Passthrough via WebClient….Nope

Decided to remove my physical plex PC (old and power hungry) and try to virtualize it in my homelab. This will give me a change to play with passthrough mode.

Host Configuration

ESXI03:

• AMD HD6570 (VM Passthrough Device)

• Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (Host GPU)

• Logitech diNovo Mini (VM USB Passthrough)

To begin I need to passthrough the AMD HD6570 and USB EHCI #2 (diNovo USB dongle). From the vCenter web client Select ESXI03 -> Click Manage tab -> Settings -> Hardware -> PCI Devices -> Click Pencil (edit) -> Select devices -> Reboot ESXI03:

VM Configuration

• Add PCI devices

• Memory Reservation

When passing through devices to a virtual machine vSphere will reserve all the guest’s memory. Everything appeared to be going well until I went to apply the configuration. I would get error 0x-73d3 or 0x-5570 depending on the order I selected:

Workaround

Attach the PCI devices to the VM using the C# client instead of the web client:

Now I can remove the old physical HTPC and enjoy HD content from my virtual machine!