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SCSI card through vmplayer
I have a scsi card that we are trying to pass through to a virtual machine using vmplayer. The SCSI card is used to control a high end printer and not for a hard drive. I have considered vsphere or hyper-v server but want to see if it is possible with what we already have installed .
VirtualizationHyper-VStorage Hardware
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andyalder
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If they don’t support it is there an add on, patch or tool that would? The scsi in question is exphye card used to operate a printer.![image.jpg]()
attached is some hardware info
attached is some hardware info
If they don’t support it is there an add on, patch or tool that would?
No, and if there was a patch the hardware would also need to support it.
A workaround may be to share it on the host and then add the printer to the VM.
Probably best to build a small application system that runs the printer, plus a spare for when the primary fails. I've dealt with specialty printers and non-standard interface cards in the past and my conclusion was "Give it a system it can call its own and leave it alone."
If you can share it over a network ... well and good. However, it's been my experience with these devices that there's always something in the printer software such that the printer driver will only work on the system that actually hosts the hardware.
If you can share it over a network ... well and good. However, it's been my experience with these devices that there's always something in the printer software such that the printer driver will only work on the system that actually hosts the hardware.
Got to agree with Dr. Klahn,
The name Exphye suggests it's a PIF card rather than a simple SCSI HBA which implies it's from a RIP server so it has a lot of CPU work to do. Whilst they can be virtualized sometimes I tend to consider the RIP server to be part of the printer.
The name Exphye suggests it's a PIF card rather than a simple SCSI HBA which implies it's from a RIP server so it has a lot of CPU work to do. Whilst they can be virtualized sometimes I tend to consider the RIP server to be part of the printer.
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What was the different solution you used for your "PIF card" ?
and it also depends on the Physical Hardware (both motherboard, CPU, BIOS, PCI card) as to whether it supports PCI Passthrough, or what is also called VMware Direct Path I/O.
If you are going to try ESXi, you need to check the server is on the HCL, and it also supports VMware Direct Path I/O, and then not all PCI cards are supported.