About VMDirectPath I/O passthrough devices
The supported maximums for passthrough devices per VMs are:
- ESX\ESXi 4.0: 2 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 4.1: 4 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 5.0: 4 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 5.1: 4 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 5.5: 16 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 6.x: 16 Devices
- ESX\ESXi 7.x: 16 Devices
For more information, see Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings
Configuring passthrough devices
To configure passthrough devices on an ESX/ESXi host:
- Select an ESX\ESXi host from the Inventory of VMware vSphere Client.
- In the Configuration tab, click Hardware Advanced Settings. The passthrough Configuration page lists all available pass-through devices.
Note: A green icon indicates that a device is enabled and active. An orange icon indicates that the state of the device has changed and the host must be rebooted before the device can be used.
- Click Edit.
- Select the devices and click OK.
- When the devices are selected, they are marked with an orange icon. Reboot for the change to take effect. After rebooting, the devices are marked with a green icon and are enabled.
Note: The configuration changes are saved in the /etc/vmware/esx.conf file.
The PCI slot number where the device was connected is 00:0b:0. It is recorded as:
/device/000:11.0/owner = "passthru"
Note: 11 is the decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal 0b.
To configure a PCI device on a virtual machine:
- From the Inventory in vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
- Click the Hardware tab.
- Click Add.
- Choose the PCI Device.
- Click Next.
Note: When the device is assigned, the virtual machine must have a memory reservation for the full configured memory size.