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Does anyone knows good alternative with GPU passthrough for homelab? Hyper-V is not going to fly since it won't do passthrough on consumer windows. Also not pro

by ex3ndr 3y ago

Does anyone knows good alternative with GPU passthrough for homelab? Hyper-V is not going to fly since it won't do passthrough on consumer windows. Also not proxmox.

freeqaz 3y ago
Xen and KVM will both do this iirc. Requires a bit of work to make it work though. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
- 3np 3y ago
  To add on this when considering what to use: You first want to decide if you want full virtualization (KVM/QEMU) or paravirtualization (Xen). Then you will probably use some operations layer on top of that (e.g. QubesOS and XCP-NG are only Xen; Proxmox is only KVM/containers; libvirtd does both). Then based on that you pick your actual host OS (in case it's not already set). I have GPU passthrough of the iGPU on a Ryzen 4000U working with kvm/qemu+libvirtd on an Alpine base. So the hypervisor runs headless (booting in blind mode) and the guest OS takes over the iGPU entirely. The caveats are explained in that arch Wiki article, IIRC. I think the least obvious part for me was sourcing and loading of the microcode/firmware. Also had success with hybrid graphics (Ryzen APU + AMD RX GPU with one passed through and one on host) on an otherwise similar hypervisor setup on Arch BTW. Even more so than usual, the more recent and obscure your hardware, the higher chance you'll get to compare different kernel versions, incant random undocumented parameters you found in some forum comment, or even reach for out-of-tree patches to get running smoothly.
  - igravious 3y ago
    Why is this comment being down-voted?
transpute 3y ago
XCP-ng (OSS subset of Citrix Hypervisor, both based on Xen). As always, requires GPU and BIOS which supports IOMMU passthrough. https://docs.xcp-ng.org/compute/#pci-passthrough https://docs.xcp-ng.org/compute/#pci-passthrough
- edwintorok 3y ago
  Small nitpick: Next version of Citrix Hypervisor is now called Xenserver again, see https://www.xenserver.com/story https://www.xenserver.com/story Disclaimer: I work here
pezezin 3y ago
Why not ProxMox?
system2 3y ago
Is there anything wrong with ESXi?
- ex3ndr 3y ago
  they do not allow you to use more than 8 cores for VM for example
  - system2 3y ago
    Not unless you get a basic VSphere Essentials for 3 hosts. $500 I know, but you get it once, use it with 3 servers, and control it all from one portal. Moving Vms is super easy with Vsphere too. Of course, you get unlimited cores with it.
    - ex3ndr 3y ago
      Very useful thanks! I guess i would just buy them then.

by ex3ndr 3y ago

Does anyone knows good alternative with GPU passthrough for homelab? Hyper-V is not going to fly since it won't do passthrough on consumer windows. Also not proxmox.

freeqaz 3y ago

Xen and KVM will both do this iirc. Requires a bit of work to make it work though. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF

3np 3y ago
To add on this when considering what to use: You first want to decide if you want full virtualization (KVM/QEMU) or paravirtualization (Xen). Then you will probably use some operations layer on top of that (e.g. QubesOS and XCP-NG are only Xen; Proxmox is only KVM/containers; libvirtd does both). Then based on that you pick your actual host OS (in case it's not already set). I have GPU passthrough of the iGPU on a Ryzen 4000U working with kvm/qemu+libvirtd on an Alpine base. So the hypervisor runs headless (booting in blind mode) and the guest OS takes over the iGPU entirely. The caveats are explained in that arch Wiki article, IIRC. I think the least obvious part for me was sourcing and loading of the microcode/firmware. Also had success with hybrid graphics (Ryzen APU + AMD RX GPU with one passed through and one on host) on an otherwise similar hypervisor setup on Arch BTW. Even more so than usual, the more recent and obscure your hardware, the higher chance you'll get to compare different kernel versions, incant random undocumented parameters you found in some forum comment, or even reach for out-of-tree patches to get running smoothly.
- igravious 3y ago
  Why is this comment being down-voted?

transpute 3y ago

XCP-ng (OSS subset of Citrix Hypervisor, both based on Xen). As always, requires GPU and BIOS which supports IOMMU passthrough. https://docs.xcp-ng.org/compute/#pci-passthrough https://docs.xcp-ng.org/compute/#pci-passthrough

edwintorok 3y ago
Small nitpick: Next version of Citrix Hypervisor is now called Xenserver again, see https://www.xenserver.com/story https://www.xenserver.com/story Disclaimer: I work here

pezezin 3y ago

Why not ProxMox?

system2 3y ago

Is there anything wrong with ESXi?

ex3ndr 3y ago
they do not allow you to use more than 8 cores for VM for example
- system2 3y ago
  Not unless you get a basic VSphere Essentials for 3 hosts. $500 I know, but you get it once, use it with 3 servers, and control it all from one portal. Moving Vms is super easy with Vsphere too. Of course, you get unlimited cores with it.
  - ex3ndr 3y ago
    Very useful thanks! I guess i would just buy them then.