[20 Bitcoins bounty] For instructions on how to install ATI 58XX drivers on ESXi - page 2.

drgr33n

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Quote from: Capitan on July 03, 2011, 02:07:22 PM

Your problem is that you for some reason are stuck on using ESXi. You have a few options.

1. I read somewhere that Windows only uses 100% CPU under certain SDK/driver versions. So if you can find the driver version that doesn't use 100% CPU for mining, you can run windows as the host OS and mine there, and still instlal your guest VM's.
2. Linux doesn't have the problem of 100% CPU use during mining. SO you can use linux as your host OS, mine from there, and install VMWare or some other VM software, and run your guest VM's from that.

ESXI is a OS not a installable exe. This guy wants to run his ESXI server as normal but cram it with GPGPU's and mine while it's sitting there acting as a server. Well so I can make out. I'd use VMDirectPath to connect the GPGPU's to a linuxcoin machine and mine from that.

Capitan

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Your problem is that you for some reason are stuck on using ESXi. You have a few options.

1. I read somewhere that Windows only uses 100% CPU under certain SDK/driver versions. So if you can find the driver version that doesn't use 100% CPU for mining, you can run windows as the host OS and mine there, and still instlal your guest VM's.
2. Linux doesn't have the problem of 100% CPU use during mining. SO you can use linux as your host OS, mine from there, and install VMWare or some other VM software, and run your guest VM's from that.

drgr33n

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Quote from: blumpkinpie76 on July 03, 2011, 11:37:03 AM

I say its theoretically possible, but would require extremely major modification of both ESXi and the fglrx drivers, so not something you could just make some instructions for. I am curious as to why you would want to do this. I am also missing the connection to reusing the server for headless Windows server.

I would think it would take a professional coder much more than 20 BTC worth of time to complete a project of this magnitude, even at the all time high BTC/USD exchange rate.

I do, however, like your thinking because sometimes it is unconventional ideas like this that spur innovationa and development.

BTW, are you the guy with the youtube videos about silver?

Why would you have to mod the fglrx drivers ?

nebiki

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Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:07:09 AM

Who knows you may even start a craze of server managers installing Graphics cards in their servers to mine for bitcoins or namecoin or whatever.

aren't servers usually 2U? a graphics card won't fit in these.

blumpkinpie76

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I say its theoretically possible, but would require extremely major modification of both ESXi and the fglrx drivers, so not something you could just make some instructions for. I am curious as to why you would want to do this. I am also missing the connection to reusing the server for headless Windows server.

I would think it would take a professional coder much more than 20 BTC worth of time to complete a project of this magnitude, even at the all time high BTC/USD exchange rate.

I do, however, like your thinking because sometimes it is unconventional ideas like this that spur innovationa and development.

BTW, are you the guy with the youtube videos about silver?

drgr33n

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Let me get this strait. You want to mine on your esxi server while the server is running other virtual machines ?

If so PM me I could do with £200 and could help you out Wink

padrino

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Quote from: shotgun on June 29, 2011, 11:08:39 PM

I manage a bunch of ESX and ESXi clusters. What the OP wants to do is... for lack of a better word, useless. If you have GPU cards in a server/workstation then you should just install LinuxCoin on that box and run your miners. Installing ESX/i doesn't give you any benefit, even if it were possible to get the drivers to work with the GPUs, because the whole point of ESX is to virtualize hardware. Since by definition you cannot virtualize GPU resources, and even then miners use 100% of the GPU resources anyway, there's NO REASON TO USE VIRTUALIZATION TO MINE.

Let's step through the BS in your post

1. "useless"? I have numerous VMs across multiple ESXi systems and need to keep them running, that is high power readily available hardware prime for GPUs. I need to keep ESXi running so why wouldn't I try and leverage the hardware on hand and do what the OP is looking to do.

2. You can virtualize GPU resources at varying levels between hypervisors however at this time not OpenCL. In this case pass that GPU directly to the VM itself using VT-d or IOMMU letting the VM execute whatever it wants on the GPU.

break break...

To address the OPs question, I have a couple of ESXi systems myself and was thinking the same thing since it's hardware. The primary issue is the stack of software you need to talk to the card, one can hack some packages into ESXi but you need X windows running with the fglrx driver. That requirement means you will need a large stack of packages to get it moving and would need to start hacking in a big way, start by researching whether or not it's even possible to get X running on ESXi itself.

Sadly my ESXi systems do not support VT-d/IOMMU or I would install my GPUs, map them to a VM and run my miners there.

nemo

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Quote from: Keninishna on July 03, 2011, 02:25:10 AM

Who cares about his reasons? Theres a 20 BTC bounty!

More than 20.

Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:28:13 AM

Thanks I guess I am SOL. Maybe if I up the bounty?

