VMware ESXi 7.0 GPU passthrough configuration doesn't persist after rebooting, here's a work-around

June 18 2020 - I have a better workaround, it's explained in my article at:

[urlordfu]

This is old of course but in this video, the original poster did not see that there existed a pulldown in Vcenter that is alphabetical per passthrough PCI device. So every item that is available is listed the same time, alphabetically. You would have just needed to click the pulldown on the second PCI device to see the 2nd card. It's annoying because it should be more obvious. The Esxi host uses a different mechanic to show the device name so it's more obvious, but the choice is and was there in this video on vcenter too.

[svtcontour]

Great video. Helped me out with ESXi 8 - same behavior for me for Nvidia GPU

[joeroux]

How about clicking tje dropdown and select the audio fir the ine pci device

[AJolly]

Any way to get gpu passthrough and nested virtualization working in 7.x?

[Dogsss]

You know you're a real IT guy when you can re-create your own issue just to re-solve it on a video. Kudos on this one paul, easy simple fix. thanks

[mattdoyle]

I've been pulling my hair out trying to get a GTX 980Ti or GTX 1080Ti to passthrough with ESXi 6.0. So far it's failing horribly, no matter what I do I can't power on the VM (I've followed all the BP's masking the hypervisor etc) and nothing, so I gave up. I was trying to use the GPU as a transcoder for my Plex VM but now I'm not sure. The 980Ti should be able to do 10 transcode streams which isn't much more than my CPU, so unless Plex can utilize both the CPU and GPU for transcoding I'm not sure it would be worth it anyway. I would have loved to have tried tho. Good video, thanks for the inspiration!

[psyclptic]

This issue oddly persists in 7u3j. why doesn't the GPU passthrough persist???

[Notdaybro]

Having a similar issue with my FirePro W7100. After installing drivers windows hangs during boot. Cant figure it out for the life of me. Remove pci device, windows boots, remove drivers. reattach gpu. it boots. install drivers. freezes. reboot. hangs during boot screen. Running esxi 8 with a xeon e5-2630 v4

[kyrkbymannen]

Has the latest version 7, same problem. I just disable and enable pass through and it works again! Until next reboot.

[yard_bro]

Do you know if they have fixed this with any of the subsequent patches or 7.0.1?

[jwsddzf]

Do you have any additional drivers installed on the host to support passthrough? I'm using a Nvidia Tesla T4 and I get an error no renderer is detected. I'm just using esxi 7.0 and not vsphere client. Is the client necessary?

[brandoncunningham]

I'm having the same problem. Although, you don't need to remove the PCI devices. You just need to boot from the host. If you edit the VM from the host after you disable/re-enable passthrough of the device, you'll notice that it shows up again in host. Just doesn't work in vCenter. I wish there was a permanent fix that I could figure out.

[DonWon]

I've experienced similar problems like yours with different devices your work around is descent.

[joaovictorf.carvalho]

If you connect a monitor on the gpu, are you able to see the output of vm? Have you tried to do the same with the internal GPU? I achieved the passthrought of an iGPU but I can't see the content on the monitor if I connect to the HDMI/DP, do you have any advice?

[sbahb]

Hi Paul,
I would like to buy this SYS-5028D-TN4T 12 Core with 128GB RAM and plenty of SSD hard drive (maybe 8TB). I am really interested in deepening my networking certification with a labs environment which can sustain up to a CCIE Security lab (with cisco Prime, Ciso ISE, Cisco ASAv Firewall, CSR routers, Nexus switches, SD-WAN simulation, MPLS simulation, Site-2-site VPN with two or 3 branch office simulation, etc..). Could you please point me to the appropriate configuration which would support this with the latest EXSi 7.0 configuration setup from scratch on the SYS-5028D-TN4T 12 Core 128GB RAM with step by step guidance? I know you have made an old video on the unboxing of this machine, however be nice to make a refresh video with the latest ESXi 7.0.
Thank you for your great video!

[lashlarue]

We you do single VM GPU pass thru, can that VM run Cuda based applications to the installed Nvidia GPU?

[tornado]

The issue still persists in 7.0U3g. Have to toggle the GPU passthrough after every restart.

[briankfree]

This is quite interesting. I've been running ESXi 7, vCenter 7 for a few days and my GPU seems to stay persistent when passed through, after a host reboot. However, mine is attached to a linux virtual machine.

[duonganphong]

2022 and i am having this problem, my lab esxi 7 with gtx 1060 gpu. passthrough doesn't persist

[AbhinandanKumar-ejdh]

Can we use same graphics card with two VMs?