ESXI 6.0 Passthrough onboard SATA

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AveryFreeman

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Mar 17, 2017
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I have tried this on my C612 Wellsburg X10SRL-F and it hasn't worked so far - Wellsburg AHCI still shows up in Manage-->Hardware as greyed out at best (if not in passthrough.map as d3d0 it doesn't show up at all). so far I've tried
Code:
venid devid d3d0 false
venid devid d3d0 default
venid devid link false
veind devid default false
Has anyone with a C61x chipset been able to get this to work?? I am running out of PCIe slots...
 

MikeWebb

Member
Jan 28, 2018
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I've had issues with the Lewisburg Sata chipset and pass through in 6.7. Tried all the tricks then gave up and moved back to proxmox
 

liv3010m

New Member
Jul 22, 2018
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Buenos Aires, Argentina
I'm having the same problem as others are reporting, adding the adapters vendor and device ID to the passthru.map file doesn't change anything.

[root@localhost:~] lspci -n
Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 19.30.27.png

[root@localhost:~] vi /etc//vmware/passthru.map
Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 19.32.13.png

ESXi HTML5 UI
Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 19.32.57.png

[root@localhost:~] vmware -vl
Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 22.01.21.png

Edit:
Updated to ESXi-6.7.0-20180804001-standard
Screen Shot 2018-09-23 at 21.49.09.png

And migrated from a USB boot option to a local installed disk option.
Nothing changed.
 
Last edited:

Alex Iatan

New Member
Jul 25, 2017
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Sorry to reactivate this thread, now in 2021. I have a Chinese Yanling mini pc and need to passthrough the only xHCI usb controller to a ubuntu VM. I am on Esxi 6.5.0 version. Host and Datastore on same drive.
Initially the controller appeared greyed out and not capable.
0000:00:14.0 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller.
i have found also 0000:00:14.0 Class 0c03: 8086:9d2f. So after made changes on passthru.map file and something strange came up.
On vSphere Web Client the controller appeared as Disabled and grey out BUT, on vSphere Client it was not greyed out anymore and I was able to passthrough the Controller.
Can someone explain this insane behavior?
Kind regards
 

AveryFreeman

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Mar 17, 2017
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Sorry to reactivate this thread, now in 2021. I have a Chinese Yanling mini pc and need to passthrough the only xHCI usb controller to a ubuntu VM. I am on Esxi 6.5.0 version. Host and Datastore on same drive.
Initially the controller appeared greyed out and not capable.
0000:00:14.0 Serial bus controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller.
i have found also 0000:00:14.0 Class 0c03: 8086:9d2f. So after made changes on passthru.map file and something strange came up.
On vSphere Web Client the controller appeared as Disabled and grey out BUT, on vSphere Client it was not greyed out anymore and I was able to passthrough the Controller.
Can someone explain this insane behavior?
Kind regards
Not sure, as we were all working on passthrough for our Wellsburg AHCI SATA controllers. You could try adjusting the parameters explained at the top of passthrough.map, though.

Maybe it's got the wrong reset method, or is set to be ftpSharable when it should not be (most likely it is not).

Would you like to post your current passthrough.map?

For reference:

Code:
# passthrough attributes for devices
#
# file format: vendor-id device-id resetMethod fptShareable
# vendor/device id: xxxx (in hex) (ffff can be used for wildchar match)
# reset methods: flr, d3d0, link, bridge, default
# fptShareable: true/default, false
#
# Description:
#
# - fptShareable: when set to true means the PCI device can be shared.
#   Sharing refers to using multiple functions of a multi‐function
#   device in different contexts. That is, sharing between two
#   virtual machines or between a virtual machine and VMkernel.
#
# - resetMethod: override for the type of reset to apply to a PCI device.
#   Bus reset and link reset prevent functions in a multi-function
#   device from being assigned to different virtual machines, or from
#   being assigned between the VMkernel and virtual machines. In
#   some devices it's possible to use PCI power management capability
#   D3->D0 transitions to reset the device. In the absence of the
#   override, the VMkernel decides the type of PCI reset to apply
#   based on the device's capabilities. The VMkernel prioritizes
#   function level reset (flr).
#
#
# Restrictions:
#
# - PCI SR-IOV physical and virtual functions (PFs/VFs) are not allowed
#   in the list below. Those must support function-level-reset and
#   must be shareable.
#
# examples:
# Intel 82579LM Gig NIC can be reset with d3d0
8086 1502 d3d0 default
# Intel 82598 10Gig cards can be reset with d3d0
8086 10b6 d3d0 default
8086 10c6 d3d0 default
8086 10c7 d3d0 default
8086 10c8 d3d0 default
8086 10dd d3d0 default
 
