Delegated License Service Release Notes

NVIDIA Delegated License Service Release Notes

Release information for all users of NVIDIA Delegated License Service.

This document summarizes current status, information on supported platforms, and known issues with NVIDIA^® License System release 2.0.0.

1.1. Supported Platforms

1.1.1. Supported Hypervisors

For deployment in a virtual machine, the Delegated License Server (DLS) component of the NVIDIA License System is supplied as a virtual appliance. The virtual appliance must be installed on a supported hypervisor software release.

The following hypervisor software releases are supported:

• Citrix Hypervisor 8.2
• Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisors with QEMU 2.12.0 (qemu-kvm-2.12.0-64.el8.2.27782638)
• Microsoft Windows Server with Hyper-V 2019 Datacenter edition
• Red Hat Virtualization 4.3
• VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.7, 7.0, 7.0.2, and 7.0.3

1.1.2. Supported Container Orchestration Platforms

For deployment on a bare-metal OS, the Delegated License Server (DLS) component of the NVIDIA License System is supplied as a containerized software image. The containerized software image must be deployed on a supported container orchestration platform.

The following container orchestration platform releases are supported:

• Docker 20.10.17 with Docker Compose 2.6.0
• Kubernetes 1.23.8
• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.10.18 with Kubernetes 1.23.5
• VMware Tanzu Application Platform 1.1 with Kubernetes 1.23.6

1.1.3. Supported NVIDIA vGPU Software Releases

NVIDIA License System supports NVIDIA vGPU software graphics drivers starting with NVIDIA vGPU software release 13.0 as licensed clients.

1.1.4. Web Browser Requirements

NVIDIA License System and NVIDIA Licensing Portal were tested with Google Chrome version 86.0.4240.111 (Official Build) (64-bit).

1.2. Changes in this Release

• Support for the DLS on the containerization platforms listed in Supported Container Orchestration Platforms
• Support for VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 7.0.3
• Containerization of the DLS application within VM-based virtual appliances
• License metering and usage reporting
• Ability to suppress the display of the organization and virtual group on the DLS management interface
• Ability to unbind a license server from a service instance
• Ability to recover a secondary DLS when the VM is corrupted
• Option to generate a client configuration token with only the IP address as the URL of the service instance
• Ability to mark a DLS appliance or container instance for preregistration without the need to contact NVIDIA Enterprise support
• Export of events from a DLS instance to a syslog server
• Ability to set or change the user name of the DLS administrator user

A container orchestration platform cannot control or restrict access to the OS on which the platform is running. Therefore, containerized DLS software images cannot support the features of VM-based DLS virtual appliances that rely on the ability of the appliance to control the underlying OS.

Containerized DLS software images do not support the following features, for which equivalent functionality is available through standard OS interfaces:

• Log archive settings
• NTP configuration
• Static IP address configuration
• DLS diagnostics user configuration
• Disk expansion

Because a container orchestration platform cannot control the underlying OS, the following limitations also apply to containerized DLS software images:

• Online migration from a VM-based DLS virtual appliance to a containerized DLS software image is not supported because the destination containerized DLS software image retains its IP address even after data migration.

  Instead, you must use offline migration when migrating from a VM-based DLS virtual appliance to a containerized DLS software image.

• When the secondary node is removed from an HA cluster, the containerized DLS software image that hosts the node is not shut down.

  Instead, you must shut down the DLS software container manually.

Only resolved issues that have been previously noted as known issues or had a noticeable user impact are listed. The summary and description for each resolved issue indicate the effect of the issue on NVIDIA License System before the issue was resolved.

4.1. Validation of the client configuration token fails

Description

When Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers are configured for a VM-based DLS instance, the system times on the DLS instance and the licensed client might still be different. In this situation, validation of the client configuration token fails. When the licensed client requests a license, the request fails and the following error message is displayed:

            

            
Client Configuration Token Validation Failed.
Either the token is not activated or system clock settings are tampered
        

Workaround

When configuring NTP servers on a DLS virtual appliance, specify the IP addresses, not the fully qualified domain names, of the NTP servers.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3718863

4.2. VM hosting a DLS appliance cannot be reached

Description

After a VM-based DLS appliance has been installed, the VM that is hosting the DLS appliance cannot be reached after it has been started. This issue occurs when a static IP address has been assigned to the VM that is hosting the DLS appliance and the subnet mask of the VM's network was specified in an incorrect format. The subnet mask of the VM's network must be specified in classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) format without the leading slash character (/).

Workaround

Reinstall the VM-based DLS appliance, specifying the subnet mask in the correct format, namely, CIDR format without the leading slash character (/).

