NVIDIA now gives us the option to use a cloud-based license server or the classic on-prem appliance. The cloud licensing server may be simpler, assuming the appropriate firewall rules can be added. I chose the on-prem appliance since I was familiar with their old way of licensing and I wanted to see how much has changed. Right away we can see they moved to an appliance based on the option which makes setup relatively easy by deploying an OVA to vSphere. The NVIDIA licensing will be used for VMware Horizon vGPU desktops.
Install Preparation
Before starting it’s best to review the official documentation in case your environment requires any special considerations. Here I’m deploying in a relatively basic lab environment.
First, we need to download the appliance from the NVIDIA licensing portal. Navigate to the Software Downloads page and locate the appropriate License Server download for your environment. I’ll be deploying in a VMware vSphere environment so I found the latest NLS License Server (DLS) for VMware vSphere download. Click Download.
You may be prompted to accept the License agreement. Click Agree and Download.
Additionally, you should have a static IP ready for the license server. Create a DNS record for the IP/hostname you plan to use before deploying the server to ensure it does not fail to look up the DNS record.
NVIDIA License Server Installation
To begin login to your VMware vCenter where you would like to deploy the appliance. Right-click the host or cluster where you would like to have the appliance run and select Deploy OVF Template.
Select Local File followed by the Upload Files button.
Browse to the file that was previously downloaded from the NVIDIA licensing portal. It should be a .ova file similar to what you see below. Your specific version may differ from the one I downloaded.
With the ova selected as the local file click Next.
Give the virtual machine a name and select the location where you would like it to end up. Then click Next.
Select which cluster or host you would like to deploy the appliance to and click Next.
If all looks good on the summary tab click Next.
Select the datastore where you would like the appliance to live as well as the disk format. Click Next once you’ve made your selections.
On the network selection screen choose the virtual network you want the appliance to connect to. There are three IP allocation options, but most times the default Static – Manual is going to be the simplest and best. We will set the IP in the next step. For reference the other options for IP allocation are Static – IP Pool and Transient – IP Pool.
Finally, we have the network customization screen. Here the DNS servers, netmask in CIDR notation, gateway, and IP address for the new appliance will all need to be set. Once those are filled in click Next.
If you didn’t already, be sure to create a DNS record for the hostname and IP of the appliance.
If the summary screen looks correct click Finish to start the appliance creation.
Wait for the import and deploy operations to complete and then power on the VM. The installation instructions recommend waiting at least 15 minutes before trying to connect for all the services to start.
Configuring the NVIDIA Licensing Server
From a browser enter the appliance IP address and you should see the Virtual Appliance Setup screen. Click on the New Installation option.
Here we are setting up the local administrator account. You can leave the default username as I’ve done, or change it to something else. Enter a password for the new account. Optionally you can have it create a diagnostic user account, as I’ve done. You can enable or disable the diagnostic account at any time. More info can be found on page 48 of the guide. When you’re done click Register.
Copy the local reset secret and save it to a safe location. The secret can be used for a one-time reset of the password if it is ever forgotten. Click Continue to Login.
Enter the newly created credentials and click Log In.
From the Dashboard click the Download DLS Instance Token.
A .tok file similar to the one below should be downloaded for use later.
Now head back over to the NVIDIA Licensing portal. Navigate to the Service Instances tab and select Actions > Upload DLS instance token.
Since this is a new instance we want the New Installation radio button selected and then click Select Instance Token.
Locate the .tok file that was downloaded from the appliance and click Open.
Now simply click Upload Token.
Back on the Service Instance tab we now have the new appliance registration pending. Click Actions > Register.
You’ll be asked to confirm it by clicking Register.
The instance should now show Registered.
It was at this point that I realized there is a dark theme for the admin portals. The steps are the same for the appliance admin portal and the NVIDIA licensing portal. Simply click on your user account in the upper right corner to view the settings.
At the bottom, there is the option to enable Dark Mode.
Creating the NVIDIA License Server
Login to the NIVIDA web License portal. Expand License Server > Create License Server from the menu on the left.
Enter a Name (A) for the License Server and optionally a description. Later we will pair this License Server instance with the Service Instance we previously installed in our vSphere environment. Click Next: Select features (B) to continue.
On the Select Features screen the specific licenses you want to use need to be selected on the left. Then enter how many of the licenses you want to assign. In many cases, you’ll be assigning them all. I’m splitting mine between two environments for different testing which is why I only assigned half. Click Next: Preview server creation when ready.
Review the configuration and click the Create Server button in the middle of the screen.
There should be a message indicating the license server was created successfully. Next, click the Bind Service Instance.
In the Bind Service Instance window click the dropdown and select your instance. It may still have the default name unlike mine which I renamed to match the VM FQDN.
Click Bind.
A message showing the service was bound successful is displayed.
Click Actions > Download from the License Server Details screen.
Click Download.
Now go back to the DLS appliance within the vSphere environment and log in to the admin portal. Click Select License Server File.
Select the file that was just downloaded. It should be a .bin file. Click Open after making the selection.
Now click Install Server.
You should see a message indicating the license server was installed successfully.
You can validate that the licenses were pulled correctly by clicking Server Features.
At this point, the Licensing is all configured and ready to be used in a VMware Horizon desktop pool. Some minor image work needs to be done to make that happen, but I’ll save that for another post.
I hope you found this helpful and thanks for reading!