Use One GPU for multiple VMs

[DiamondShark286]

I am wondering if there is a way to  run to vms from freenas with only one GPU I currently have an msi armor oc edition rx 480. I want to virtualise windows 10 and ubuntu.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

You would have to virtualize the other OS in the primary one. As you cannot give two OSs access to the same GPU at the same time.

 

So either run WIndows 10 on Ubuntu, or the other way around.

[DiamondShark286]

4 minutes ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

You would have to virtualize the other OS in the primary one. As you cannot give two OSs access to the same GPU at the same time.

 

So either run WIndows 10 on Ubuntu, or the other way around.

Would there be anyway to give each vm its own keyboard/mouse?

[TheNuzziNuzz]

1 minute ago, Tb428 said:

Would there be anyway to give each vm its own keyboard/mouse?

I believe you can. I have looked into it briefly.

 

Why do you need to run two OSs? What OSs?

[DiamondShark286]

1 minute ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

I believe you can. I have looked into it briefly.

 

Why do you need to run two OSs? What OSs?

like I said ubuntu and windows 10. I want to have the ubuntu machine for a second gaming machine for light games like csgo to play with my friends.

[TheNuzziNuzz]

3 minutes ago, Tb428 said:

like I said ubuntu and windows 10. I want to have the ubuntu machine for a second gaming machine for light games like csgo to play with my friends.

Do you need to run both OS's at the same time?

[TheNuzziNuzz]

3 minutes ago, Tb428 said:

like I said ubuntu and windows 10. I want to have the ubuntu machine for a second gaming machine for light games like csgo to play with my friends.

Why don't you just use Windows for light gamming? Why Ubuntu?

[DiamondShark286]

2 minutes ago, TheNuzziNuzz said:

Do you need to run both OS's at the same time?

yes like I said playing games with my friends and I don't want to buy another copy of windows. I already use windows daily but I want to have ubuntu(or some other distro of linux)

[Electronics Wizardy]

27 minutes ago, Tb428 said:

I am wondering if there is a way to  run to vms from freenas with only one GPU I currently have an msi armor oc edition rx 480. I want to virtualise windows 10 and ubuntu.

FreeBSD doesn't support pci passthrough, so you would need to run linux to pass the gpu through.

 

Do you need to have a gpu passthroughed to both, you can just run the ubuntu vm with a software gpu.

 

do you want to connect to the computer directly, or use remote desktop, you can split the gpu up in software with hyper-v and remotefx, but performance is bad and you can't use the ports on the gpu.

[Streetguru]

35 minutes ago, Tb428 said:

I am wondering if there is a way to  run to vms from freenas with only one GPU I currently have an msi armor oc edition rx 480. I want to virtualise windows 10 and ubuntu.

You need one of these from AMD, it's specifically designed to be virtualized to many users, least I think that's the right card

http://www.amd.com/en-us/solutions/professional/virtualization

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Streetguru said:

You need one of these from AMD, it's specifically designed to be virtualized to many users, least I think that's the right card

http://www.amd.com/en-us/solutions/professional/virtualization

 

Except there aren't supported in freenas and need vmware horizon or citric xen to use. 

 

Also you can use nvidia grid or tesla cards. 

[Streetguru]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Except there aren't supported in freenas and need vmware horizon or citric xen to use. 

 

Also you can use nvidia grid or tesla cards. 

How much are the nvidia cards? the fire pro 7150 is like $1750

I'm sure he could find some way to do what he's trying to do with one, it'd be the best candidate anyways

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814105061&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Video+Cards+-+Workstation-_-N82E16814105061&gclid=Cj0KEQiA5bvEBRCM6vypnc7QgMkBEiQAUZftQJJYScrxgBOWTMzAs00HrbE-YqqUtx9trw14WBX-tMcaAvtp8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Streetguru]

3 hours ago, Tb428 said:

yes like I said playing games with my friends and I don't want to buy another copy of windows. I already use windows daily but I want to have ubuntu(or some other distro of linux)

In any case, you could just use your iGPU for freeNAS, and then virtualize 2 GPUs, like an RX 470 for the windows 10 machine, and a super cheap anything for the ubuntu machine

but I'm no expert in crazy GPU passthrough set ups

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

How much are the nvidia cards? the fire pro 7150 is like $1750

I'm sure he could find some way to do what he's trying to do with one, it'd be the best candidate anyways

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814105061&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Video+Cards+-+Workstation-_-N82E16814105061&gclid=Cj0KEQiA5bvEBRCM6vypnc7QgMkBEiQAUZftQJJYScrxgBOWTMzAs00HrbE-YqqUtx9trw14WBX-tMcaAvtp8P8HAQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

The problem is if you want to use that, you basically need the whole vdi install, which normally requires AD(think 500+ windows server linence). You also need thinclients to use it. 

