removal of vGPU environment

[Hans Meiser]

Hello,

for some time we used some special NVidiaCards built-in in our Bladeservers. This time ended and our nvidia licences are expired.

With expired licences it is not possible to download current software. So it is not allowed to download new ESXi Hostdrivers to fix security problems.

The removal of NVidiaCards is planned for next year, same time our datacenter expires. We dont use VMs with virtual GPUs, so our risk seems to be low. But this is not enough in all cases. I think we have 2 possibilities:

• immediately removal of drivers and cards --> problem is fixed, more effort
• removal of drivers only, leave GPU in Bladeserver, without driver it is useless for esxi, I expect GPU remains as unknown PCI-device within bladeserver --> fixes problem? less effort but may have side effects by still built-in GPUs.

So what would you recommend. should we do the complete removal or should it be enough to uninstall just the ESXi drivers?

Thank you,
Hans

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[ninjabrum]

If you're not going to use them, remove the cards and drivers from the Host.  No point in keeping old hardware installed unless it's at a very remote location with no admin available to remove the cards.

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