I Cant use the PCI passthrough new feature on ESXi4

[fourat]

Hello,

I've just installed ESXi on my new HP Compaq dc7900, everything is working fine, except the fact i cant grant access to my Digium PCI card from my Asterisk guest system.

I have the following message appearing in Host>Configuration tab>Advanced Settings: Host does not support passhtrough configuration

Configure passthrough... button is disabled.

Thank you for any help.

[AndreTheGiant]

Is your server in HCL (for VS4)?

Not all the server will work with PCI passthrough.

Andre

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[dab]

From my knowledge for PCI passtrough you need a CPU with Nehalem Microarchitecture.

I think dc7900 is not the platform for these tests ...

[Dave_Mishchenko]

It's a chipset requirement. For Intel you need vt-d (directed I/O) and on AMD MBs it's AMD IOMMU

[fourat]

What does "HCL" stand for ?

[fourat]

How can i know if its supported or not on my server ?

[AndreTheGiant]

What does "HCL" stand for ?

Hardware Compatibility List

[AndreTheGiant]

How can i know if its supported or not on my server ?

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

[AntonVZhbankov]

HP Blades with Xeon X53xx processors are on HCL for vSphere, however not all the functionality is supported due to hardware restrictions. For ex. these blades do not support FT.

---

VMware vExpert '2009

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[Dave_Mishchenko]

How can i know if its supported or not on my server ?

When it doesn't have this message - "Host does not support passhtrough configuration" :).

Do you have a Q45 based MB? If so I would check the BIOS for an option to enable called directed I/O or VT-d (you may find it on the same page as the Intel VT option).

This is a bit old, but shows some of the chipsets that should support this - http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/virtualization-software-development/topic/56802/

[seanborman]

Here are some systems which support PCI(e) device pass-through to a VM.

Dell R610 and R710

HP DL360/380 G6

A VM can have a maximum of two devices in pass-through configuration.

[rmrobert]

You need a machine with Intel VT-d support. All new Nehalem servers will have this. And if you just want to play around, any Core i7 Desktop machine should have this as well, although a generic desktop may not be on the HCL.

There are also some older pre-Nehalem machines which support VT-d using the Stoakley (Intel 5400) chipset. Anything advertised as having vPro should support this. For example, I am able to use PCI Passthrough in my Lenovo X200 laptop, to pass through the onboard Intel e1000e Gigabit network card, although there isn't much reason why you would want to do this, since then you won't have access to the network hard for the host.

Also, do be aware the there is not any Digium PCI card that we officially support for VMDirectPath operation, although you are welcome to try it and I would interested to hear whether it works.

[mauricev]

Note that you must have ACPI turned on for VMWare to see all the features of the BIOS.

Also, there is a UI bug. You can't add PCI devices to a guest when it's first created because the option is inappropriately dimmed (disabled). After you create it, then the option becomes available.

[fourat]

Where to activate that ?

[rmrobert]

To use passthrough, you must first assign a device for passthrough use. To do this, click on the host, and find the "Advanced Configuration" under "Hardware" heading on the configuration page.

[EddieA]

And the OP stated in his openeing post:

I have the following message appearing in Host>Configuration tab>Advanced Settings: Host does not support passhtrough configuration

Configure passthrough... button is disabled.

Cheers.

[mauricev]

ACPI should be an option in the BIOS.

[Brandonx]

I have to same issue:

Host>Configuration tab>Advanced Settings: Host does not support passhtrough configuration

Configure passthrough... option is disabled (gray out).

Anyone have any idea. Is this because I have a trial version of vSphere 4?

Thanks

[DSTAVERT]

The physical machine must have support for hardware passthrough and hardware virtualization. Those two things must be enabled. Check the BIOS of your machine. Check the ESXi documents.