Manual process to add the ESXi driver for Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 adapter.

You must enable the support for ACC100 adapter in the VMware ESXi server, before you can configure the ACC100 adapter in VMware Telco Cloud Automation.

Procedure

  1. Download the .VIB file.
    1. Download the ibbd-pf driver from VMware Hardware Compatibility site.
    2. Download the async driver .VIB file.
    3. Copy the downloaded .VIB file to the ESXi host where the devices are present.
  2. Install the .VIB file on the VMware ESXi host.
    1. Switch the ESXi host into the maintenance mode. To switch the ESXi server into maintenance mode, power down the virtual machines running on the host. You can also migrate the virtual machines using vMotion. For details on maintenance mode, see maintenance mode.
    2. Log in to the ESXi host shell, and run the following command:
    # esxcli software vib install -d <full-path-to-vib> --no-sig-check

    For example,

    # esxcli software vib install -d <full-path-to-vib> --no-sig-check
root@plab-ran-esx3:/vmfs/volumes/5fb2f1ab-bc2690c6-0b33-40a6b70dec30/ibbd] esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/5fb2f1ab-bc2690c6-0b33-40a6b70dec30/ibbd/ibbd-pf-1.0.4-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807.x86_64.vib
Installation Result
Message: Operation finished successfully.
Reboot Required: false
VIBs Installed: INTC_bootbank_ibbd-pf_1.0.4-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807
VIBs Removed:
VIBs Skipped:
root@plab-ran-esx3:/vmfs/volumes/5fb2f1ab-bc2690c6-0b33-40a6b70dec30/ibbd]

    After the driver is successfully installed and loaded, check the description of the lspci command:

    [root@plab-ran-esx3:] lspci | grep accel
0000:3b:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation ACC FEC IP
root@plab-ran-esx3:] lspci | grep accel
  3. Enable SR-IOV for the devices.
    1. Log into the ESXi Host UI.
    2. Navigate to Manage > Hardware > PCI devices.
    3. Find the accelerator manually. You can also search the term FEC to find the accelerators.
    4. Select the device to configure.
    5. Click Configure SR-IOV.
    6. Configure the number of virtual functions required.
    7. Click Save.
      Note: Ignore the reboot message.
    8. Verify the SR-IOV devices with lspci.
    [root@plab-ran-esx3:~] lspci | grep accel                      
0000:3b:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation ACC FEC IP 
0000:3c:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_0]                       
0000:3c:00.1 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_1]                   
0000:3c:00.2 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_2]
0000:3c:00.3 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_3]
0000:3c:00.4 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_4]
0000:3c:00.5 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_5]
0000:3c:00.6 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_6]
0000:3c:00.7 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation Device 0d5d [PF_0.59.0_VF_7]
0000:d8:00.0 Processing accelerators: Intel Corporation ACC FEC IP
root@plab-ran-esx3:~]
  4. Configure the virtual function through BBDEV-CLI.
    • You can download the bbdev-cli tool and the user guide from https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19758.
    • Install the bbdev-cli.
      1. Uncompress the -package.zip file.
      2. Copy the .zip file to ESXi. For example, esxcli software component apply -d /tmp/Intel-ibbd-tools_1.0.7-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807_17865363.zip.
    • To get the list of devices, run bbdev-cli -l, for example:
      [root@plab-ran-esx3:~] /opt/intel/bbdev-cli -l
{
    "Devices": [
        "{Name:/devices/ifec/dev1, Type:ACC100, Address:0000:d8:00.0}",
        "{Name:/devices/ifec/dev0, Type:ACC100, Address:0000:3b:00.0}"
    ]
}
[root@plab-ran-esx3:~]

    The acc100_config_vf_5g.cfg file contains default configuration for 5GNR FlexRAN l1app. This configuration is applied, by default.

    • To apply a new configuration file, use the example.
      root@plab-ran-esx3:/opt/intel/ACC100] /opt/intel/bbdev-cli -t /devices/ifec/dev0 -c acc100_config_vf_5g.cfg
Configuring hardware of ACC100 FEC type
Successfully Configured ACC100 FEC device
root@plab-ran-esx3:/opt/intel/ACC100]

      You can get the device name through the bbdev-cli -l command.

      Ignore the message Using Default Value Missing Section ....