intel 82579 nic support?

[Jack Vogel]

On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Harald Schmalzbauer <
h.schmalzbauer at omnilan.de> wrote:

>  schrieb Jack Vogel am 07.09.2012 18:53 (localtime):
> > OH, now things are clearer, this is a client part, and it is supported
> > by the em driver,
> > I don't know why loading igb would have any effect. If you load native
> > FreeBSD 8.3 or
> > 9.1 this device should work.
> >
> > The only case where you "pass through" a PCI device to a VM guest that
> > I am familiar
> > with is using Linux/KVM and SRIOV, meaning you give the guest a VF,
> > this support is
> > in the igb and ixgbe drivers.
> >
> > This device is in the chipset, so I was told that a) passing it thru
> > is problematic because
> > its not really a standalone NIC, and it is probably dependent on
> > resources in the chipset
> > that are not being given to the guest, b) there is no real gain with
> > this hardware doing this,
> > you can get performance using the normal virtual device connection.
> >
> > Bottom line, its possible this could be made to work, but I've not
> > done it, and its not
> > something I'm able to support.
>
> Great to hear that 82579 is generally supported by em (4), which should
> be updated by the way.
>

What do you mean it should be updated? As I said, its in the driver in the
latest 8 and 9 releases, what version are you using that you don't see it?



> I'm doing the passthrough not for performance resons in this case, but
> because ESXi5 doesn't iteslf support the 82579.
> My idea was to make it usable anyway by passing it through to my FreeBSD
> Guest. Since I've done the same many times for SAS controllers (for
> performance reasons in that case) successfully with FreeBSD, my idea was
> not too absurd ;-) But I think I can confirm that you are right and
> passthrough with chipset-integrated devices is different (for ESXi),
> since the 82579 passed through to a XP-guest doesn't work either!
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Harry
>
>
Sorry, that this strategy can't work for you at the moment :(

Welcome,

Jack