[SOLVED] ESXi 5.x PSOD after attaching passthrough PCI Nic

[master.h]

I've got unraid up and running as a VM in esxi 5.x (I've tried 5.0, 5.1, and 5.1 with patch ESXi510-201310001 installed). Every single time I try to start a VM (doesn't matter which) with the NIC attached, it PSODS. VM never boots. I have unraid loading using the plop method, if that matters. I tried ESXi 5.5, it doesn't recognize either my onboard or PCI nic. I have not tried any 4.x versions yet. I would greatly appreciate any advice. My hardware setup is in my signature. Let me know if I need to add more info, or if this was posted in the wrong forum.

 

I've been trying to figure this out for the past 4 hours, and I'm at my wits end.

[prostuff1]

I can not find where this board is actually supported in the hardware whitelist.

 

Does the board actually support the VT-d stuff?

 

I have a feeling you are on your own as far as getting passthrough of a NIC and the like to work.

[BobPhoenix]

I've got unraid up and running as a VM in esxi 5.x (I've tried 5.0, 5.1, and 5.1 with patch ESXi510-201310001 installed). Every single time I try to start a VM (doesn't matter which) with the NIC attached, it PSODS. VM never boots. I have unraid loading using the plop method, if that matters. I tried ESXi 5.5, it doesn't recognize either my onboard or PCI nic. I have not tried any 4.x versions yet. I would greatly appreciate any advice. My hardware setup is in my signature. Let me know if I need to add more info, or if this was posted in the wrong forum.

 

I've been trying to figure this out for the past 4 hours, and I'm at my wits end.

I just use the virtual nics with mine.  But when I used a MB with 4 nics (Tyan S5512GM4NR) I was able to pass them through without a problem.  I would try a virtual nic first and see if your VM works that way first before trying pass through a real one.  What is your MB and CPU? 

 

Also are you trying to pass through a SASLP-MV8 controller as well?  That requires the hack to ESXi posted elsewhere on this forum.  If you are passing through a different controller it is possible that it too requires the hack although I've only had to do the hack on a SASLP-MV8.

[vl1969]

I can not find where this board is actually supported in the hardware whitelist.

 

Does the board actually support the VT-d stuff?

 

I have a feeling you are on your own as far as getting passthrough of a NIC and the like to work.

yes this board supprots VT-d, but it is disabled by default (http://www.cizgi.com.tr/vfiles/pms_dosya/11/p7p55depro_en.pdf)

CPU also supports it according to Intel

 

[master.h]

I would try a virtual nic first and see if your VM works that way first before trying pass through a real one. 

Before I bought the nic (Intel Pro/1000), the unraid VM did not recognize the vnic. I had two other VMs, Windows 7 and MineOS Turnkey (minecraft server), and both saw the vnic just fine, worked with no issues. Even though unraid/plop was set to use the same vnic, unraid just didn't see it. If I sign in to the console and run ifconfig, it only reports a local loopback IP. If I run ifconfig eth0, it returns "device not found" or something similar, don't remember exact error.

 

What is your MB and CPU? 

Mobo: Asus P7P55D-E Pro, CPU: Intel i7-860.

 

Also are you trying to pass through a SASLP-MV8 controller as well?  That requires the hack to ESXi posted elsewhere on this forum.  If you are passing through a different controller it is possible that it too requires the hack although I've only had to do the hack on a SASLP-MV8.

I am passing through a controller, but it's a Perc H310. It's passed through with no issues. Once I pass through the controller and boot up the unraid VM, I can console in and I do see all 8 of my disks and the data is all there.

 

 

yes this board supprots VT-d, but it is disabled by default

I did notice that, and did turn it on. In fact, I turned it on for kicks whenever I first got the board years ago. I double and triple checked last night as well; it's still on.

[prostuff1]

What vnic are you emulating for the unRAID machine?

 

 

I am running ESXi 4.1 and did not have a problem setting the vnic to emulate the intel one.  I have switched it to one of the other ones after getting Zeron's plugin up and running.

[master.h]

I guess I don't understand the question... after the initial ESXi install, everything was already set up. I didn't configure any network settings (aside from assigning a static IP on the ESXi console). I didn't change any network settings in vSphere client. All the VMs I created were assigned to the same vnic (by default called VM Network).

 

It's entirely possible I'm misusing the term vnic. To be honest, since the Windows 7 and Turnkey Linux VMs were working fine, I never looked at the host network configuration in vSphere. I was focused on passing through the PCI nic last night. I'm at work now, so I don't have access to my system at home, but I am going to go home for lunch today. I'll take a look while I'm there.

[BobPhoenix]

You can setup a vnic as an e1000, vmxnet2 or vmxnet3 for the type of nic.  I never had a problem with e1000 in Windows VM or unRAID.  But once you install the VMWare tools in Windows you should be able to switch to vmxnet3 for the nic and get full functionality.  Before the tools are installed if you want to use a vnic you need to use e1000 as the type for a Windows VM (the default I believe).  unRAID 5.0rc16 and I would imagine the released versions as well work fine with vmxnet3 from the start I believe.  You have to delete the vnic and then add one back to the vm to change the type of the vnic.  I usually just setup the type I want when I create the VM and for Windows VM I just don't browse the network until I have the VMWare tools installed in the VM.  I also install the VMWare tools in unRAID but zeron's plugin does not include the vmxnet3 driver because unRAID already has it included according to the forum posts in the thread anyway.  Since I've never tried it without also installing the tools in unRAID so I cannot confirm it does work without installing the tools.

[master.h]

Ah, I understand now. I didn't have time to mess with anything yesterday, so today I signed in to vSphere  and took a look at the nics. Turns out by default unraid/plop vm was using the e1000 nic, but it still wasn't working right. I tried changing to the vmxnet3 type vnic, but still no good. I got the loopback entry only. I'm sure the underlying cause is my hardware, same as the purple screen when passing through a PCI nic. I did order a PCIe NIC though, and it came in today (thank you newegg premiere!). I was able to pass that through successfully. It's the Intel EXPI9301CTBLK from here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033. So my current hardware setup is working, just had to finagle it around a bit. Thanks for the input/advice everyone.