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGES and no profiling or tracing is possible.
Unrestricted Profiling	Admin^[3]	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce normal results
Unrestricted Profiling	non-Admin	cuptiGetLastError() returns CUPTI_SUCCESS (assuming no other error) and profiling/tracing APIs produce 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 On Windows targets: Launching the target application by right-clicking on the application and selecting "Run as administrator On Linux targets: Launching the target application with 'sudo' or as a user with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability set