Intel® Device Manager for VMware* vCenter Server User Guide

Overview

Intel® Device Manager for VMware* vCenter Server is a user-friendly way to manage Intel devices on the VMware vCenter platform. It is deployed as a plug-in to vCenter. 

The plug-in lets you manage and configure devices right from the interface of VMware vCenter. You can:

• View information on supported devices.
• Monitor device counters and sensors.
• Customize device configuration.
• Save configurations as recipes for future reuse and apply these recipes to all your devices with a single click. 
   

The plug-in requires the Intel® Accelerator Management Daemon for VMware ESXi* on each host to discover and allow device management.

This document covers:

• Installation
• Setup and configuration
• Recipe creation
• Device monitoring and management
• Troubleshooting
   

Deployment Architecture

This diagram illustrates the relationship between the plug-in and other system components.

The plug-in is packaged into the VMware Photon* OS (4.0 Rev2) to enable ease of setup. The Photon OS has its own source and security dispositions, which can be found on the Photon Security Advisories page. Intel recommends that you follow these steps to keep the OS and its packages updated.

Setup

Prerequisites

• VMware vCenter (See Appendix A for a list of compatible versions.)
• VMware (See Appendix A for a list of compatible versions.)
• Supported Intel device on a host with driver installed (See Appendix B for a compatibility guide.)

Install the Plug-in

Install the Daemon on the Host

The Intel Accelerator Management Daemon for VMware ESXi provides an interface for the plug-in to communicate directly with device drivers to enable configuration and monitoring capabilities.

1. Sign in to the ESXi host via SSH or access the web console.
2. Install the daemon bundle using the software install command.

Set Up a User Account

A user account is needed for the plug-in to communicate with Intel Accelerator Management Daemon to enable management of devices from the plug-in interface.

1. Navigate to the Administration page in vCenter.
2. Create a role for the daemon account to use: 
   1. Under Access Control, select Roles, and then select New. 
   2. In the New Role window (see the following screenshot), enter a suitable name in the Role name field.
   3. In the left menu, select Interact with Partner Rest Daemons.
   4. From the drop-down menu at the right, select All, and then check Select All. 
   5. Select Create.
      
      
       
3. Set up a daemon user account: 
   1. Under Single Sign On, select Users and Groups, and select your domain. This example uses the vsphere.local domain. 
   2. Select Add. 
   3. In the Add User window, enter the username intelplugin and a password of your choice, and then select Add.
4. Add the role to the account: 
   1. Under Access Control, select Global Permissions, and then select Add. 
   2. Select the domain and account created in the previous step, assign the previously created role to this account, and then select OK.
      

       

Install the Plug-in

1. Navigate to the Administration page in vCenter.
2. Select Add. Upload a local OVF template file or enter the URL for the template file.
   

    

3. Select the location for the plug-in: Select a data center, the compute resource, and storage and network options.
4. Customize the template: Enter the details needed to set up the plug-in VM.
   
   
   
   The following properties are available:
   1. Certificate properties: Properties to set for the self-generated certificate.
   2. vCenterGUID (required): The GUID from vCenter that is required to authenticate a user session with the plug-in.
   3. Password (required): Password for the VM, which will be set on first boot. Must be at least 12 characters long. Recommended not to use common dictionary words.
   4. Proxy: Proxy for installing Java* into the VM. Only sets the proxy for tdnf. 
   5. Static IP: Skip this section if you have DHCP. Set static IP for VM in this section. IP is in CIDR notation, which includes a mask. For example, an IP of aa.bb.cc.dd with a mask of 255.255.255.0 will be represented by aa.bb.cc.dd/24.
   6. MAC: Specify a MAC for the VM’s network adapter to spoof. This is not recommended unless you have a MAC restriction.
   7. Solution Information: Values that are not editable. Default values required for registering the plug-in with vCenter.
5. Associate vCenter: Select a vCenter for the plug-in to associate with. Currently, the plug-in supports only a single vCenter per VM.

Sign in to the Daemon Account

1. In the overflow menu, select Intel® Device Manager for VMware* vCenter Server.

   

2. When prompted, enter the username and password for the daemon user account you created in the previous section.

Uninstall the Plug-in

Uninstall the Daemon on the Host

1. Sign in to the ESXi host via SSH or access the web console.
2. Uninstall the daemon bundle using the software remove command.

Uninstall the Plug-in and Remove the VM

1. Navigate to the Administration page in vCenter.
2. Select Client Plugin and select Intel Device Manager for VMware vCenter Server.
3. Select Remove.
4. Navigate to the VM in your inventory. You can now safely delete it.

Procedures

Discover Devices

1. A card on the Summary page for the host, cluster, or data center shows the available devices:
   

Device Information

1. On the Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices. Alternatively, on the summary card, select Configure.

   

2. Select the double chevron (>>) to show the following information for this device:
   1. General Info: Information regarding the location of the device, PCI information, type, and number of fans.
   2. Firmware & Engines: List of available firmware and engines.
   3. Memory & Frequency: Memory modules and their information along with frequency domains and their types.
   4. Power: Power supply units present along with power domains.
   5. Additional Info: Additional information defined by driver specific to the device.
   6. Alerts: Recent alerts that have been raised for this device.
   7. Monitor this device: Select the chart icon to monitor this device.
   8. Configure this device: Select the gear icon to configure this device.

