I have three NIC's built into my SuperMicro MBD-X9SCL-F-O motherboard. One Single NIC (Intel 82579LM) and One Dual NIC (Intel 82574L). I also bought a PCI-e Intel NIC card so that I could run IMPI on the (Intel 82579LM), run unRAID on the PCI-e NIC and pass-through the dual (Intel 82574L) to a pfSense VM. I have been successful in passing through the (Intel 82574L) to pfSense; however, pfSense only shows one NIC present not two. Is there something extra I have to do in order to get pfSense to see both of the NIC's?

 

On a side note (in case it is relevant) before I added the PCI-e card, the (Intel 82574L) PCI number was 02:00.0 but when I add the PCI-e card it takes over the number 02:00.0 and the (Intel 82574L) changes to 04:00.0. Also, the PCI-e card is just a single NIC but has the same name as the dual NIC (Intel 82574L) I am thinking unRAID is confused?

I think it is you who is confised. :-)  the single nic is not a nic. It is a dedicates ipmi interface. You can not pass it anywhere as it is not a standard network card. What you are passing is your new single  nic card in the pcie slot.  Read the specs for your mb.  Try moving the new card to different pcie slot.

 

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I think it is you who is confised. :-)  the single nic is not a nic. It is a dedicates ipmi interface. You can not pass it anywhere as it is not a standard network card. What you are passing is your new single  nic card in the pcie slot.  Read the specs for your mb.  Try moving the new card to different pcie slot. Most sm boards have pci slots on different controllers.

 

 

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Well you're probably right... I am confused. I believe the single onboard nic or impi interface is 00:19.0 because when it look at the PCI list on unRAID it has the same name as the supermicro website. I am not trying to pass through the impi slot (I already gave up on that idea last week) I am trying to pass through the dual onboard nic (I am assuming that has nothing to do with impi?) I'll try moving the pcie card to a different slot as you suggested though. Can you confirm that XEN can successful passthrough a dual NIC device?

 

So to clarify my plan:

Single onboard nic = IMPI (leave it alone)

Dual onboard nic = passthrough to pfsense

Single pcie nic = interface for unRAID's IP address

Wouldn't you do this?

 

Single onboard nic = IMPI (leave it alone)

Single onboard nic (Intel® 82579LM ) = need unique device ID passed through to pfsense

Single onboard nic (Intel® 82574L) = need unique device ID  passed through to pfsense

Single pcie nic = interface for unRAID's IP address

 

 

That is correct , its not a dual nic in any way other than that they are connected its 2 singlenics

 

 

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I have three NIC's built into my SuperMicro MBD-X9SCL-F-O motherboard. One Single NIC (Intel 82579LM) and One Dual NIC (Intel 82574L).

 

I think that you are a little confused.  The X9SCL has three, totally independent, single port, network interfaces.  There is a Realtek RTL8201N device, which is dedicated to IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface).  To the best of my knowledge, this device is a simple physical interface, requiring a separate controller (provided by the IPMI processor?), and is not accessible to the operating system.

The mobo has a further two network interfaces - an Intel 82579LM and an Intel 82574L.  These are both Intel Gb interfaces, supported by the e1000e driver.  However, these two are significantly different - the 74L is a complete integrated controller, while the 79LM (like the RTL8201N) is simply a physical interface which requires a separate controller (provided by the C202 chipset?).  I have seen comments that the 74L is a slower device but, I guess that this may be dependent on what controller is being used.  It is interesting to note that the newer X9 family motherboards abandoned the 79LM and implemented two 74Ls instead.  The 74L can support IPMI which the 79LM cannot.

 

I also bought a PCI-e Intel NIC card so that I could run IMPI on the (Intel 82579LM), run unRAID on the PCI-e NIC and pass-through the dual (Intel 82574L) to a pfSense VM. I have been successful in passing through the (Intel 82574L) to pfSense; however, pfSense only shows one NIC present not two.

 

I guess that this might be because the 82574L is only a single interface.

 

Is there something extra I have to do in order to get pfSense to see both of the NIC's?

 

Pass through a second device?

OK so to sum up what I think I understand: My motherboard has 3 NIC cards: 1 is dedicated to IMPI and will not show up as a "PCI Device" on unRAID. The other two NIC's are separate and both have their own "PCI Device" id?

