My Project goal is to build Home Server/Desktop with ESXi, where I could run my Windows, Ubuntu Linux and NAS VMs.
Build Specs
Intel i5-6500, Gigabyte H170 Mini-Itx motherboard, 16GB DDR4 2133 Memory
There is only 1 PCIe slot which is used by additional SATA card.(so cannot use additional VGA card)
I have installed ESXi 6.0 U2 and tried creating Windows 8.1 x 64 bit VM and Windows 10 VM.
VMkernel DEEP 6.0.0 #1 SMP Release build-3620759 Mar 3 2016 18:41:52x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 ESXi
So far I have successful at PCI passthrough of onboard SATA controller and Wireless Controller. Which tells me Vt-d is working without issues.
Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-H AHCI Controller
This needed addition of this line in /etc/vmware/passthrough.map
# INTEL Sunrise Point-H AHCI Controller
8086 a102 d3d0 false
But somehow when i assign onboard VGA(Intel HD 530) for passthrough; VMs get stuck after booting.
Everytime VMs hang right after
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:7: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:6: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:5: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:4: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:3: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:2: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge4:1: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: PCIBridge4: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
2016-04-05T22:36:50.967Z| vcpu-0| I120: pciBridge7:7: ISA/VGA decoding enabled (ctrl 0004)
There is no errors shown, so I don't have much to go on here.
I have tried different combinations of below parameters but still nothing.
pciHole.start="2200"
pciPassthru1.opromEnabled=TRUE
pciPassthru1.msiEnabled = "FALSE"
smc.present = "TRUE"
I have even tried disabling Intel HD530 in Safe Mode and reboot. Enable it later from device manager, while i am in Remote Desktop. But VM just gets stuck right there and my Remote Desktop shows black screen. [Ping still responds]
Also tried disabling and uninstalling VMWare SVGA 3D,
It seems like ESXi is not letting full control of Intel HD530 graphics.
I know Integrated gfx passthrough is not recommended by Vmware; But ideally I would also like to use the same machine Graphics output, so that I don't have to access my VMs remotely when needed. (I could get rid of my old machines)
This setup works fine with XenServer and I am able to see my VM display from Host machine HDMI output.
[But again XenServer cannot do a USB or Bluray Drive passthrough]
I am attaching vmware logs here and my vmx file. Could anyone please see if you can find any error or settings that I could work with to fix the issue.
Note: VM works fine without graphics passthrough or in Safe mode.
Let me know if anything else is needed.
Appreciate your time.
Regards
Deep