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thoreightysix
Contributor
Contributor

ESXi 6.5 - Device Passthrough

Hello all,

I'm an ESXi beginner trying to get my graphics cards to passthrough my VM. In ESXi under Host>Manage> under the "hardware tab">PCI Devices, it states the device is not capable for passthrough. At first, I suspected that the hardware wasn't passthrough capable. The first card I tried was a Asus RX550 4G. Called Asus, they could not tell me whether or not it would work.  I then tried a XFX- AMD Radeon HD 7970, this shows the same, Not Capable. I cannot add a PCI Device, this is greyed out. I have scoured the Bios settings for the board and ensured all settings for VT-D are enabled.

Hoping to find help on the next steps or direction here, currently at a loss.

My specs are:

ASUS P9X79-E WS

Intel Xeon Processor E5-2695 v2

CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB)

Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB SSD

I truly appreciate any help on this, thanks!

Chris

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6 Replies
bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion

Have a look at this thread Help with Windows 10 Guest Crash with Multiple GPU Passthrough

Note that your mileage might vary as the GPU cards that you have are not in the official list of GPU cards that are qualified for passthrough.

VMware Compatibility Guide - vdga

VMware Compatibility Guide - Shared Pass-Through Graphics

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Memnarch
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The video board is usually greyed out-- the associated audio device (usually underneath it) should be available.  Enable THAT, reboot and both will be available for passthru.  Don't forget the frequent crashes on reboot associated with not editing your passthru.map file, see above thread. Good luck.

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thoreightysix
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much for that information!

I suppose this card is not compatible. I took it as all Radeon cards that had single processors would work, I guess not. ASUS couldn't give me a definitive answer about passthrough compatibility, I know that!

Took your direction to the list of compatible cards, ordered a Quadro K4200 to try it out. Hopefully I come up with a better result.

Thanks again,

Chris

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thoreightysix
Contributor
Contributor

The board is greyed out and so is the audio device below, cannot touch it. Tried to edit with vSphere client 6.5 but is not compatible?

From reading all of the negative comments in regard to forcing this passthrough ( freezing, hanging, etc), I'm thinking I should take the route of a more compatible card. Hope this Quadro K4200 card I ordered works.

After this, it's onto USB passthrough. I read about enabling through the ESXi shell, followed to the "T", but no compatible devices were listed, unfortunately. Must not be compatible?

Thanks for your information!

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mtrosenecker
Contributor
Contributor

Is it the only video card on your system?  If so, it won't work because the vSphere OS itself claims the default card for itself.  If that's the case, use a cheapo video card as your default one, and then you should be able to map the other card to your VM.  Be aware that this will break vMotion! 

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kvstar
Contributor
Contributor

I am in a similar situation. Are you referring to vDGA? I have checked the compatible list of gpu cards, but I am not sure if VMware HA is supported. All the latest documentation are only talking about vGPU, which i cannot support on my workstation.

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