Blue Iris in VMWare ESXi 6.7 with passthrough of Intel integrated graphics

eeeeesh said:
Hmm, never saw this thread before...

I have been running Blue Iris on the same server since Nov 2014. I started out with ESXI 5 and currently running v6.7 with the latest patches installed (build 15160138 ). I currently have 11 cameras recording 24/7 (about 4,200 kB/s) and the CPU usage for that VM is around 35%. I also have about 6 other VM's running - server 2012 r2 essentials, PLEX, pfSense, HomeSeer3, etc). The CPU is Xeon E5-2630 v3 which was a little expensive back in the day - around $660, but it is still chugging along just fine. (I have 10 out of the 18 available logical cores assigned to this VM). The only thing 'passed through' are the hard drives using Raw Drive Mapping. If I do try to playback a video clip too fast, it gets a little sluggish, but other than that, it has worked very well for me. In fact, I was thinking of upgrading to a new server on Black Friday which would be 5 years of service, but I think I will go at least another year or two off of this hardware.

If you are using ESXI 6.7, you should really look into 'Veeam backup and replication, community edition' (which is free). Veeam makes a backup while the VM is powered up by first taking a snapshot which it will then delete when completed. I use the option to only include the 'system disk', the hard drives with the video files are excluded. (One of my Virtual Machines is a dedicated to making Veeam backups which automatically run every night). The Veeam software does not have to run in a Virtual Machine, although it is easier that way, you can easily install it on any Desktop with LAN access

Veeam also has a pretty neat system for backing up Windows computers using a USB Drive. I have played around with it a bit, but that is why I have Server 2102 r2 Essentials installed so I never really got into it.

Veeam Community Edition
www.veeam.com

Free Backup Software For Windows, VMware, & More - Veeam

Backup and restore VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines with Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition. Unlimited hosts and VMs. Free forever.
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Veeam Windows Agent
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Click to expand...
Coincidentally, I was like you. I just bought two servers during black Friday to replace my old servers. I finally migrating everything over and powered them off last week. My new servers are not as powerful, but I switched to save power. The old servers was a dual Xeon X5670 with 96GB ram (still ran ESXi 5.1, never upgraded) and a dual Xeon E5-2680 with 192GB ram (ESX 6.5). They just were power hungry. The new servers are just Dell T40 with single E-2224G and I put 64GB ram in each. The ESXi 6.5 server is part of my vSphere cluster, but only powered on when I need to.

I'm new to Blue Iris so hopefully my new servers have enough horsepower. Right now I have two 2MP cameras and my CPU is at 5% with Quicksync enabled. Before iGPU passthrough, my CPU was about 10%. I will probably add another 6 cameras.

I also have pfSense and Plex and some other work related VMs. I'll check out HomeSeer3 and Veeam. Someone also suggested that I try Rubric. Any experience there? Thanks!
 
reflection said:
Coincidentally, I was like you. I just bought two servers during black Friday to replace my old servers. I finally migrating everything over and powered them off last week. My new servers are not as powerful, but I switched to save power. The old servers was a dual Xeon X5670 with 96GB ram (still ran ESXi 5.1, never upgraded) and a dual Xeon E5-2680 with 192GB ram (ESX 6.5). They just were power hungry. The new servers are just Dell T40 with single E-2224G and I put 64GB ram in each. The ESXi 6.5 server is part of my vSphere cluster, but only powered on when I need to.

I'm new to Blue Iris so hopefully my new servers have enough horsepower. Right now I have two 2MP cameras and my CPU is at 5% with Quicksync enabled. Before iGPU passthrough, my CPU was about 10%. I will probably add another 6 cameras.

I also have pfSense and Plex and some other work related VMs. I'll check out HomeSeer3 and Veeam. Someone also suggested that I try Rubric. Any experience there? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Electrical usage can be an issue. With HomeSeer, (z-wave), I have a couple of devices just to measure electrical consumption and for example, my server, modem, router, 24 port switch, are all powered off the same outlet and use consistently around 230 watts. (my server currently has 50 TB of storage). Fortunately, we 'went Solar' several years ago which covers are annual electrical usage, otherwise, I would be looking to upgrade to something newer/more efficient.

