VMDirectPath and ATI Radeon

[taylorjonl]

I am using VMware ESXi and I am trying to setup a guest that is Windows 7 that will have an ATI Radeon video card passed through to it.  I actually had this working on a previous system but I had to reinstall.  Now when I do this the guest fails to start and I get the following:

Error message from localhost.XXXXXXXXXXX:
PCIPassthru 004:00.0: Guest tried to (null)map
32 device pages (with base address of 0xb5d20)
to a range occupied by main memory. This is
outside of the PCI Hole. Add pciHole.start =
"2909" to the configuration file and then power
on the VM.
error
12/23/2010 1:04:36 PM
media
User

When I do as it asks, the guest now starts but gets an immediate BSOD concerning memory management.  Any ideas on why this is occuring and why it worked at one point but now it fails?

[KRA77]

I think I found the missing piece of the puzzle. After installing VMWARE Tools it started working !

[derickso]

Yes, you must have tools installed.

[KRA77]

I'm still having some issues with vmdirectpath on W7 (was working fine on linux), it seems the windows VM just dies at random times when not in active use.

Sometimes when I get home from work the VM is not responsive, the usb reciever for remote is dead. Usually at this point vSphere cannot connect with the VM. Upon forced reboot windows event viewer have no information from when the system dies, the log just stops at some point.

However today vSphere could still connect. I could see the vsphere log, and it says:

"An error occured while saving a suspend file" (because of vmdirectpath) but I have suspend disabled in windows and the log of this error is from the point where I turned on my TV.

Anyone else experience something like this ?

[rmathis1984]

All power settings need to be left to on. The only one I've found that dosnt matter is the HD. Monitor should be always on along with NIC and USB. Also one thing to do just to save a tiny cpu time is to set the screen saver to Blank. That should be on all VM's servers and desktops OS's alike "Just so they lock". Keep in mind with VGA passthrough you will LOSE the console access in most cases and need to resort to RDP, VNC or your personal choise of remote desktop.

And yup I've had the fail to suspend a few times more so with RDM for some odd reason. Never figured it out dont care to. I've just made a general pratice to disable power options "Not the windows service bad things come from that" to always leave on.

If you want a generic script for a quick setup look for the Windows7 tweaks for VMware View. It shuts off all the uneeded services "Also disables theams, desktop manager, super fetch". Services that are useful in Win7 if you want Aero and superfetch is nice to have.

Yup tools are always required for things to play nice.

[hyperbart]

I just installed a MSI Radeon HD 5450 of a friend of mine, it works perfectly in his setup and he can VT-d it to a Windows VM.

I tried to pass it through with my SuperMicro X-9-SCA-F, created a VM with 2GB and the reservation and I added the HDMI part of the video card and HD audio part. (I only have the option to add an HDMI related device and an audio related device).

When I try to boot the machine I can see the progress bar going from 20 to 40 to 60 to 80 to 95 and then it hangs there for a while and then stops with the following error:

A general system error ocurred : Unknown Error.

I tried to add the pciHole.start and end (1200 : 2200) parameter in the VM but that didn't help. Then I removed the HDMI and left the HD Audio and tried to boot and to my surprise that works. Anybody any idea what I can try? Also tried to boot with 3GB, no help...

[seertenedos]

I am looking at trying to build system for the video passthrough and i was hoping someone could point me to the best motherboard, cpu and video card working combos.  I am trying ot keep costs down if i can but need to power 2-3 monitors.  iw as hoping for 1 hdmi out from one vm and 2-3 montiro over dvi out from another VM.  would also need a pcie slot for raid card.  Hoping to avoid spending money on a MB that does not work and dual nic is something i would like but can use cards as long as i have enough pcie slots.

I have seen a mention of a google doc that seems to sound like it has this sort of info but no links to the doc.

[derickso]

Here is the link to the spreadsheet of working combinations:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aqp_xYBwP_Y7dE5EclhtaDdIV09lNWxfODd1alRUTlE#gid=0

[seertenedos]

Thanks for posting the link! Interesting that most are running intel and the only ones that comment it working on esxi 5.1 are intel boxes.  I normally go intel but was thinking to go amd to reduce costs for this build.