Keninishna

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Quote from: shotgun on June 29, 2011, 11:08:39 PM

I manage a bunch of ESX and ESXi clusters. What the OP wants to do is... for lack of a better word, useless. If you have GPU cards in a server/workstation then you should just install LinuxCoin on that box and run your miners. Installing ESX/i doesn't give you any benefit, even if it were possible to get the drivers to work with the GPUs, because the whole point of ESX is to virtualize hardware. Since by definition you cannot virtualize GPU resources, and even then miners use 100% of the GPU resources anyway, there's NO REASON TO USE VIRTUALIZATION TO MINE.

Who cares about his reasons? Theres a 20 BTC bounty!

shotgun

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Activity: 98

Merit: 11

I manage a bunch of ESX and ESXi clusters. What the OP wants to do is... for lack of a better word, useless. If you have GPU cards in a server/workstation then you should just install LinuxCoin on that box and run your miners. Installing ESX/i doesn't give you any benefit, even if it were possible to get the drivers to work with the GPUs, because the whole point of ESX is to virtualize hardware. Since by definition you cannot virtualize GPU resources, and even then miners use 100% of the GPU resources anyway, there's NO REASON TO USE VIRTUALIZATION TO MINE.

shakaru

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QUIFAS EXCHANGE

Quote from: FreeJAC on June 29, 2011, 07:18:39 PM

ESXi = VMWARE virtualization platform.

Yeah, I dont know what your trying to do here. Your asking to not use a platform........for that platform. I have about 3 people here with varrious levels of academia between all and we are sorry. What you are asking is not possible. You state that you want to pay someone 20btc. Just buy your self a rig.

FreeJAC

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ESXi = VMWARE virtualization platform.

film2240

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Freelance videographer

Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:07:09 AM

Hi,

To be CRYSTAL clear I do not want to mine inside a virtual machine!
To be CRYSTAL clear I do not want to mine inside a virtual machine!
To be CRYSTAL clear I do not want to mine inside a virtual machine!

I want to do mining on ESXi v4.1 because I want to reuse the box for Windows Servers that do not require graphics cards. I would use Hyper-V BUT each CPUs is running at 100% per GPU. This is a bug in the windows Video drivers not sure if it's fixed in v11.6 of the graphics drivers yet (have not tested it) but I love VMWare's vSphere client software so even if it works I would rather use ESXi.

Anyhow if someone can layout how to install it and get it working so I can mine on ESXi it's worth some bitcoins!
Who knows you may even start a craze of server managers installing Graphics cards in their servers to mine for bitcoins or namecoin or whatever.

Thanks in advance

Davinci

What is ESXi? A piece of specialist mining hardware,like those FPGA devices i heard about fro hte bitoin mining hardware comparison wiki?

Freakin

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0 chance of this working on ESXi. It *may* be possible on ESX with a lot of work.

ESXi is not Linux.

DavinciJ15

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Bitcoin - helping to end bankster enslavement.

Quote from: chiropteran on June 29, 2011, 11:05:30 AM

Why not just use linux with XEN? Mining on linux is pretty straightforward, you would just have to adjust to XEN instead of ESXi for your virtualization.

http://www.xen.org/

Good idea. However I want to leverage my skills on ESXi and all the support behind it.

DavinciJ15

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Bitcoin - helping to end bankster enslavement.

Quote from: NetTecture on June 29, 2011, 10:58:36 AM

Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:56:37 AM

Maybe if I up the bounty?

This is a really good idea. Upping he bounty will change reality.

Dude, ESX is not a generic operating system - it is a closed image to run a hypervisor. Nothing else.

So Is HyperV but I am mining using that hypervisor...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5AgoL2T-xk
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=9679.0

chiropteran

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Why not just use linux with XEN? Mining on linux is pretty straightforward, you would just have to adjust to XEN instead of ESXi for your virtualization.

http://www.xen.org/

NetTecture

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Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:56:37 AM

Maybe if I up the bounty?

This is a really good idea. Upping he bounty will change reality.

Dude, ESX is not a generic operating system - it is a closed image to run a hypervisor. Nothing else.

DavinciJ15

hero member

Activity: 780

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Bitcoin - helping to end bankster enslavement.

Quote from: wndrbr3d on June 29, 2011, 09:34:08 AM

Quote from: DavinciJ15 on June 29, 2011, 09:28:13 AM

Please understand I DO NOT want to mine inside of a guest OS.

Then you're hosed.

Thanks I guess I am SOL. Maybe if I up the bounty?

DavinciJ15

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Bitcoin - helping to end bankster enslavement.

Quote from: wndrbr3d on June 29, 2011, 09:15:18 AM

The only way this might be possible is if you're running ESXi 4.0 and your hardware platform supports VT-d extensions.

Check out this thread on the VMWare community forums, as it might point you in the right direction:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1781153?tstart=0

Basically, VT-d and VMDirectPath are your only hope here.

Cheers! Grin

PS - More reading if you're interested:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2009/02/24/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-enable-vt-d-and-perform-direct-device-assignment/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOMMU

That sucks if its the only way! I thought Linux was able to do anything with the right package installed.

Topic: [20 Bitcoins bounty] For instructions on how to install ATI 58XX drivers on ESXi - page 2. (Read 9788 times)