ESXi

  • 1.  PCI Passthrough devices not appearing properly in virtual machines

    Posted Dec 22, 2023 12:11 PM

    PCI passthrough devices all configured at the esxi level and all looks good.

    When setting up the virtual machine, PCI devices are added.

    When the VM boots up, they do appear in the "lspci -vvv" output:

    0000:0b:00.0 Network controller Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 25 GbE Ethernet Adapter [vmnic0]
    Class 0200: 1077:1656


    0000:0b:00.1 Network controller Ethernet controller: QLogic Corp. QLogic FastLinQ QL45xxx 25 GbE Ethernet Adapter [vmnic2]
    Class 0200: 1077:1656

    but not in esxcli network nic list (no vmnic0 nor vmnic2):


    [root@localhost:~] esxcli network nic list
    Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
    ------ ------------ -------- ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- -----------
    vmnic1 0000:1c:00.0 nvmxnet3 Up Up 10000 Full 00:0c:29:2e:21:83 1500 VMware Inc. vmxnet3 Virtual Ethernet Controller

    [root@localhost:~]

     

    Tested on may different guest OSes.  Currently using esxi7.0.3 as the test vm because we're sure that the driver is natively in that.

    Get the same results on linux VMs too: RH, Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc.  All show it in lspci but not in "ip a" etc.

    BIOS settings?  NIC BIOS settings?  Firmware, driver??  Only seems to happen on this particular NIC.

     

    Searching around on similar cases/issues, I see other observations like "driver didn't load properly" or "driver appeared invalid" etc.  Not sure where to look for errors/warnings like that.



  • 2.  RE: PCI Passthrough devices not appearing properly in virtual machines

    Posted Dec 24, 2023 10:24 PM

    As always I would start with installing minor esxi updates. 

    Check VMware Tools version + VMware Hardware version. BIOS should be updated and your qlogic too - firmware and driver. 

    With Windows OS will be easier to troubleshoot what is going on



  • 3.  RE: PCI Passthrough devices not appearing properly in virtual machines

    Posted Dec 28, 2023 02:13 PM

    All those have been checked.

    I've created a Windows10 VM - same results, as expected.

    Can poke around in there - please let me know what needs to be checked in the Windows 10 VM, if you have any ideas.

    Thanks.

     

    Scott

     



  • 4.  RE: PCI Passthrough devices not appearing properly in virtual machines

    Posted Dec 30, 2023 02:34 AM

    FWIIW: I have a dual nic pci card. It is working via PCI pass through in a Linux and a Windows VM. Working fine. 

    When I run "esxcli network nic list", they do not show up. Only the embedded NIC.

    I am running 7.03, Dell version.

    [root@localhost:~] esxcli network nic list
    Name PCI Device Driver Admin Status Link Status Speed Duplex MAC Address MTU Description
    ------ ------------ ------ ------------ ----------- ----- ------ ----------------- ---- -----------
    vmnic0 0000:00:19.0 ne1000 Up Up 1000 Full 64:00:6a:6b:1b:6f 1500 Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-LM

     

    Lou