ESXi 6.7/6.7 U1: NVIDIA ConnectX-4 onwards NICs NATIVE ESXi Driver for VMware vSphere User Manual v4.17.71.1
Linux Kernel Upstream Release Notes v6.5

Installation

This chapter describes how to install and test the Mellanox ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5 NATIVE ESXi package on a single host machine with Mellanox Ethernet adapter hardware installed.

Requirements

Description

Platforms

A server platform with an adapter card based on one of the following Mellanox Technologies’ HCA devices:

  • ConnectX®-4 (EN) (firmware: fw-ConnectX4)

  • ConnectX®-4 Lx (EN) (firmware: fw-ConnectX4-Lx)

  • ConnectX®-5 (VPI) (firmware: fw-ConnectX5)

  • ConnectX®-5 Ex (VPI) (firmware: fw-ConnectX5)

  • ConnectX®-6 (VPI) (firmware: fw-ConnectX6)

  • ConnectX®-6 Dx (EN) (firmware: fw-ConnectX6dx)

Device ID

For the latest list of device IDs, please visit Mellanox website.

Operating System

ESXi 6.7

Installer Privileges

The installation requires administrator privileges on the target machine.

Warning

Uninstall any previous Mellanox driver packages prior to installing the new version. See “Removing the Previous Mellanox Driver” for further information.

For further information on how to install the driver for VMware vSphere, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2008939.

Warning

Unload the driver before removing it.

To remove all the drivers, do the following:

image2019-7-17_13-41-36.png

  1. Log into the ESXi server with root permissions.

  2. List all the existing NATIVE ESXi driver modules. (see Step 4 in "Installing Mellanox NATIVE ESXi Driver for VMware vSphere" section above)

  3. Remove each module.

    Copy
    Copied!
                

    #> esxcli software vib remove -n nmlx5-core

    Warning

    To remove the modules, the command must be run in the same order as shown in the example above

  4. Reboot the server.

Warning

Unload the driver before removing it.

To downgrade to the previous ESXi version, do the following:

image2019-7-15_13-42-50.png


Warning

Automatic downgrade flow in currently unavailable for current driver version due to a change in the number of driver modules. Using "esxcli software update" command to downgrade may cause unexpected result.
In order to safely downgrade to any previous version (e.g. 4.16.8.8), you must manually remove the current version and install the previous one as described in the process below.

  1. Log into the ESXi server with root permissions.

  2. List all the existing NATIVE ESXi driver modules. (see Step 4 in "Installing Mellanox NATIVE ESXi Driver for VMware vSphere" section above)

  3. Remove each module

    Copy
    Copied!
                

    #> esxcli software vib remove -n nmlx5-core

    Warning

    To remove the modules, the command must be run in the same order as shown in the example above.

  4. Install the desired driver version.

  5. Reboot the machine.

For further information on how to install the driver for VMware vSphere, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2008939.

© Copyright 2023, NVIDIA. Last updated on Aug 31, 2023.