Installing CIM Provider VIBs

The 3.5 and 4.1 versions of vSphere included the LSI and HP RAID CIM providers in the default VIB for the ESXi server.

In vSphere 5.0 and later, the LSI and HP provider VIBs are not included in the default VIBs. Therefore, if you are using an LSI or HP RAID controller card on your host with vSphere 5.0 or later, you will need to install an LSI or HP VIB before the associated RAID storage device will show up in your vCenter Server Inventory.

Downloading CIM Provider VIBs

The following procedure gives you the general steps for downloading a VIB from a third-party website. The instructions may be slightly different for each third-party site.

To download a CIM Provider VIB

1	Go to the website of the CIM Provider, and look for the ‘Support’ or ‘Downloads’ section. For example, on the HP website, the section is called, ‘HP Drivers and Support’. On the LSI Corporation website, the section is called, ‘Support Downloads By Product‘ under the ‘Support’ tab.

2	Enter the hardware type for the VIB you want to download, or select the type from a list.

3	Choose the VIB bundle that contains the words ‘VMware’ and the VMware product, such as ‘ESXi’.

Adding a CIM Provider VIB to your ESXi Image

You can add a CIM Provider VIB to your ESXi image using the vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI. Install VIBs from only one OEM vendor at a time.

Before you begin, install the VMware PowerCLI software.

Use the following steps to add a new VIB to your image:

1	Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot for each depot you want to work with.

Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl depot_url

or

Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot -DepotUrl C:\file_path\offline-bundle.zip

The cmdlet returns one or more SoftwareDepot objects.

2	Run Get-EsxImageProfile to list all image profiles in all currently visible depots.

Get-EsxImageProfile

The cmdlet returns all available profiles. You can narrow your search by using the optional arguments to filter the output.

3	Clone the profile and make changes to the clone if the image profile is read only.

New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile My_Profile -Name "Test Profile Name"

Image profiles published by VMware and its partners are read only.

4	Run Add-EsxSoftwarePackage to add a new package to one of the image profile.

Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile My_Profile -SoftwarePackage partner-package

The cmdlet runs the standard validation tests on the image profile. If validation succeeds, the cmdlet returns a modified, validated image profile. If the VIB that you want to add depends on a different VIB, the cmdlet displays that information and includes the VIB that would resolve the dependency. If the acceptance level of the VIB that you want to add is lower than the image profile acceptance level, an error results. Change the acceptance level of the image profile to add the VIB.

5	(Optional) Change the acceptance level of the image profile if an error about acceptance level problems displays.

VIB acceptance levels are set during VIB creation and cannot be changed.

Your image profile now includes the new VIB.

See http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.vsphere.install.doc_50/GUID-B81FE465-A43B-462D-BBBF-85B27F5BBAE8.html for more information about how to add a VIB to an image profile.

Adjusting the Resource Pool Allocation

When you install several CIM provider VIBs on an ESXi system, you might find that the providers as a whole exceed the default capacity of the memory resource pool allocated for plug-ins. Therefore, if you experience memory contention after adding more than one CIM plug-in, you may need to adjust the memory pool on your ESXi server.

To adjust the resource pool using the vSphere client

1	Navigate to the Host->Configuration->System Resource Allocation->Advanced page.

2	Select a resource pool, click the right mouse button, and select ‘Edit Settings’.

3	Use the slider mechanism or the up and down arrows to adjust the resource allocation for each pool.

For more information about Resource Pool Allocation for CIM Plug-ins, see the Tech Note, “Dynamic Resource Pool Allocation for CIM Plug-ins“ on the CIM SMASH/Server Management API documentation page located here: https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/cim-sdk/index.html.