Does anyone have amd FX build working with video passthrough at the min in 5.1 and any idea if you can pass through the on board raid controllers on gigabyte amd boards? I did most of my research on intel been a big intel user but just noticed the huge price diff between the 2 hence i am looking more at AMD at the min. I really would like to do the board and CPU for under $500 if possible and a need quite a bit of pcie ports to pass throught o vm's. They always seem to be on the more expencive boards and was looking for an 8 core if possible or 4 core plus hyper threading.  I know it will mostly sit idle but i want to hammer it sometimes as well.

[seertenedos]

Wondering if someone can provide feedback on this list of hardware i am looking at.  Some was on the list of working systems and some not but i have seen mention of most parts or similar parts in this post or others so i am hoping i have a working config.  Wanted to make sure i made no stupid mistakes before i order in next few days.

AMD FX-8350 8 Core Processor

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5 Motherboard

ASUS Radeon HD6450 1GB Silent x2

Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB SSD Retail Box - for esxi 5.1 and os partitions of VMs.  Data on existing disks

Puts me a little over budget but i really need a heap of PCIE for passthrough and also for a few extra nics. Also still wondering if i can passthough the onboard sata controllers or not as apart from the ssd i want the rest to go direct to VMs. Lastly does anyone know if the onboard nic will work out of the box and if there are any know issues in using this board/cpu for esxi 5.1.

[derickso]

I haven't tried AMD personally, but you'll want to avoid 5.1 right now because there are major bugs in it affecting pass through. We are all waiting for a patch at the moment.

[seertenedos]

ok so it is bugs they are going to fix not "features" that will be placing some sort of limits from 5.1 on? Does that mean anything working on 5.0 will work on 5.1 once the bugs are fixed or is it still expected to have some support differences. Lastly is there any difference between intel and amd passthrough?  jsut trying to understand why most use intel and it is not more 50/50 especially with others also looking for cheap setups.  Just want to make sure i am not making a mistake.

[derickso]

Not sure, but I believe they stated they intend to fix the passthrough issues. I went with Intel because lots of people had systems that it worked with, and since this is such a niche setup to begin with, no reason to bang my head into the wall trying to make something work that won't.

[mindless728]

I run ESXi 5.0 from my setup:

AMD FX-8120

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3

Visiontek HD7970

So I have a feeling you will be fine with your setup

[bwiklander]

Im also running on an

GA-990FXA-UD3 & Phenom II X6

And one Radeon HD 3870

And another radeon card i cant remember the modell name on...

But i have tried with ha Radeon hd 5450, and that was a no go. Seems like its a couple of people thats having trouble with these cards.

your probably god to go with the UD5 board

2012/12/2 mindless728 <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>>

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

VMDirectPath and ATI Radeon

reply from mindless728<http://communities.vmware.com/people/mindless728> in VMware ESXi™ 4 - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/2156744#2156744

[x1nick]

I have tried to get this running on my Asus P8B-WS before and failed.

Now that my media pc has packed up I am tempted to try again but buying components specific for the job

Has anyone successfully run two VMs with a video card for each? So essentially two media pcs in one box

[bwiklander]

I have, with the setup from my last post.

The biggest trouble is the lack of usb controllers, it would be great if one could passtrough a mouse/keyboard but you now have to passtrough the whole usb-controller

2012/12/2 x1nick <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>>

VMware Communities<http://communities.vmware.com/index.jspa>

VMDirectPath and ATI Radeon

reply from x1nick<http://communities.vmware.com/people/x1nick> in VMware ESXi™ 4 - View the full discussion<http://communities.vmware.com/message/2156763#2156763

[x1nick]

Cheers

no idea how I missed that right above my post

Kind of want to stick to intel chips though, not a fan of AMD anymore, had a fx6100 recently and just seemed lacking compared to some my intel chips. Maybe im just a intel fan boy! :smileyshocked:

[x1nick]

Also thought you could pass through single devices in ESXIi? not that I have tried to ever do this but pretty sure I have seen options

[seertenedos]

Thanks for all the great feedback. Does anyone know a good card that works well with passthough and can pump out 3 dvi screens via dvi or displayport but is also cheap and not a power hog? Since i need passthrorugh i am guessing i will need an ati card

[bwiklander]

Well you can passtrough a single USB-Device, but not like mounse/keyboard stuff, i really dont know why, but keyborad and mouses dont work passing throgh, maybe someone kan explain this?

2012/12/2 x1nick <communities-emailer@vmware.com<mailto:communities-emailer@vmware.com>>

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VMDirectPath and ATI Radeon

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