UA on Windows 10 VM

[dunakeyr]

I am trying to use unassigned devices on a Windows 10 VM. However I am only able to use the pcie nvme SSD drive as a network drive. The issue lies in the fact that I am trying to install Battle.net games on it, but you cannot use network drives to install Battle.net games.

 

I was wondering if it was possible to use UA with a drive that isn't a network drive, but a normal local drive.

[TType85]

You can create a disk image on the UA device and attach it to the VM or pass the whole disk via /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-xxxxxxxxx (passing the nvme this way may have issues, I haven't had any but others have).  You could also blacklist the NVME and use VFIO passthrough (this is how I am doing it).  

 

[dunakeyr]

15 minutes ago, TType85 said:

You can create a disk image on the UA device and attach it to the VM or pass the whole disk via /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-xxxxxxxxx (passing the nvme this way may have issues, I haven't had any but others have).  You could also blacklist the NVME and use VFIO passthrough (this is how I am doing it).  

 

Any idea what the preformance difference is on running the VM vdisk off of the drive is pcie pass though?

[TType85]

passthrough is going to give you native speeds.  I am not sure how big of a difference there is using a vdisk. For a while I had battle.net games on a vdisk on a UA ssd and I didn't notice any extra load times or issues. The advantage to using a vdisk is you don't have to dedicate the whole drive to the one VM.