Supermicro X9SCM-F and VMWare thread info

I had some issues with the 2.0 BIOS, and later reverted to the 1.1a BIOS firmware.

The on-board NICs ROM got corrupted, lost the ability to disable the on-board SATA ports, and certain settings wouldn't stick no matter how many times I tried to change them(AES-NI refused to enable, same with the SpeedStep settings). I also found a few spelling mistakes that weren't there in the previous BIOS. All in all, a low quality BIOS firmware release IMO.

Since the 1.1a BIOS works great for me, I'll be sticking with it unless they release something interesting.
 
Do any of you have the 2nd rev of this board, the X9SCM-IIF? If so, what would be the equivalent BIOS setting for "PCI ROM Priority" would be?

Doesn't look like it is an option on this board, but it has the same issue where loading ESXi 5U1 takes forever loading megaraid_sas module.
 
Do any of you have the 2nd rev of this board, the X9SCM-IIF? If so, what would be the equivalent BIOS setting for "PCI ROM Priority" would be?

Doesn't look like it is an option on this board, but it has the same issue where loading ESXi 5U1 takes forever loading megaraid_sas module.

I have the first version with 5U1 and didn't change any bios settings (except vt-d) and it works fine... what cards do you have in yours? I just have an M1015 and a dual Intel NIC card.
 
I have the first version with 5U1 and didn't change any bios settings (except vt-d) and it works fine... what cards do you have in yours? I just have an M1015 and a dual Intel NIC card.

M1015 and an HP SAS Expander.
 
Just wanted to tell you guys I think I finally figured out the combination of getting a GPU to work with this board with passthrough.. I'm currently using ESXI 5.1. I couldn't get it to work till i told the board to boot using it(knocks out your iKVM). When you do that I'm guessing the GPU keeps the "stay on" signal because the machine works perfectly with the GPU after that.. I now am just trying to work through getting usb keyboard/mouse working in it.. I can't pass the controller(it won't show up as being added) + I can't select HID devices..
 
I cannot for the life of me get this freaken board's usb controllers to pass through.. They won't even stay in the list.. Anyone know a fix?
 
I cannot for the life of me get this freaken board's usb controllers to pass through.. They won't even stay in the list.. Anyone know a fix?

Why not just add the usb device within ESXi? That works for me (at least with a USB drive).
 
Why not just add the usb device within ESXi? That works for me (at least with a USB drive).

You can't mount keyboard/mouse or any other HID for that matter.. I made a true all in one box.. GPU accelerated gaming in one of my vms..+ storage+networking/router-even to a switch+ and an v center server with a small vdi view deployment(testing).

5.1 doesn't work as well with the usb on this board.. something is borked to where it never allows it to be released to pass through.. Anyways finally got everything working and couldn't be happier.. Never thought you could have 1 box to rule them all by I was wrong.. Have a little netbook/laptop for emergency maintenance..
 
Downgraded it to base 5.0 and said the gpu was used to boot.. so you lose kvm. Passed everything else to it and now it works perfectly..
 
Btw i used to have the "windows can't start this device" problem till i made the gpu the bootable one.. that for some reason made it work properly..
 
Btw i used to have the "windows can't start this device" problem till i made the gpu the bootable one.. that for some reason made it work properly..

What (motherboard) BIOS version are you using and what GPU?
Gave up on this a while ago but may give it another crack...
 
Bios is 2.0a
GPU is a 6870

I'm currently using Windows 7.. I set the video to the GPU instead of onboard so you lose kvm. After that I set it up on pass through along with the USB. I'm running ESXI stock 5.0. After the restart I built a Win 7 Machine with the devices already passed to it and

One thing I did was turned on 3d on the Virtual machine settings.

To get more than 2 gigs of ram add this to the end of the VMX file

pciHole.start = "1200"
pciHole.end = "2200"

You MUST set the reserve as high as the allocated memory..

When it came up it already saw the USB controller and was using it properly. The GPU wasn't working yet. I installed just the driver and it saw it.


Another thing I did was go to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video" and updated the vmware svga driver to this one.. It changes the description in device manager of the VMWare video driver to VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM). After this I restarted. I then went into the display panel and said "Detect Displays" and it showed my 6870. After that I set the 6870 to the primary and such(you lose vmware console doing this). After this GPU worked perfect inside the VM.. Played Black Mesa source actually on it. I will say there was 1 or 2 "hickup" moments where the fps dropped to about 45 FPS but usually runs 300..
 
Btw 5.1 actually sees the 6870 as its whole name and such and the GPU passes perfectly but the usb doesn't..
 
This is the scores I got inside the machine..

scoreda.jpg


And if anyone else has questions I'll try to answer them.. Worked on this thing for a couple of days so happy I could get it to work.. ^_^ a true All in One Box now..
 
Jerky_san: Do you have any LSI controller passed through as well? I remember I had problems with a IBM M1015 before with a GPU on ESXi 5. I could do either but not both.
 
