ASUS P8B WS Does not support passthrough.

[JDLovering]

I have an ASUA P8B WS board, Intel Xeon E3-1235, 16GB ECC.  The machine installed ESXi 4.1 U1 to a USB key on the motherboard just fine, installs and runs FreeNAS and Windows 7 as guests.  I have enabled Intel Virtualization Technology in the BIOS, and there are no newer BIOS revisions available at this time.

The issue I am having is that I can not enable passthrough. I get the message that "Host does not support passthrough configuration" in the Advanced Settings of the Configuration tab.  I called ASUS and they suggested I install Windows Server 2008 with hyper-v as the host os to verify VT-d.  From everything I have read, the E3-1235 and the C206 chipset but support vPro (VT-d).

As this does not solve my issue with ESXi, does anyone else have any suggestions?

[MauroBonder]

When you see Intel VT it's refering to Intel Virtualization Technology  or vt-x capabilities in the CPU.  vt-d will be a seperate option in the  BIOS.

check more informations http://communities.vmware.com/thread/212077

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Welcome to the VMware Communities forums.   There should be a seperate option for VT-d (it may be listed as Directed I/O) in the BIOS.  It may not be on the same screen as the CPU setting for VT-x.  If the setting is not there then you might try an older BIOS version to check to see if it has been exposed at one time or check with Asus support to see if the option will be enabled in a future BIOS release.

[JDLovering]

Thank you for the welcome, and thank you for the suggestions. I should have mentioned that I had looked for those settings in the BIOS, and they do not exist.

I am using the only version of the BIOS for this board available, the launch version.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Then it'll be up to Asus to make the option available.  Perhaps they have a beta BIOS available.

[DSTAVERT]

Otherwise a very nice WS motherboard or low end server board.

[Wes_W_]

Had read about this before purchasing this motherboard a few days ago.  Doing some more pre assembly research I noticed that Asus has updated thier comments regarding this motherboard and VT-d support:

There was a mistake made in the response to your review.  The C206  chipset along with E3-1200 series CPUs (including your E3-1235) does  support VT-d on this motherboard and this will be implemented in an  upcoming BIOS revision for the P8B WS board within a few weeks. Please  keep an eye on the latest BIOS revisions at our support site,  http://support.asus.com, for this VT-d supporting BIOS or contact us at  Newegg_ASUS_MBSupport@asus.com.

Best Regards,

ASUS Customer Support

     Source:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131725

Emphasis mine

Update 20110621 - via private email from Asus support, stated updated BIOS should be ready within three weeks.

[wgillick]

Hi Dave,

VT-d is indeed supported in the "0605" BIOS.

I also have this motherboard--just received it today. But I haven't dared to buy the CPU yet because I don't know if Vmware supports 2nd-Gen Sandy Bridge Core i7.

I've searched information within the VMware community about the CPUs that vSphere 4.1 will support on this board. Asus supports both the Intel Xeon E3-1235 and the desktop processor, Intel Core i7-2600. Both have VT-d, but nowhere can I find if vMotion or FT is supported *between* these processors, let alone the i7-2600. Of course, I'm avoiding the i7-2600K which lacks VT-d. But even though Intel's processor manual (System-Programming-Guide, Volume 3B) apparently groups these two processors in the same family_model code (06_2AH), Vmware seems to not recognize these 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge *desktop* processors.

Any light you can shed on this?

Thanks,

Will Gillick

San Jose, CA

Dave Mishchenko wrote:

Welcome to the VMware Communities forums.   There should be a seperate option for VT-d (it may be listed as Directed I/O) in the BIOS.  It may not be on the same screen as the CPU setting for VT-x.  If the setting is not there then you might try an older BIOS version to check to see if it has been exposed at one time or check with Asus support to see if the option will be enabled in a future BIOS release.

[wgillick]

Dave M, and JDL...,

I can confirm that the Asus P8B WS BIOS from June 5th "0605" now does have the option for VT-d in the Advanced part of the BIOS, specifically, in this section:

Advanced \ System Agent Configuration \ VT-d

It is Disabled by default, but it can Enabled without complaint. See image:

Unfortunately, my brand-new Intel CPU does not appear to be supported by VMware. The Intel Core i7-2600 does have every single option that VMware requires (VT-x, VT-d, EM64T, etc.), but it fails VMware's most recent CPUID compatbility test for FlexMigration:

I'm not sure what FlexMigration functionality entails at this point. I have all the Intel architecture docs and I don't see what else could be happening unless Intel specifically asked VMware to not support the desktop processors. Or, maybe it's an innocent mistake. Who knows, I just know I have an expensive brand-new Intel CPU that can't do FlexMigration whereas my 3 year old AMD chips can.

--Will

Dave Mishchenko wrote:

Then it'll be up to Asus to make the option available.  Perhaps they have a beta BIOS available.