Using a PSTN card like Sangoma A200 or Digium TDM400 on a VM

[m4biz]

Hi!

I'm evaluating the possibilities of virtualizing all my VoIP server based on Trixobox or FreePBX (all Centos based).

The question is : is it possible to use a PSTN card like Sangoma card  A200 + 2 FXO or Digium TDM 400 - that are all PCI cards - on a virtual machine and connect it to the regular PSTN lines?

Or - if this is impossible because VMWare ESXi or VMWare server don't recognize it - is there any suggested workaround?

Thank in advance.

Ing. Cosimo MERCURO

[jrmunday]

PCI passthrough is certainly a viable option with VMware. Although I've not configured once of these cards myself, a quick online search shows that this has been done successfully in the past with similar PCI devices;

http://www.elx.ec/index.php/en/component/kunena/1-installation-issues/94041-setup-of-sangoma-a101-in...

If you have any PCI cards available, then perhaps you could setup a new ESXi host using the 60day evaluation licence to test this yourself.

[m4biz]

Hi jrmunday, thanks for your reply.

I've read the the thread and it has encouraged me to try this way.

But I've at this moment only a VMWare server 2 available (not ESXi).

The question is: is possible to enable Pass-through mode on this sever only for testing purpose?

Thanks in advance.

[jrmunday]

No, I'm fraid this is not possible on VMware Server 2 as passthrough is only supported for generic SCSI devices.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmserver2.pdf