I don't have a controller passed yet.. I've been waiting for 3TB to come down.. I don't have an LSI but I have an adaptec, highpoint, and promise card.. If you want me to try any of the the 3.. I originally was looking at an LSI HBA for my storage piece..
 
If you don't mind trying I think a lot of people would be probably be interested in the results even if its not an LSI card. I plan on trying again soon when I get a chance, but you may have to reinstall ESXi a few times because of the pink screen so I don't know if you want to risk that or not.
 
I find it much easier to just use VMWare Workstation :), but thanks, this does sound like a fun experiment.
 
My findings.. The promise card would boot but then ESXI refuses to load.. on the other hand the Adaptec worked flawlessly and I was able to pass it through and windows 7 instantly installed it. I'm actually looking for my high point card.. can't seem to find it anywhere.
 
Any could advise me how to install a vib package in vmware 5.1? Wmware new here.

Ok I found the correct vib pack for the HP P410 under VMware 5.1 for firmware 5.70.
Its called hpsa-5.0.0-697362.zip.
Inside is scsi-hpsa-5.0.0-28OEM.500.0.0.472560.x86_64.vib .
All good. Now since I have VMWare installed on a USB key, can anyone advise me how to install/include this vib to get it to recognise the HP P410? :confused:
 
Please try the following:
1. Install your machine(s) with the vanilla ESXi 5.0 ISO.
2. Log on to the console (or via ssh) of one of the machines and install the vib file by using the following commands:
esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported
esxcli software vib install -v http://files.v-front.de/net-e1001e-1.0.0.x86_64.vib
3. reboot, configure all NICs, and try to enable FDM then

This is how you do it for the network card so I'm assuming same way for you..
 
I`ve recently changed my 9240-4i to 9260-4i and discovered that the raid 1 i had on a previous controller is shown as should be but the rest 2 hdd`s are shown as unconfigured good. No JBOD...?!?!?
Can anyone help me with setting the hdd`s which are not in raid to JBOD or something alike?
 
I don't know about LSI but on Adaptecs and stuff you just readd the JBODs and it won't overwrite anything on the disk and such..
 
So the 82579LM can't be used at the same time with the 82579L?

I am about to pull the trigger on two more hosts.
 
I'm using community driver packs but I've not tried them in LAG as I'm trying to set my box up to be a router/wireless AP as well
 
I'm using community driver packs but I've not tried them in LAG as I'm trying to set my box up to be a router/wireless AP as well
Thanks for info. I read that if you have cards in a PCI-E slot it may not work, I also need to use a dual nic and an HBA.

Btw, you can still use a virtual router with a LAG if you do a wan vlan and plug your modem into the switch. Make a wan port group and tag it with the same vlan, put your routers outside interface in that port group.
 
Jerky_san, this sounds really interesting. So, you're able to play games ON your ESXi All-in-One by passing your 6870 GPU through?

Can you give us more details? What USB Keyboard/Mouse/Soundcard are you using? Do you have a Sandy Brige or Ivy Bridge (v2) CPU installed? What do you mean by KVM becomes unavailable when you passthrough your GPU - Is IPMI on the X9SCM-F not working then anymore?
 
j1mmy yes.. I currently only use my All in One box now.. So far I've not had any issues.. And fps is similar to using a normal comp.. I passed an entire usb controller to the vm as you can't pass HID devices in ESXI through the USB pass through system.. The proc is a 1240v2 which works very well. KVM functionality is lost on this board if it is not the video that the board first displays the console with. You might say "why not use the onboard to boot and pass the GPU through".. I couldn't ever get that to work.. My guess is the bios/motherboard sends a "power up" command to the GPU and when you don't boot with it. Then the command is never sent.
 
Thanks, I have the exact same processor here and still waiting for my x9scm-f. I figured out that most IPMI function will work (boot,shutdown), but not KVM. Thats fine with me. I don't expect to need that function a lot. I planned to use a low power (15w idle) client with a ITX-H61 board and an intel G530 processor, but inserting a graphics card in the ESXi sounds like fun :) Did you trim your boards PCIe x8 slot or the display card to make it fit? Is there any limitation on what cards are working? I have some old matrox quad display and nvidia 7600 lying around...
 
I actually bought a cable from ebay that turns a 16x into an 8x.. tbh a use a projector ot make a 135' screen so the max res i can have is 1280x800.. I currently use the second 8x slot but as I expand I'll probably put the GPU at the bottom 4x..I'm trying to work it where I can put it above the 1st slot but it is proving more difficult that originally planned..
 
Jerky_san

I pass my GPU as well, using X9SCM and a 1x HSI Radeon 5450.

I have one serious issue...
This is working only once every host boot

Whenever I reboot (or shutdown and then boot) the VM (the one with GPU VMDP) the WHOLE host goes to halt.
You can not connect to any VM and also you can not connect the host using vSphere client.

Since I vmdp`ed the gpu there is no physical console to check the response.

This means I have to do a HARD reset...

This host has an unRaid on it... very bad for business...

Any Ideas?
 
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