VMware Driver Installation | NVIDIA ConnectX-6 InfiniBand/Ethernet Adapter Cards for OCP Spec 3.0 User Manual

This section describes VMware Driver Installation.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Requirement	Description
Platforms	A server platform with an adapter card based on ConnectX®-6 (IB, EN) (firmware: fw-ConnectX6)
Operating System	ESXi 6.5
Installer Privileges	The installation requires administrator privileges on the target machine.

Installing NATIVE ESXi Driver for VMware vSphere

Please uninstall all previous driver packages prior to installing the new version.

To install the driver:

Log into the ESXi server with root permissions.

Install the driver.

#> esxcli software vib install –d <path>/<bundle_file>

Example:

#> esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/MLNX-NATIVE-ESX-ConnectX-4-5_4.16.8.8-10EM-650.0.0.4240417.zipesxcli

Reboot the machine.

Verify the driver was installed successfully.

esxcli software vib list | grep nmlx
nmlx5-core      4.16.8.8-1OEM.650.0.0.4240417    MEL    PartnerSupported 2017-01-31
nmlx5-rdma      4.16.8.8-1OEM.650.0.0.4240417    MEL    PartnerSupported 2017-01-31

After the installation process, all kernel modules are loaded automatically upon boot.

Removing Earlier NVIDIA Drivers

Please unload the previously installed drivers before removing them.

To remove all the drivers:

Log into the ESXi server with root permissions.
List all the existing NATIVE ESXi driver modules. (See Step 4 in Installing NATIVE ESXi Driver for VMware vSphere.)
Remove each module:
```
#> esxcli software vib remove -n nmlx5-rdma
#> esxcli software vib remove -n nmlx5-core
```
To remove the modules, you must run the command in the same order as shown in the example above.
Reboot the server.

Firmware Programming

Download the VMware bootable binary images v4.6.0 from the Firmware Tools (MFT) site.ESXi 6.5 File: mft-4.6.0.48-10EM-650.0.0.4598673.x86_64.vibMD5SUM: 0804cffe30913a7b4017445a0f0adbe1
Install the image according to the steps described in the MFT User Manual.

The following procedure requires custom boot image downloading, mounting and booting from a USB device.

Last updated: January 18, 2024