 

NO use getting a cheap gpu, might as well use a software emulated gpu and remote in.

 

Don't use freenas/freebsd as a vm host, there very bad for that. If you want a good vm host with zfs, look at proxmox.

[Streetguru]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The problem is if you want to use that, you basically need the whole vdi install, which normally requires AD(think 500+ windows server linence). You also need thinclients to use it. 

 

NO use getting a cheap gpu, might as well use a software emulated gpu and remote in.

 

Don't use freenas/freebsd as a vm host, there very bad for that. If you want a good vm host with zfs, look at proxmox.

Well ya not counting the cost of the server it needs to go in

 

although what he should really probably do is just build a cheap AMD APU side machine that'll run those games just fine, probably when AM4 comes out, could go ultra ITX in like an Elite 110 case, and it'll draw around 100W while gaming

[Brian Furious]

The only answer I know for you is getting unRAID. What you want to do is to have a direct access to the VM via GPU but it is possible only having it as a passthrough. So far I know only unRAID that does it but you can't have 1 GPU controlling in real time many VMs as passthrough, you need to turn one at the time if you want to, otherwise you control them via software graphics.

[samiscool51]

On 31/01/2017 at 2:16 AM, Tb428 said:

Would there be anyway to give each vm its own keyboard/mouse?

that is something many developers add into virtualisation software, your fav virtualisation program should support it 

On 31/01/2017 at 2:09 AM, Tb428 said:

I am wondering if there is a way to  run to vms from freenas with only one GPU.

to put it into terms even my wife's grandma will understand

it's like giving 2 toddlers a cookie and they have to share it, because they are toddlers they will fight over it and beat the s**t out of each other

[Falconevo]

Nvidia Grid cards (K and M series) and AMD FirePro S are cards that are capable of allowing for vGPU resource sharing within multiple VMs.  However it comes with caveats such as software and driver support.  The technology is in its infancy and is expensive currently, the enterprise uptake on it has been slow and plagued with problems.  I have implemented a XenServer farm with vGPU sharing using Nvidia Grid K series cards and it is an asshole to manage.

 

Hypervisor support with solid driver support is currently limited to XenServer and VMWare using Horizon.  XenServer is free but comes with no support, VMWare requires licensing which can be expensive.  If you just had a single VM and wanted to pass through a single GPU to it, that's easy but sharing GPU resource requires a whole different level of thinking and planning.

 

Windows drivers inside the VM work as expected, Linux are pretty poor and don't function correctly for the use case.

 

Unless you have £5000+ burning a hole in your pocket I wouldn't bother going any further

[DiamondShark286]

4 hours ago, Falconevo said:

Nvidia Grid cards (K and M series) and AMD FirePro S are cards that are capable of allowing for vGPU resource sharing within multiple VMs.  However it comes with caveats such as software and driver support.  The technology is in its infancy and is expensive currently, the enterprise uptake on it has been slow and plagued with problems.  I have implemented a XenServer farm with vGPU sharing using Nvidia Grid K series cards and it is an asshole to manage.

 

Hypervisor support with solid driver support is currently limited to XenServer and VMWare using Horizon.  XenServer is free but comes with no support, VMWare requires licensing which can be expensive.  If you just had a single VM and wanted to pass through a single GPU to it, that's easy but sharing GPU resource requires a whole different level of thinking and planning.

 

Windows drivers inside the VM work as expected, Linux are pretty poor and don't function correctly for the use case.

 

Unless you have £5000+ burning a hole in your pocket I wouldn't bother going any further

thanks like i said it would just be for a dual gaming machine so if i had that kind of money i could get dual 1080s for each vm so for me and probably anyone else not looking to virtualize 5+ high power machines.  it would not be worth it and they should just get another cheaper card like rx 480 or gtx 1070.