Manually Install NSX Kernel Modules on ESXi Hypervisors

To prepare hosts to participate in NSX, you must install NSX kernel modules on ESXi hosts. This allows you to build the NSX control-plane and management-plane fabric. NSX kernel modules packaged in VIB files run within the hypervisor kernel and provide services such as distributed routing, distributed firewall, and bridging capabilities.

You can download the NSX VIBs manually and make them part of the host image. The download paths can change for each release of NSX. Always check the NSX downloads page to get the appropriate VIBs.

Procedure

Log in to the host as root or as a user with administrative privileges
Navigate to the /tmp directory.
```
[root@host:~]: cd /tmp
```
Download and copy the nsx-lcp file into the /tmp directory.

Run the install command.

[root@host:/tmp]: esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/nsx-lcp-<release>.zip
Installation Result
   Message: The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
   Reboot Required: true
   VIBs Installed: VMware_bootbank_nsx-adf_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-aggservice_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-cli-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-common-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-context-mux_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-esx-datapath_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-exporter_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-host_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-metrics-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-mpa_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-nestdb-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-nestdb_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-netcpa_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-netopa_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-opsagent_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-platform-client_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-profiling-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-proxy_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-gevent_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-greenlet_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-logging_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-python-protobuf_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-rpc-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-sfhc_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-shared-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-upm-libs_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsx-vdpi_<release>, VMware_bootbank_nsxcli_<release>, VMware_bootbank_vsipfwlib_<release>
   VIBs Removed: 
   VIBs Skipped:

Depending on what was already installed on the host, some VIBs might be installed, some might be removed, and some might be skipped. A reboot is not required unless the command output says Reboot Required: true.

Results

As a result of adding an ESXi host to the NSX fabric, the following VIBs get installed on the host.

nsx-adf: (Automated Diagnostics Framework) Collects and analyzes performance data to produce both local (at host) and central (across datacenter) diagnoses of performance issues.
nsx-aggservice: Provides host-side libraries for NSX aggregation service. NSX aggregation service is a service that runs in the management-plane nodes and fetches runtime state from NSX components.
nsx-cfgagent: Provides communication between the central control plane and hypervisors. Receives logical networking state from the central control plane and programs this state in the data plane.
nsx-cli-libs: Provides the NSX CLI on hypervisor hosts.
nsx-common-libs: Provide some utilities classes such as AES, SHA-1, UUID, bitmap, and others.
nsx-context-mux: Provides NSX Guest Introspection relay functionality. Allows VMware Tools guest agents to relay guest context to inhouse and registered third-party partner appliances.
nsx-esx-datapath: Provides NSX data plane packet processing functionality.
nsx-exporter: Provides host agents that report runtime state to the aggregation service running in the management plane.
nsx-host: Provides metadata for the VIB bundle that is installed on the host.
nsx-metrics-libs: Provides metric utility classes for collecting daemon metrics.
nsx-mpa: Provides communication between NSX Manager and hypervisor hosts.
nsx-nestdb: NestDB is a database that stores NSX configurations related to the host (desired/runtime state, etc).
nsx-opsagent: Communicates operations agent executions (transport node realization, Link Layer Discovery Protocol - LLDP,traceflow, packet capture, etc.) with the management plane.
nsx-netcpa: Provides communication required by the different components.

nsx-platform-client: Provides a common CLI execution agent, for centralized CLI and audit log collecting.
nsx-profiling-libs: Provides the functionality of profiling based on gpeftool which used for daemon process profiling.
nsx-proxy: Provides the only northbound contact point agent, which talks to the central control plane and management plane.
nsx-python-gevent: Contains Python Gevent.
nsx-python-greenlet: Contains Python Greenlet library (third party libraries).
nsx-python-logging: Contains the Python logs.
nsx-python-protobuf: Provides Python bindings for protocol buffers.
nsx-rpc-libs: This library provides nsx-rpc functionality.
nsx-sfhc: Service fabric host component (SFHC). Provides a host agent for managing the lifecycle of the hypervisor as a fabric host in the management plane's inventory. This provides a channel for operations such as NSX upgrade and uninstall and monitoring of NSX modules on hypervisors.
nsx-shared-libs: Contains the shared NSX libraries.
nsx-upm-libs: Provides unified profile management functionality for flattening client-side configuration and avoiding duplicate data transmission.
nsx-vdpi: Provides Deep Packet Inspection capabilities for NSX Distributed Firewall.
vsipfwlib: Provides distributed firewall functionality.
nsxcli: Provides the NSX CLI on hypervisor hosts.

To verify, you can run the esxcli software vib list | grep -E 'nsx|vsip' or esxcli software vib list | grep <yyyy-mm-dd> command on the ESXi host, where the date is the day that you performed the installation.

What to do next

Add the host to the NSX management plane. See Form an NSX Manager Cluster Using the CLI.