setting-up-nvidia-esxi.md

Here's a summary of the steps to configure an NVIDIA GPU in an Ubuntu VM running on VMware ESXi:

1. Disable the Nouveau kernel driver:

   sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
   

   Add the following lines:

   blacklist nouveau
   options nouveau modeset=0
   

   Update the initramfs and reboot:

   sudo update-initramfs -u
   sudo reboot
   

2. Remove the Intel Microcode package:

   sudo dpkg -l | grep intel
   sudo apt purge intel-microcode
   sudo update-grub
   sudo shutdown -h 0
   

3. Add hypervisor.cpuid.v0=FALSE to the VM Configuration Parameters (VM options ➝ Advanced ➝ Configuration Parameters).

4. Update Ubuntu and install required packages:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install gcc make build-essential libglvnd-dev pkg-config
   

5. Download the appropriate NVIDIA driver for your GPU from the NVIDIA website.

6. Stop the X server and switch to a text console:

   sudo service lightdm stop
   sudo init 3
   

7. Make the NVIDIA driver installer executable and run it with the -m=kernel-open parameter:

   chmod +x file_name.run
   sudo su
   ./file_name.run -m=kernel-open
   

   Choose the default options during the installation.

8. Check for the existence of the nvidia.conf file in /etc/modprobe.d/. If it doesn't exist, create it and add the following line:

   To create and edit the file, use:

   sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
   

   options nvidia NVreg_OpenRmEnableUnsupportedGpus=1
   

9. Reboot the virtual machine.

10. Check the GPU status and driver version using nvidia-smi.

This process should enable the NVIDIA GPU in your Ubuntu VM running on VMware ESXi.

Optional

11. Setup CUDA

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.7.0/local_installers/cuda_11.7.0_515.43.04_linux.run

sudo sh cuda_11.7.0_515.43.04_linux.run

12. Add cuda path

nano ~/.bashrc 
export PATH=/usr/local/cuda/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}$ 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda/lib64${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}

13. install cudnn

tar -xvf cudnn-11.0-linux-x64-v8.0.5.39.tg
sudo cp cuda/include/cudnn*.h /usr/local/cuda/include
sudo cp -P cuda/lib64/libcudnn* /usr/local/cuda/lib64
sudo chmod a+r /usr/local/cuda/include/cudnn*.h /usr/local/cuda/lib64/libcudnn*

check installation
nvcc --version

14. Install nvdia-docker

    sudo apt-get update \
    && sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit-base