To prepair for the vSphere Bitfusion deployment, you must perform several tasks. The outcomes of these tasks are prerequisites for the deployment process.

How to obtain the vCenter Server TLS certificate thumbprint

The vCenter Server TLS certificate thumbprint is the secure hash algorithm (SHA1) signature of the vCenter Server TLS certificate. You must copy the thumbprint and use it later in the deployment properties of the vSphere Bitfusion OVF template.

Perform the following procedure to locate your vCenter Server TLS certificate thumbprint by using the user interface of your Internet browser. Alternatively, you can obtain the thumbprint by using the command-line interface. See Obtain vSphere Certificate Thumbprints.

Procedure

  1. Open a Web browser and enter the URL for your vSphere Client: https://vcenter_server_ip_address_or_fqdn/ui
  2. Enter the credentials of a user who has permissions on vCenter Server, and click Login.
  3. Locate the TLS certificate thumbprint.
    • Locate the TLS certificate thumbprint in Google Chrome.
      1. Click the Secure icon on the left side of the web address bar, and select Certificate.
      2. In the Certificate dialog box, click the Details tab.
      3. On the Details tab, scroll down the list, and in the Field column, select Thumbprint.
      4. The vCenter Server TLS Certificate Thumbprint is displayed in the text box below the list box.
    • Locate the TLS certificate thumbprint in Mozilla Firefox.
      1. Click the Secure icon on the left side of the web address bar, select the arrow to the right of the connection status, and click More Information.
      2. In the Page Info dialog box, on the Security tab, select View Certificate.
      3. On the Certificates browser tab, the SHA-1 fingerprint is displayed in the Fingerprints section.
    • Locate the TLS certificate thumbprint in Microsoft Edge.
      1. Press F12 to access the developer options.
      2. On the Security > Overview tab, click View Certificate.
      3. In the Certificate dialog box, click the Details tab.
      4. On the Details tab, scroll down the list, and in the Field column, select Thumbprint.
      5. The vCenter Server TLS Certificate Thumbprint is displayed in the text box below the list box.

How to enable a GPU for passthrough

To use a GPU in a vSphere Bitfusion server, you must enable the device in passthrough mode. The operation allows the GPU to be accessed directly by the server, bypassing the ESXi hypervisor, which provides a level of performance that is similar to the performance of the GPU on a native system.

When using passthrough mode, each GPU device is dedicated to the virtual machine (VM) of the vSphere Bitfusion server. You can use multiple physical GPUs in passthrough mode. The following procedure must be performed for all GPU devices, that you plan to use in a vSphere Bitfusion server.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that your GPU device is supported by your server vendor.
  • Verify that your GPU can be used in passthrough mode.
  • Verify whether your GPU device maps memory regions with a total size of 16 GB or more.
    Note: Typically, high-end GPU cards need high amounts of memory mapping. These memory mappings are specified in the PCI Base Address Registers (BARs) for the device. You can find relevant information in the vendor documentation of your GPU.

Procedure

  1. If your GPU requires 16 GB or more of memory mapping, in the BIOS settings of the ESXi host, enable the GPU for passthrough.

    Typically, the name of the setting is Above 4G decoding, Memory mapped I/O above 4GB, or PCI 64-bit resource handing above 4G.

  2. Enable the GPU for passthrough on the ESXi host.
    1. In the vSphere Client, right-click on the ESXi host and select Settings.
    2. On the Configure tab, select Hardware > PCI Devices, and click Configure Passthrough.
    3. In the Edit PCI Device Availability dialog box, in the ID column, select the check box for the GPU device.
    4. Click OK.

      The GPU is displayed on the Passthrough-enabled devices tab.

    5. Reboot the ESXi host.

During the deployment process of the vSphere Bitfusion appliance, you can pass through the GPU to the VM of the vSphere Bitfusion server.