Strange PCI passthrough failure in ESXi 7

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vangoose

Active Member
May 21, 2019
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Canada
Tried to passthrough another LSI 3008 but failed with error Failed to unbind devices.
The device is not used at all, I have the onboard LSI 3008 passthrough without problem.

Conflict between the two? The onboard has IT firmware 18 from SM, the add-on has P16 from LSI.
 

ERM-Consulting

New Member
Sep 18, 2020
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There seems to be a bug in VMWare 7.0. Please check the link to my forum topic: how to use 12GB/s Disks via VMWare 7.0 - XigmaNAS

The current status is:
I never got Perc730mini up and running in VMs after passthrough, so I changed the controller to Dell HBA330

That controller is recognised from freeNAS and XigmaNAS emmediately after passthrough.
dmesg:
mpr0: <Avago Technologies (LSI) SAS3008> port 0x6000-0x60ff mem 0xfd2f0000-0xfd2fffff,0xfd100000-0xfd1fffff irq
BUT...
Using VMWare 7.0
I do not get the controller passthrough, after I attach a disk!
The controller is not shown anymore as a passthrough device in vSphere Client: Configure->HardWare->PCI Device

Trying to Configure Passthrough again in VMWare 7.0 for the controller we get:

An error occurred during host configuration.
Failed to unbind devices: 0000:02:00.0. Configuration will be applied after reboot.
But that is a loop, Even after reboot the device is not in the Passthrough-enabled devices.
Only without disks the HBA330 can be set to passthrough with VMWare 7.0
 

ERM-Consulting

New Member
Sep 18, 2020
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1
@vangoose: you write:
I have the onboard LSI 3008 passthrough without problem
Do you have disks attached to that controller? I cannot passthrough any controller with disks using VMware 7.0
Tried it with Perc H730 as well as with HBA330 (both as mini monolithic controller and not as PCI-adapter card)
 

vangoose

Active Member
May 21, 2019
326
104
43
Canada
@vangoose: you write:
Do you have disks attached to that controller? I cannot passthrough any controller with disks using VMware 7.0
Tried it with Perc H730 as well as with HBA330 (both as mini monolithic controller and not as PCI-adapter card)
Yes I have 8 SAS SSD, was planning to use truenas for test environment.

Onboard 3008 works with 8 SAS disks attached.