ESXi / Quadro 4000 / VT-D Question

[haileris]

Hi

Dumb question - do I need VT-d switched on if I want to use the hardware acceleration features of the card (not pass thru, just h/w supported vSGA.) I've got VT-d switched off at the moment cos it doesn't play well with a Mellanox card I have installed in the server but I can replace that with a Myricom if needed (would rather not though!)

Thanks

 

[myriad]

I believe you only need the VT-d switch enabled if you are using vDGA, not vSGA. Check the Deployment Whitepaper - page 8 and 18

To use vDGA, verify that the host either supports Intel VT-d (Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) or AMD
IOMMU (input/output memory management unit). Without this, GPU passthrough cannot be enabled.
To check if VT-d or AMD IOMMU is enabled on the host, run the following command via SSH or on the host
console. (Note: replace <module_name> with the name of the module, vtddmar for Intel, AMDiommu for AMD)

 

[haileris]

I believe you only need the VT-d switch enabled if you are using vDGA, not vSGA. Check the Deployment Whitepaper - page 8 and 18

Thanks, was kind of thinking that but wasn't working. Turned out to be I needed to add another video card for the host to user, the instructions on using only a single card didn't work for me. Again many thanks