Device Configuration

1. On the Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices. Alternatively, on the summary card, select ConfigureTo.
2. To select a device, use the check box, and then select Configure. This opens the wizard.
   
3. Select Next to start the configuration wizard.
4. On the Select a Configuration page, select a configuration method. 
   • Recipes: Refer to the next section, Recipes.
   • Profiles and parameters: Continue with step 5.
     
     Note  Configuring a device using parameters is only available when selecting a single device.
      
5. Configure with a profile: In the Change Configuration window, choose the Select A Profile tab, select an existing profile, and then select Apply.
   
6. Configure parameter values: In the Change Configuration window, choose the Change Parameter Value tab, modify the parameters, and then select Apply.
   1. Maintenance mode: Configuration changes that require maintenance mode to run are denoted by a yellow caution symbol. If this icon appears on any of the configuration parameters or profiles selected, the plug-in asks to proceed with setting the host on maintenance mode. This will fail if the host has running VMs that need to be shut down manually.
   2. Apply configuration: This page shows the status of configuration changes and the results of the operation. For a single device, it shows the configuration results. For multidevice operations, it shows the result per device.
   3. Summary: Summary of this operation. This also provides shortcuts to access the Recipes or Monitoring page.

Recipes

1. On the Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices. Alternatively, on the summary card, select Configure.
2. To select a device, use the check box, and then select Manage Recipes. This opens the wizard.
   
3. You have three options:
   • Save current configuration into a recipe: Save the currently applied device configuration to a recipe and set its name.
   • Update recipe: Update an existing recipe with the current configuration on a device.
   • Delete a recipe: Delete an existing recipe.

How to Use Recipes

1. On the Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices. Alternatively, on the summary card, select Configure.
2. To select a device, use the check box, and then select Configure. This opens the configuration wizard.
3. On the Select a Configuration page, choose Select A Recipe.
4. When only a single device is selected, the wizard shows the change between the current configuration of the device and the selected recipe. When multiple devices are selected, only the recipe values are shown.
   
5. In some cases, the recipe may not be compatible with the selected device. If this happens, you get an error when selecting the recipe (with single device selected) or when applying the recipe (if applying to multiple devices at once).
6. Follow the rest of configuration steps to apply the recipe.

Monitor a Device

1. On the Monitor tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices. Alternatively, on the summary card, select Monitor.
2. To see the device status, select the double chevron (>>) to the left of the device address.
   
   The following options are available:
   1. Status: General status of the device and PCI bus. This also allows the user to select a refresh interval and export the data as JSON.
   2. LEDs: LEDs on the device.
   3. RAS: RAS counters for the device.
   4. Sensors: Sensors, such as temperature, voltage, and fan speeds, for the device.
   5. Telemetry: Device-defined telemetry data with visualization.
   6. Performance: Device-defined performance data with visualization. To switch to the Configure page, select the information icon at the top of the page and view the device information.
   7. Alerts: View alerts for the device (see the following section).

Alerts

1. On the Monitor or Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices.
2. Select the Alerts drop-down option. 
   • Dismiss dismisses an alert
   • Dismiss All dismisses all alerts in the dropdown 
   • Older Alerts gives you a table of all older alerts

     

Refresh Devices

1. On the Monitor or Configure tab for a host, cluster, or data center, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices.
2. Select Refresh.

Add a New Device or Host

1. Follow the steps to install daemon on host if not available.
2. On the Monitor or Configure tab for the host, under the plug-in name, select Managed Devices.
3. Select Refresh.

Troubleshooting

Invalid Credentials

• Verify that correct credentials are set for the daemon account. If this account has not been set up yet, follow the process in the “Setup” section to create and log in to the account.
• Verify that time is synchronized between the host, plug-in VM, and vCenter.

Status of Daemon

• Verify that the host has the daemon installed.
• Verify that the host has the daemon running. You can use the following command to check the status of daemon on the host:
  esxcli daemon info get -s acceleratormanagementd

Configuration Wizard Is Empty or Configuration Fails

• Verify that the device is in SR-IOV mode. For version 1.0.0, the plug-in and drivers support only SR-IOV mode configuration. To enable SR-IOV mode, refer to the driver documentation.
  
• Verify that virtual functions (VFs) are enabled for the device. To enable VFs for any device:
  1. Sign in to the ESXi Host Client by typing the IP address in the browser. 
  2. Go to Manage > PCI Devices.
  3. Search for the device, select the device, configure for SR-IOV, and save the settings.

No Healthy Upstream

• Verify that the plug-in VM is up and running.
• Verify that the plug-in server is running on the VM.

  

   

General Errors

• Check the log file at /var/log/solutioninstall 
• Contact Intel Support.
   

Appendix A: Version Compatibility

Appendix B: Driver Compatibility

Resources

Intel Device Manager for VMware vCenter Plug-in 

• Download
• Article: Manage Intel Accelerators with Intel Device Manager for VMware vCenter Server 

Intel QuickAssist Technology (Intel QAT) 

• Learn More
• Download Supported Drivers 

Intel Dynamic Load Balancer (Intel DLB) 

• Learn More
• Download Supported Drivers 

Learn more about the Intel and VMware partnership.