Crunching in a Virtual Machine

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
Posts: 1709
Credit: 1454483783
RAC: 8522

here is a link that might

here is a link that might help either of us. I just ported my website to a virtual server so I have not had time to switch out hardware. I am testing on an outside network at the moment. Starting with step 8 on this page might provide valuable insight in how to get this working. He is not using xenserver but Linux mint. Also he is not using a GTX card but some other NVIDIA product.

Aside: I too am happy with the xenserver. It has been a real eye opener.

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
ExtraTerrestria...
Joined: 10 Nov 04
Posts: 770
Credit: 536630993
RAC: 185319

BTW: GPU-Grid is faster under

BTW: GPU-Grid is faster under Linux and Win XP than under newer Windows. This alone could be motivation enough for some to get this going.. unless the performance loss offsets the gain.

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

Logforme
Logforme
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 332
Credit: 1714373961
RAC: 0

RE: here is a link that

Quote:
here is a link that might help either of us. I just ported my website to a virtual server so I have not had time to switch out hardware. I am testing on an outside network at the moment. Starting with step 8 on this page might provide valuable insight in how to get this working. He is not using xenserver but Linux mint. Also he is not using a GTX card but some other NVIDIA product.

I have not seen that link before, but others like it. Unfortunately xenserver doesn't use a debian derived dist but instead uses "Modified CentOS 5.7", which I gather is in the red hat "family". This makes following instructions like these guides hard for me since I'd have to translate to a linux I have no experience of.

To add insult to injury xenserver uses a very old kernel (2.6.32.43) and an old xen version. Both which seems to lack a lot of stuff that these guides seem to depend on. According to the xenserver roadmap these should have been upgraded in Q3 2013 but I guess the move to open-source put a spanner in the works.

Until xenserver gets an overhaul I don't think these kind of guides will help us. I'm not holding my breath. If I really needed the GPU pass-through I'd look into vSphere 5.5 or rolling my own like in the link you supplied.

ExtraTerrestrial Apes
ExtraTerrestria...
Joined: 10 Nov 04
Posts: 770
Credit: 536630993
RAC: 185319

Not being productive here..

Not being productive here.. but: Cent OS 5.7?! Oh dear! That's the same clunky dinosaur we have to use at work because some special software doesn't work with anything else (and the dev's have no idea why). After having to deal with this OS every couple of months I really hate it by know. Anyhow, don't let yourself be discouraged!

MrS

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
Posts: 1709
Credit: 1454483783
RAC: 8522

This has been a couple of

This has been a couple of "tough" days. I was hoping to have something positive to report but my experience with "gpu pass through" has been less than sterling. While looking through the motherboard manual I had enabled virtualization. I found an online copy and searched for VT-d - essential it be "enabled". Nothing. Well to my surprise late last night I found that the BIOS did in fact have a "toggle" for VT-d. I was hopeful but it made no difference. I had bought a cheap Radeon HD6450 was was reported as working with xen. No luck. In my windows box under systems the only device I could see was "standard vga". More googling. Found that for the radeon drivers to install you had to have "NET Framework 4.5" or better. So I upgraded. Without Win7 VM seeing the Radeon device installing drivers would be of little value. In fact they won't install. Pulled the Radeon and went with a GTX 650 Ti. Same problem: Win 7 device manager would only see the "standard VGA"

On the xenserver host a lspci | grep VGA would show both the built in graphics and either the Radeon or Nvidia card depending on which was installed. Xenserver's tab for GPU for the xenserver host would also correctly identify the device. But it was not available to Win 7.

I'm just not seeing the missing piece. Mas Tequila!!!

DanNeely
DanNeely
Joined: 4 Sep 05
Posts: 1364
Credit: 3562358667
RAC: 1580

Does the CPU you're using

Does the CPU you're using support vt-d too? I'm asking, because of the ones on your profile, one of them, the i7-950 doesn't support it.

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
Posts: 1709
Credit: 1454483783
RAC: 8522

RE: Does the CPU you're

Quote:
Does the CPU you're using support vt-d too? I'm asking, because of the ones on your profile, one of them, the i7-950 doesn't support it.

You scared the tar out of me. :>) For a moment I thought I had made a serious mistake. The VM machine is the I7-4770.

Also another question. This VM machine has been defined with 7 Virtual CPUs but only one job is running in E&H. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Logforme
Logforme
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 332
Credit: 1714373961
RAC: 0

Are you sure you have 7 CPUs

Are you sure you have 7 CPUs inside the VM? Boinc only says you have one. Check with the taskmanager in the VM.
On my VM I have 2 CPUs set up and Boinc got work for both

robl
robl
Joined: 2 Jan 13
Posts: 1709
Credit: 1454483783
RAC: 8522

RE: Are you sure you have 7

Quote:
Are you sure you have 7 CPUs inside the VM? Boinc only says you have one. Check with the taskmanager in the VM.
On my VM I have 2 CPUs set up and Boinc got work for both

Your are correct. The task manager in the VM indicates one cpu. However in XenCenter when I click on "properties" for the windows VM it says 7 vCPUs. I stopped the VM changed number of vCPUs to 4 restarted. No change. Windows thinks it is still one cpu. Does memory allocation impact how the number of CPUs will be defined. I have 4096MB of memory defined for this windows VM.

Logforme
Logforme
Joined: 13 Aug 10
Posts: 332
Credit: 1714373961
RAC: 0

Guess you installed a single

Guess you installed a single CPU version of windows. Did it only have one vCPU when you installed windows?
Look at this thread

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.