Currently using Unraid 6b4 and have a few VM's spun up.  However, they're all using the same ethernet port.  I've got a Intel 4 gigabit card in the machine for a total of 6 ports.  How do I go about getting Unraid/Xen to use those other ports?

I passed through my onboard Nic to my WHS2011 VM.  I've also got a HDD controller and a USB controller passed through.

Yep, that's the terminology I was missing...  How do I pass through those other nics?

 

I see the following in my LSPCI command

 

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-V (rev 05)
75:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 43b1 (rev 03)
77:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)

 

In your case, I'd identify these and try passing them through to your VM one by one with only one LAN cable attached until you see your VM come up on the network.

 

I have two onboard nics.

What mine shows:

0d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 03)
0f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller

I used 0f:00.0 because on my X7SBE MB I was fairly certain the first one 0d was the first nic that unRAID was using.

Incidentally you can get the display of PCI devices (Like the excerpt above) by going to the Utility Tab in unRAID 6.0B4 GUI and clicking on the PCI Devices icon to bring up the list.  If you didn't already know that.

 

 

 

Thanks guys!

 

You've hit upon the crux of the problem!  I have no idea how to actually pass them to the VM.  Can you recommend any light reading that may explain it?

 

 

1) Guide for Windows VM here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31754.0

    or here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31674.msg287853#msg287853

2) Guide for Ubuntu VM here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32733.0

3) Guide for Arch VM appliance here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=31687.0

 

 

Most of which are in this "unRAID as Host - Xen" forum.

 

 

I used the first two since I was setting up WHS2011 VM on my 6.0B4 box.

 

Yeah, those were my go-to guides as well.  But I didn't see anything specifically regarding passthrough.

 

I've been checking out the Xen wiki and think I'm on the right track.

 

I ran...

 

xl pci-assignable-add 08:04.0

 

which freed up a network connection.

 

The I ran...

 

xl pci-attach 13 '08:04.0,permissive=1'

 

which attached it to my ubunutu VM.

 

Using lspci, i now see it in my ubuntu VM!  Now to figure out how to get the VM to use the passthrough instead of the bridge defined in unraid.

 

I also added the entries to syslinux.cfg with the "pciback?" command.  Which I saw in post(s) in the threads I linked.

 

As to your virtual nic: if you remove the "vif" line you will likely get your VM to automatically find the passed through nic. 

 

In my case I forgot to set bridge mode in unRAID network settings so the only way my first VM had networking was to connect a passed through nic.  I kept it because I wanted it separate anyway but I did try bridged networking too for a while.

 

why would you want to passthrough nics to VM unless it is a firewall/router VM, which needs that for security.

 

not sure if unraid/Xen support this, but on my new VM build (openSuse13.1 host)

I use Nic Teaming/bonding.

 

I have 2 NIC on intel PCI dual port card and 2 built-in.

 

intel ports I want to use for my UTM so they are not touched.

but built in I created an interface  bond0 type bond

added both nics to it.

and setup bridge(br0) on top of that

now all my VMs and the host are using the br0.

 

the network speed had increased quite noticeable.

I'd like to set up pfSense so that's the reason for passing through the nics.

ohh sorry missed that little tidbit :-)

 

yeah, for UTM you need to pass at least one nic in.

not really necessary though, you can  as easily create the bridge for each of the nics in the system and use the bridge for VM.

the only requirement is that the Bridge for the WAN (the one NIC that is connected to the internet directly) MUST clone the MAC of the physical NIC with in VM. otherwise some ISP have issues.