Last edited:

Alex Iatan

New Member
Jul 25, 2017
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Sure. Here it is: I marks my adds regarding the xHCI controller

# passthrough attributes for devices
# file format: vendor-id device-id resetMethod fptShareable
# vendor/device id: xxxx (in hex) (ffff can be used for wildchar match)
# reset methods: flr, d3d0, link, bridge, default
# fptShareable: true/default, false

# Intel 82579LM Gig NIC can be reset with d3d0
8086 1502 d3d0 default
# Intel 82598 10Gig cards can be reset with d3d0
8086 10b6 d3d0 default
8086 10c6 d3d0 default
8086 10c7 d3d0 default
8086 10c8 d3d0 default
8086 10dd d3d0 default
# Broadcom 57710/57711/57712 10Gig cards are not shareable
14e4 164e default false
14e4 164f default false
14e4 1650 default false
14e4 1662 link false
# Qlogic 8Gb FC card can not be shared
1077 2532 default false
# QLogic QL45604 cards need to be reset with "link" and cannot be shared
1077 1634 link false
1077 1629 link false
1077 1636 link false
1077 1656 link false
1077 1644 link false
1077 1654 link false
# LSILogic 1068 based SAS controllers
1000 0056 d3d0 default
1000 0058 d3d0 default
# NVIDIA
10de ffff bridge false
# Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller
8086 9d2f d3d0 false
 

AveryFreeman

consummate homelabber
Mar 17, 2017
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# Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller
8086 9d2f d3d0 false
I'd try a different rest method. Maybe start with default and see if ESXi will choose one for you, and if that doesn't work, try the hard level reset ones (link and bridge). It looks like "default" will try to use "flr" if it's possible, so that'd be the last one I'd try if none of the others work.

Code:
# - resetMethod: override for the type of reset to apply to a PCI device.
#   Bus reset and link reset prevent functions in a multi-function
#   device from being assigned to different virtual machines, or from
#   being assigned between the VMkernel and virtual machines. In
#   some devices it's possible to use PCI power management capability
#   D3->D0 transitions to reset the device. In the absence of the
#   override, the VMkernel decides the type of PCI reset to apply
#   based on the device's capabilities. The VMkernel prioritizes
#   function level reset (flr).
You could always try seeing if it could be shared, too, but I doubt it. Good luck!
 

Alex Iatan

New Member
Jul 25, 2017
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Thank you for explanation. On every method, no matter the activation sequence my problem is that on vSpere Web Client the controller is greyed out but on vSphere Client i am able to passthrough. So, if i will "accidentally" upgrade to esxi 6.7 or 7 i will loose the possibility of passthrough for my device...
 
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AveryFreeman

consummate homelabber
Mar 17, 2017
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Near Seattle
averyfreeman.com
Thank you for explanation. On every method, no matter the activation sequence my problem is that on vSpere Web Client the controller is greyed out but on vSphere Client i am able to passthrough. So, if i will "accidentally" upgrade to esxi 6.7 or 7 i will loose the possibility of passthrough for my device...
Well, I hope that's not the case - I'd start a more specific thread explaining the big picture situation, that you can pass through a device on one platform but not the other, and see if other people have had similar experiences (regardless of the device). Maybe that can give you more insight into what to do going forward.

There's also reddit /r/homelab if you don't get many responses here. Good luck!