Adapting VMware vSphere for state-of-the-art hardware

Tailor-Made

Article from ADMIN 09/2012

By Werner Fischer

VMware vSphere is still the most comprehensive virtualization solution on the market, and the manufacturer has made it even easier to install on the latest crop of hardware by adding the Image Builder and an option to install from a USB memory stick.

Working on the latest hardware means you also need the latest drivers, whether on an operating system like Windows or Linux or a virtualized solution like VMware vSphere. However, vSphere drivers come not as Windows files or Linux packages, but as vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs); moreover, software components for hardware monitoring and configuration (known as CIM providers) are provided by hardware manufacturers as VIBs.

A VIB is kept in an ar archive, which contains the files themselves, an XML-formatted descriptor file, and a signature file (Listing 1).

Listing 1

VIB Content

01 $ ar -tv Adaptec_Inc_bootbank_scsi-aacraid_5.0.5.1.7.28700-1OEM.500.0.0.406165.vib
02 --------- 0/0   1356 Jan  1 01:00 1970 descriptor.xml
03 --------- 0/0   2122 Jan  1 01:00 1970 sig.pkcs7
04 --------- 0/0  53423 Jan  1 01:00 1970 scsi-aac

The signature file designates the acceptance level (Table 1). The administrator can configure a minimal acceptance level on each; host, by default, this is Partner Supported. If a VIB does not fulfill these requirements, it can't be installed. VIBs with an empty signature file are deemed to be Community Supported. A signature file is mandatory for the three higher levels: Partner Supported, VMware Accepted, and VMware Certified.

Table 1

Acceptance Levels