To get a subnet mask in CIDR format from its decimal equivalent, refer to the table on page 2 of IETF RFC 1878: Variable Length Subnet Table For IPv4. For example, the subnet mask in CIDR format of the decimal equivalent 255.255.255.0 is 24.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3741535

4.3. The NVIDIA Licensing application on a VM-based DLS appliance cannot be accessed

Description

After a VM-based DLS appliance has been installed, the management interface to the NVIDIA Licensing application on a DLS appliance cannot be accessed after the VM has been started. This issue occurs when the IP address of the VM that is hosting the DLS appliance is assigned by DHCP.

Workaround

Restart the VM that is hosting the DLS appliance.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3778760

4.4. The DLS appliance spawns a large number of processes on Kubernetes platforms

Description

The DLS appliance spawns a large number of processes on Kubernetes platforms. This issue might affect Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, or VMware Tanzu Application Platform. It does not affect Docker. Because the DLS appliance container pod is restricted to 4 CPUs and 8 GiB of main memory, the pod becomes very slow to respond and even kills processes because it runs out of memory.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3791295

4.5. DLS appliance SSL configuration reverts to the default after restart

Description

After the VM or container that is hosting a DLS appliance configured with a third-party signed SSL certificate is restarted, the DLS virtual appliance reverts to its default self-signed SSL certificate. As a result, the browser warns that any connection to the NVIDIA Licensing Application on the DLS appliance is not private.

Workaround

After a DLS appliance is configured with a third-party signed SSL certificate, use one of the following workarounds to avoid this issue:

• Avoid restarting the VM or container that is hosting the DLS appliance.
• Reinstall the certificate every time the VM or container that is hosting the DLS appliance is restarted.

Status

Open

Ref. #

3794010

4.6. Client fails to acquire offline license when rebooted

Description

When a licensed client that is configured with an offline license is rebooted, the client might fail to acquire a license. When this issue occurs, the following message is written to the licensing event log file on the client:

            

            
Client fingerprint mismatch - No valid lease found in local trusted store
        

This issue occurs when the MAC addresses of the network adapters for a client change when the client is rebooted. When the MAC addresses change, the NVIDIA vGPU software graphics driver treats the client as a new client and the offline license in the client's trusted storage database is discarded.

Typically, the MAC addresses change because the network configuration of the client has been explicitly changed by an administrator. However, the MAC address of a client can unexpectedly change when the client is rebooted for several reasons, for example:

• The client requests a license before the client's network interfaces are initialized.
• Docker or the NVIDIA Container Runtime for Docker is installed on the client and the ifconfig command lists it as a network interface.

Status

Open

Ref. #

200665895

If necessary, you can create a predefined sudo user account for a DLS virtual appliance. This user account has the elevated privileges required to update and upgrade the Ubuntu GPL/LGPL v3 licensed Open Source Software (OSS) libraries within the DLS virtual appliance. This account provides no other access to a DLS virtual appliance.

This account is provided to comply with the terms of the GPL/LGPL v3 license under which some libraries in the Ubuntu operating system in the DLS virtual appliance are released.
CAUTION:

Perform this task for each DLS virtual appliance for which you want to create the DLS sudo user account. If the DLS virtual appliance is hosting a node in an HA cluster, the creation of the user is not automatically propagated to the other node in the cluster.

1. From the hypervisor, log in as the user dls_system to the VM that hosts the DLS virtual appliance. You don't need to provide a password to log in as the dls_system user.
2. Run the /etc/adminscripts/enable_sudo.sh script.
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   $ /etc/adminscripts/enable_sudo.sh
           

3. When prompted, provide a password for this user.

The sudo user with elevated privileges rsu_admin is created.

The file /var/dls/sudouser is created to indicate that the Ubuntu GPL/LGPL v3 licensed OSS libraries within the DLS virtual appliance have been updated or upgraded. If the DLS virtual appliance is hosting a node in an HA cluster, this file is automatically copied to the other node in the cluster.

In addition, to update the OS or install packages on Ubuntu:

1. Test to make sure the Ubuntu repositories are reachable with the existing network settings.
2. If the repository URLs are not getting resolved, you should delete the symlink /etc/resolv.conf, and copy the default resolv.conf located at /run/NetworkManager to /etc/resolv.conf.
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   sudo rm -f /etc/resolv.conf
           

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   sudo cp /run/NetworkManager/no-stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
           

   Note:

   Note:

   Before you copy /run/NetworkManager/resolv.conf, make sure you make a DNS server entry that will resolve the Ubuntu (or any custom) package repositories.

3. Once the OS update/upgrade is done, please restore the network configurations to their original state by executing the following commands:
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   sudo rm -f /etc/resolv.conf
           

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   sudo ln -s /run/NetworkManager/no-stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf
           

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