[mythtv-users] Mythbackend on VMware Server with DVB-tuners

[david robinson]

I use an Asus motherboard that supports Vt-d and vt-x. The key thing here is
to use vt-d support and was really tricky to find a board with this plus
enough pci, supported networking and supported by VMware!. I also then
carefully matched the processor to ensure it had vt-d support (they dont all
have it). Checking intels website against processor models yeilded that
information.

So in the end I went for a Pentium 4 core 2 duo (E8400 3.00ghz). Memory was
normal branded but I made sure to have 6 gig of the stuff. I purchased a
secondary 1gb network card which was pci xpress and used in the graphic card
slot since there was no other available. I have two pci hauppauge cards
which use 2/3 of the pci slots. I also have a standard sata hdd which was
also supported.

I made sure VT-D was enabled in the bios. The OS installed was vmware esxi
4.1.0 build 260247 (free hypervisor).

I then installed opensuse 11.4 as a guest os on esx. In the configuration
for the guest vm I used PCI Passthrough. Now the really important thing here
is, esx will only allow 2 pci devices to be passed through to the guest.
Each hauppauge card is registered as 3 pci devices, so 2 cards would be seen
as 6 individual pci devices!!!!! However, a bit of trial and error
highlighted the fact that you only need to pass through one device for each
card, in my case this was the second pci device for each card. Once this was
sorted I essentially have a virtual replica of a real box YAY.

In opensuse I can install mythtv, add the tv cards, scan for channels etc.
Forget watching tv in a vm as the display adaptor isnt up to it, however so
long as the front end works it doesnt matter. You can now connect your front
end to the server (providing you set the firewall rules correctly).

In addition I mentioned I setup an iscsi device in vmware using the second
network card as a dedicated connection through to my QNap storage device.
This allows the traffic to be isolated to the storage and doesnt affect
normal LAN traffic. It also allowed me to dynammically provision the size of
tv storage.

So how does it perform. My virtual server has run like a dream on 512mb of
virtual mem. I have a fedora 14 front end connecting to the server. I have a
54g wireless laptop also running. The only place I have noticed any kind of
problem, is believe it or not mythweb. I have over 800 movies and it takes
forever to load the thumbnails in on the webpage. TV viewing is faultless
around my house, I have had multiple recordings going and watching tv. It
doesnt fail, and Ive done several inplace upgrades from various releases of
opensuse, so never lost any recordings now!

The best part is my server also runs, Splunk for logging, zoneminder for
camera capture, Asterisk for voip calling and ossim for security testing.
Its the best setup in my mind as it has totally flexibility.

Sorry Ive not listed all the hardware, if you drop me an email direct I can
answer any more questions or propvide a shopping list or guide etc on the
setup :-)

regards,

David

On 3 May 2011 15:46, Fredrik Hallgarde <mythtv at tedde.nu> wrote:

> david robinson skrev 2011-04-30 20:24:
> > Thought it useful to share my experience also with a virtual mythtv. I
> > have running the free version of VMware ESXi with two Hauppauge Nova
> > T-500 cards passed through to the guest operating system. The guest is
> > running Opensuse 11.4 with the latest packaged release of mythtv
> > installed.
> >
> > It took a while to match all the hardware but it was worth it in the
> > end. I now have a super system which runs solidly. I have attached to
> > my network a QNap 509 network storage device and have an iSCSI node
> > attached to my vmware esxi server. This allows me to write all tv
> > recordings across my network and essentially make the server a
> > diskless system.
> >
> > The benefits to this allow me to upgrade mythtv onto a new os or new
> > version without affecting my working installation. I build the new one
> > in the background and then switch over when ready. It also allows me
> > to run lots of other virtual servers in my network. The only thing I
> > would say about virtualisation, products such as VMware Server run
> > ontop of windows so come with additional over head, as would virtual
> > box. ESXi and Xen are very good low level operating systems without
> > the overhead and sit much closer to the hardware.
> >
> > regards,
>
> David,
>
> would you be so kind to share some more details of how you have set this
> up, what hardware do you use? ESXI 4.x ?
> The new server I have is a Q57-chipset which provides AMT 6.0 with
> KVM/VNC which is nice but AFAIK is not fully supported by vSphere.
>
> Do you use VT-d? any issues or other notable things?
> Passthough of the USB-devices or the PCI-card/bus?
>
> Thanks
>
> Fredrik
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