Install the VIB for the NVIDIA Graphics Card on the ESXi Host

You must download and install the VIB for your NVIDIA GRID graphics card on the ESXi 6.0 U1 or later host.

About this task

For an NVIDIA GRID vGPU configuration, NVIDIA provides a vGPU software package that includes a vGPU Manager, which you install on the ESXi host in this procedure, and a Linux Display Driver, which you will install on the Linux virtual machine in a later procedure.

For an vSGA configuration, NVIDIA provides a VMware vSphere ESXi Driver for vSGA. For vSGA, an NVIDIA display driver is not installed on the Linux virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that vSphere 6.0 U1 or a later release is installed in your environment.
For an NVIDIA GRID vGPU configuration, verify that the NVIDIA Maxwell M60 GPUs are installed on the ESXi host.
For a vSGA configuration, verify that the NVIDIA GRID K1 or K2 GPUs are installed on the ESXi host.

Procedure

Download the VIB for your NVIDIA GRID graphics card from the NVIDIA Driver Downloads site.

Select the appropriate VIB version from the drop-down menus.

Option	Description
Product Type	GRID
Product Series	For vGPU, select NVIDIA GRID vGPU. For vSGA, select GRID Series.
Product	Select the version (such as GRID K2) that is installed on the ESXi host.
Operating System	Select the VMware vSphere ESXi version.

For an NVIDIA GRID vGPU configuration, take these steps:
1. Uncompress the vGPU software package .zip file.
2. Upload the vGPU Manager folder to the ESXi 6.0 U1 host.
Note:
You will install the Linux Display Driver on the Linux virtual machine in a later procedure.
For a vSGA configuration, upload the VMware vSphere ESXi Driver for vSGA to the ESXi 6.0 U1 host.
Power off or suspend all virtual machines on the ESXi host.
Connect to the ESXi host using SSH.
Stop the xorg service.
```
# /etc/init.d/xorg stop
```

Install the NVIDIA VIB.

For example:

# esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable true
# esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported
# esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -v /path-to-vib/NVIDIA-VIB-name.vib
# esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable false

Reboot or update the ESXi host.

3D Type	Description
NVIDIA GRID vGPU	For an installed ESXi host, reboot the host. For a stateless ESXI host, take the following steps to update the host. (These steps also work on an installed host.) Update vmkdevmgr: # kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/vmware/vmkdevmgr.pid) Wait for the update to complete: # localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int deviceInternal bind This is a new requirement with the NVIDIA 352.* host driver: # /etc/init.d/nvidia-vgpu start Restart xorg, which is used for GPU assignment: # /etc/init.d/xorg start
vSGA	Restart xorg, which is used for GPU assignment: # /etc/init.d/xorg start Reboot the ESXi host.

3D Type

Description

NVIDIA GRID vGPU

For an installed ESXi host, reboot the host.

For a stateless ESXI host, take the following steps to update the host. (These steps also work on an installed host.)

Update vmkdevmgr:
# kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/vmware/vmkdevmgr.pid) 

Wait for the update to complete:
# localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int deviceInternal bind  

This is a new requirement with the NVIDIA 352.* host driver:
# /etc/init.d/nvidia-vgpu start  

Restart xorg, which is used for GPU assignment:
# /etc/init.d/xorg start

vSGA

Restart xorg, which is used for GPU assignment:
```
# /etc/init.d/xorg start 
```
Reboot the ESXi host.

Verify that the xorg service is running after the host is restarted.