Esxi 4.1 and this MB?

[cenwesi]

Does anyone know if this MB:
ASRock A780GMH/128M would work with Esxi 4.1. I have looked around and found little info. I want to be able to pass PCI card for one of my tuners. I tried Esxi 4.0 in the past and was NOT able to pass pci. Without having to buy a new MB and use existing one i will really appreciate it if someone with esxi knowledge can help me with this info.

Thanks in advance.

[elefante]

VMdirectpathIO needs certain 800 series chipset to work, and you also need a BIOS and a CPU with IOMMU support. 890fx is the only workstation with it today.


Full IOMMU functionality requires a BIOS with an ACPI IVRS table present. Currently only some 890FX motherboards provide an IVRS table[1]:

* ASRock 890FX Deluxe3
* ASUS Crosshair IV
* ASUS M4A89TD Pro
* ASUS M4A89TD Pro/USB3
* Biostar TA890FXE(latest BIOS required)

The server ones have it (magny cours, lisbon).

The intel side really only supports Xeon and that is $$$, although a proc w/ VT-d and certain chipsets. I don't know the exact ones that work.

Keep in mind that regular PCI cards are NOT supported yet, so if it works today, it may not on a patch.

[cenwesi]

Thanks, I guess i need to start saving. I really want to virtualize my box now. I can probably do without passing the pci card now and just use that money and get another HDHomerun device.

What about passing my USB external Harddrive?

[elefante]

USB passthrough is supported in 4.1. I'm not sure on USB3 yet, however USB2 works on mine. I haven't tried a hard drive yet. You can boot esxi off a usb stick and test it pretty easily without touching a hard drive.