Installing NVIDIA VGPU driver for ESXi via vCenter Lifecycle manager

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NVIDIA ESXi Managed Services

NVIDIA Vcentre 2560x1440 2

As NVIDIA Solution Advisor, Kinamo maintains a VMware vSphere cluster for a VMware Horizon VDI deployment of one of our customers. The ESXi hardware hosts are equipped with NVIDIA Tesla GPUs to accelerate graphics processing for the clients.
Use of an NVIDIA Virtual GPU (vGPU) enables multiple virtual machines (VMs) to have simultaneous, direct access to a single physical GPU, using the same NVIDIA graphics drivers implemented on non-virtualized operating systems.
Installing NVIDIA vGPU ensures that all of our customers' virtual desktops have unmatched graphics performance, computing performance and application compatibility, along with the cost-effectiveness and scalability provided by sharing a GPU across multiple workloads.

This article details how to install the NVIDIA vGPU for ESXI through vCenter Lifecycle Manager.

To fully utilize GPU acceleration within VDI guests, a driver must be installed in the ESXi host operating system.

According to official guidelines, the NVIDIA Virtual GPU Manager or vGPU driver must be installed using the esxcli tool command line.
However, installing additional drivers or VIBs in vSphere can also be done using the Web GUI.

We will not cover the outdated update manager of earlier releases, this article covers installing the NVIDIA vGPU driver on vSphere 7.0 using the new Lifecycle Manager.

Installing updates via Lifecycle Manager and thus the Web GUI is ideal for people who are not comfortable with the CLI. An added benefit is that it also allows you to retain vSphere's single image functionality.
Singe images define the entire software stack of ESXi hosts in a cluster. Needless to say, the machines must adhere to this stack so that an updated image can be deployed later with Lifecycle Manager. If one does not do this, one can expose the environment to future problems and this both as a result of human error and automation errors, because the implemented software is not visible in the update screen and thus can be easily forgotten.
In addition, by using the VMware Lifecycle Manager, one avoids the warnings that one performs unsupported actions and one does not have to open SSH even for a short period of time, which can be a security policy violation.

In short, we prefer that all installed components are available in Lifecycle Manager's software repository, and not manually installed on the ESXi machine, to keep the whole thing easily maintainable and controllable!

Guide for adding software to Lifecycle Manager

The first step is to add the software to the Lifecycle Manager.
We assume here that the correct package was downloaded from the NVIDIA license portal (in our case, "NVIDIA-GRID-vSphere-7.0-450.142-450.142.00-453.10.zip).

Upon unzipping, one will notice that there is a second, much smaller ZIP file inside. In our release, it is called "NVD-VGPU_450.142-1OEM.700.0.0.15525992_18219284.zip". This file contains all the necessary information for vSphere and the VIB (Vsphere Installation Bundle) file.

Open the Lifecycle Manager from the vSphere Web Client menu. Open the "Actions" menu next to the "Lifecycle Manager" title and select "Import Updates."

1 import update 1024x386

Browse on your computer to the second ZIP file - in our example, "NVD-VGPU_450.142-1OEM.700.0.0.15525992_18219284.zip" - and click "Import."

The vGPU driver should now be imported into the Lifecycle Manager Image Depot. One can check this by clicking on "components" and applying the filter "nvi" to the "Name" column. The NVIDIA vGPU driver should appear, in our example this is version 450.142.

Then edit the update image.
From the menu, go to "Hosts and Clusters", select the desired cluster and open the "Updates" tab. Here you will see the current image. From there, click on "EDIT" in the upper right corner to edit this image.
Select the desired ESXi version for the image, select the Vendor Add-ons for the server (if desired), skip the firmware field (unless needed for installation) and at the components section, click on the "View Details" link after the text "No additional components".
After this, the screen should look like this:

2 edit image 1024x389

Proceed by clicking the "ADD COMPONENTS" link and select the imported component "NVIDIA vGPU driver for VMWare ESX" from the list. And click on "SELECT" in the bottom right corner.

3 add component 1024x549

The image editing screen should now look something like this:

4 save image 1024x628

Check the selections made and press the "SAVE" button.

The image is now ready to be deployed to the cluster, including the NVIDIA vGPU driver.

Kinamo, VMware and Nvidia

Kinamo has years of experience in VMware server virtualization. In addition, we have also built expertise with the Horizon virtual desktop solution. Within a Horizon architecture, we strongly believe in adding the NVIDIA vGPU for virtual desktops. The fact is that a VDI cluster without GPUs has significant additional CPU load because graphics tasks are not optimally handled by a host CPU.
Adding GPUs will significantly reduce the load on the host server. Additionally, both the experience of office workers and those using more resource demanding applications such as (CAD and design software) will be accelerated.
Instead of having to manage individual machines for high workloads, this solution allows an organization to have a powerful solution for all virtual desktops.

Kinamo has more than 20 years of experience in cloud hosting, DevOps, development and managed hosting services. With more than 15 years of experience in VMware virtualization, we can say with confidence that we know the ins and outs of it. We are not a typical VMware solution provider. As with all Kinamo services, we like the "out of the box" kind of projects that require a step-out-of-our-comfort-zone approach.

Do you have a question about this article? Or would you also like to work with us? Get in touch and stop by for a coffee.


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