 

Assuming the above is correct, I need to pass-through two separate PCI devices in order for pfSense to see 2 separate NIC's. Also, I will need to figure out which one of the 3 motherboard NIC's is dedicated to IMPI...

well that one is easiest of all, the one that is separate on top of the usb ports is IPMI.

also I am not sure if this is true on this MB on some of the MB  one of the built in nic ports can also function as a remote (usually LAN1)

 

on this MB the IPMI port is on Realteck controller and LAN1/2 are on Intel controllers

I thought IMPI was the top one. Alright, I am going to get this darn thing to work tonight!

 

 

on your board it is the top one,

but in addition to the dedicated port, some MB also allow LAN1 to act as the IPMI interface.  not sure if this board have the same functionality though. check with the documentation of it if you need. it would only be needed if you have limited number of lan ports on your switch and could not spare one for IPMI.

You know I think you are right, If I connect to the TOP NIC it will give my an IP address for IMPI and if I disconnect to top NIC and connect to one of the bottom NIC ports it will also go to IMPI. Will I still be able to passthrough both of the bottom NIC to pfSense?

No, if you pass-through both nics to pfsense you loose connection to the server.

however you really do not need to passthrough the nics to VM.

just create bridge to each nic

and add the bridge to the VM. only make sure that the bridge to the WAN connection is not used anywhere else as you will be exposing all to internet.  OR

pass-through one nic and add the bridged connection as second nic to VM. this way the WAN interface will nto be available to anything else, and the LAN can be used by any.

 

although if you have the ports in switch just use the IPMI, but you still should not pass-through the second nic to VM. your choice...

I will need to figure out which one of the 3 motherboard NIC's is dedicated to IMPI...

 

Errr... that's IPMI!

 

Do you not have the User's Manual for the board?  That clearly indicates that the IPMI port is the one stacked on top of the USB ports.

 

The other RJ45 sockets are LAN1(provided by the 82574L - nearest the VGA connector)  and LAN2 (provided by the 82579LM).

I defeated the evil impi and the pfsense VM now shows two network cards!

... evil impi ...

 

impi might be evil but IPMI, on the other hand, is a great blessing for those who run a headless server.

so what's the consensus on NICs and VM passthrough then? I have same setup, i.e. 2 NICs and one IPMI.

 

The 2 NICs however are bonded in 802.3ad, which i would like to keep for unRAID and then perhaps get another card for the VMs.

 

Is this a suitable solution?

Or is that overkill and i should simply use the bonded NIC for everything?

 

The reason for the bond is that the server has an awful lot of LAN traffic that i was improved with this bond....but i'm thinking security or keeping things separate and the fact that this extra NIC for the VMs will only be for internet traffic capped at my internet speed of 80meg.

 

cheers!

 

 

so what's the consensus on NICs and VM passthrough then? I have same setup, i.e. 2 NICs and one IPMI.

 

The 2 NICs however are bonded in 802.3ad, which i would like to keep for unRAID and then perhaps get another card for the VMs.

 

Is this a suitable solution?

Or is that overkill and i should simply use the bonded NIC for everything?

[\QUOTE]

 

this is a reasonable solution and you can use the bonded NIC for everything.

the only time you need a dedicated NIC passed-through to VM is when you have a firewall/router VM like pfSense or a like

 

for that you will need a NIC for WAN(Internet)

and a NIC for LAN (internal network)

 

I am currently have 1 interface for IPMI

 

a dual Intel Pro NIC to be used for pfSense/SophosUTM VM

and a bonded on-board NICs for server LAN interface.

the only reason I have the NICs bonded is because I got dual intell card and have nothing else to use the second on-board NIC for  :-)

 

 

 

 

so what's the consensus on NICs and VM passthrough then? I have same setup, i.e. 2 NICs and one IPMI.

 

The 2 NICs however are bonded in 802.3ad, which i would like to keep for unRAID and then perhaps get another card for the VMs.

 

Is this a suitable solution?

Or is that overkill and i should simply use the bonded NIC for everything?

 

The reason for the bond is that the server has an awful lot of LAN traffic that i was improved with this bond....but i'm thinking security or keeping things separate and the fact that this extra NIC for the VMs will only be for internet traffic capped at my internet speed of 80meg.

 

cheers!

 

If you rally Carl you should Get a physical server for a router

 

 

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