HW-ESXi5. Firewire issue. Need input/ideas pls. on setup

[markhsa]

Moving a Linux system from HW to ESXi5.  OS works perfectly.

On old HW, I connected to an HD Cable box via 1394 Firewire and sent channel change commands via firewire.  Worked very very well.

Now, when I will be on VMWare, I wil only have access to USB as I understand.  This leaves me with a problem as USB channel change options are very sub-par.

Is there anyway to get such a trivial amount of traffic, firewire setup working under ESXi5?  PCI passthrough?  Anything?

I have researched and have fuond very very little so far.

My ESXi motherboard does have a firewire card, but I could plug in a PCI one too is that would help.

I would really appreciate assistance or feed back on this.  Seems a bit of a show stopper so far.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

It is possible to passthrough a PCI(e) card into a VM, but there are hardware requirements.  The system must support AMD IOMMU or Intel VT-d (Directed I/O).    What sort of system are you running?

Dave
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[markhsa]

Hello Dave and all.

I am using a GA-X58A-UD3R board which does NOT support VT-D.

However, I will upgrade this board to one that does to get VT-D IF I would have passthough access to firewire.  It would be worth it for sure.

Just the power savings to get things onto the ESX machine make that worth it.

So, would that work with VT-D and guest OS access direct to the Firewire card?

Thanks much for the help.

[rajvm256]

Yes the guest should be able to access if it is configured with VM Direct I/O

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101078.... Just make sure you have a supported hardware for it.

[DSTAVERT]

There isn't anything that would necessarily guarantee results and even with VT-d support you may still have to work through issues. That said without VT-d support it won't work.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

I have a small list here of systems that people have tested - http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/esx40_vmdirectpath_whitebox_HCL.php.  There's a link to a forum with more info.

In general server class machines have better luck and if you're the first with a specific type of card sometimes it is a bit of a gamble.

[markhsa]

No guarantee yes, but if I understand correctly:

If my MB suppports VT-D, and I select the firewire card, it should appear as available to the guest Linux OS as if it were actually there?  Am I correct there?

Will it make any difference if the firewire device is a PCI card or built into the MB?

Thanks all

[DSTAVERT]

I would try with the built in one first and an add in card if it doesn't work.

[markhsa]

Just wanted to follow this up. PCI pass through with the built in FW card on the MB works great!