VMware -Install VIB for the NVIDIA GRID K1 Graphics Card on the ESXi Host

NVIDIA GRID graphics card enables multiple virtual machines to have a direct and simultaneous access to a single physical Graphical Processing Unit.

Installing the NVIDIA VIB

• Download the NVIDIA GPU VIB from the NVIDIA web site depending upon the version of the VMware vSphere ESXi
• Extract the downloaded file and upload to the datastore accessible to the ESXi host.
• Put the ESXi host into Maintenance mode.
• Open a ssh session to the ESXi host and run the below command.

Esxcli software vib install –v /(full path to the VIB)/ (name of the downloaded VIB)

NOTE:

In the above picture, I did install the NVIDIA VIB version 367.64. The ESXi host had old NVIDIA VIB version 346.68. So when I installed the new version it removed the old VIB first.

Although the display says “Reboot Required: false”, a reboot is necessary for the VIB to load and xorg to start.

• Reboot the ESXi host.
• After the reboot, exit the ESXi host from Maintenance mode via vSphere Web Client.

Starting the xorg Service

Before powering on any virtual machine, make sure the xorg service is started.

• To check if the xorg service is running, open the ssh session to the ESXi host and run the below command

/etc/init.d/xorg start

Check the NVIDIA module

• Check if the NVIDIA module has been loaded by running the below command

esxcli software vib list | grep  -i nvidia

Uninstall NVIDIA VIB from ESXi host

• Put the ESXi host into Maintenance mode
• Open ssh session to the host
• Stop the xorg service

/etc/init.d/xorg stop

• Remove the nvidia drivers

Vmload_mod –u nvidia

• Find the name of the installed VIB

esxcli software vib list | grep  -i nvidia

• Remove the VIB

Esxcli software vib remove –n NVIDIA-vGPU-kepler-VMware_ESXi_6.0_Host_Driver