Boot from Esxi 5.1 passthrough device

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lizardking009

Gawd
Joined
Nov 18, 2005
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If I have a RAID controller passed through to a VM, can I boot from that RAID controller?

Never tried it and currently don't have the hardware to test.
 
not possible.
You must boot from ESXi datastores.
What you can do is using it as a storage device within guests like it is done in all-in-one configs.
 
nope, pass-through only lets that single VM access it

If you must do pass through to a vm, use a separate drive/ motherboard ports / raid card / usb key to load esxi from, better and safer
 
I'm thinking of a second raid card. The server boots from the first card and has datastores. I want to dedicate the second raid card entirely to the VM and boot from it.
 
I don't think that will work. ESXi needs to have a datastore to put the vmdk and other files in. In all-in-one mode, this works by having a storage appliance which lives on a local disk and exports storage back to ESXi via NFS.
 
You can boot ESXi from a stick, yes. ESXi will not let you put a datastore on a stick though (AFAIK).
 
you don't need a datastore..

Basically just install ESXI onto a USB stick or single smaller drive(s) and use your raid card to do pass-through to the single VM you want the performance for (which you likley wont notice anyways)

Question is, why do you think you need direct pass-through?
 
Hmmm, I was wondering about that. Are you sure you can boot the VM from a passed-in controller? I'm not sure there isn't some chicken&egg there with the BIOS in the guest?
 
i was informed that when you pass through a device it is then dedicated to that single VM, so you would first install ESXI, then create a pass through to the VM and POOF! there goes your ESXi.. it wont be accessible.
 
not if you are booting ESXi from some other controller or a USB stick
 
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