Never heard of 'Rubrik', did a quick look and would suggest you check out Veeam first. It just works, and is pretty easy to use. I have made hundreds of backups with it and never had one fail on me. When it comes to HomeSeer - they have a 50% off sale twice a year - usually in May and then again in November. I never saw the need for their 'Pro' version which is twice the price and comes with things that I would never use. So I bought the standard version during one of their sales for $125 - which I felt was a reasonable price. Also, they are about ready to release a new version.

Another popular Home Automation software is Home Assistant. I never tried it, but I have read good things about it and it is opens source

www.home-assistant.io

Home Assistant

Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server.
www.home-assistant.io www.home-assistant.io
 

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Sorry to bump an old thread but i'm trying to accomplish this but I dont see the device to pass through? I just got a e3 - 1275 v2 to upgrade my e3-1230 v1 from years ago. However I'm on the 2. Intel® C204 PCH Chipset . Is that why I'm not seeing a GPU to pass through on esxi? I can't seem to figure it out.
 
bjamm said:
Sorry to bump an old thread but i'm trying to accomplish this but I dont see the device to pass through? I just got a e3 - 1275 v2 to upgrade my e3-1230 v1 from years ago. However I'm on the 2. Intel® C204 PCH Chipset . Is that why I'm not seeing a GPU to pass through on esxi? I can't seem to figure it out.
Click to expand...

Are you running the latest version of ESXi and did you enable passthrough via the host web gui?

If you don't see the iGPU listed under "PCI Devices" (under Manage->Hardware), then your CPU may be too old. The e3-1275v2 is a 2012 processor.
 
reflection said:
Are you running the latest version of ESXi and did you enable passthrough via the host web gui?

If you don't see the iGPU listed under "PCI Devices" (under Manage->Hardware), then your CPU may be too old. The e3-1275v2 is a 2012 processor.
Click to expand...
I'm running ESXi 6.7 update 1.

I am passing through 3 PCI hba cards so passthrough is working but the only thing I see is the built in matrox that's on the supermicro board.

I specifically bought the cpu because it has the gpu on it to use for BI
 
bjamm said:
I'm running ESXi 6.7 update 1.

I am passing through 3 PCI hba cards so passthrough is working but the only thing I see is the built in matrox that's on the supermicro board.

I specifically bought the cpu because it has the gpu on it to use for BI
Click to expand...
Is it possible that that CPU does not have an integrated GPU?
 
reflection said:
Is it possible that that CPU does not have an integrated GPU?
Click to expand...
It's listed on the specs and the only reason I bought it. I'm not sure how else to check. Unless it's the motherboard.


ark.intel.com

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.
ark.intel.com ark.intel.com
 
bjamm said:
Even if the motherboard doesn't have integrated graphics if it's available on the cpu it should be available to pass through?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, it may depend on the BIOS. Does the BIOS have any GPU related settings? ie, memory allocation for the GPU, or selecting which GPU is primary

There also the issue with headless systems where the GPU won't enable unless there's a monitor (or HDMI/DVI dummy dongle) attached to it.
 
bjamm said:
It's listed on the specs and the only reason I bought it. I'm not sure how else to check. Unless it's the motherboard.


ark.intel.com

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.
ark.intel.com ark.intel.com
Click to expand...

You could try booting up your server using a LiveCD to see if it will display to your monitor.
 
I have an i7 machine and I'm trying to passthrough the integrated Intel GPU to Windows 10 running as VM
On ESXi 7 I'm able to passthrough the GPU and even install the driver and everything works fine until the first restart. After restart the Windows just can't load.
On ESXi 6.7 after driver install the Windows just dies
I tried to follow the directions from the people in this thread, but unfortunately with no luck

Any idea what else should I try ?
 
If it is just for Blue Iris, then I suggest you configure sub streams and just forget about hardware acceleration.

No idea what you would need to do to ESXi. I was never successful with Intel GPU passthrough.
 
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