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isolating 3d games in guest vm

Beantwortet isolating 3d games in guest vm

  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 17:56
     
     
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    Is this at all possible with the free Hyper-V Server?

    I have a server PC connected to a big screen in our living room, running a native installation of Windows 7 Media Center for TV, photos, etc. My kids are growing up so there is currently an increasing number of games being installed on this system, threatening its stability.

    I would like to separate these installations into distinct virtual machines in a hypervisor, let's call them the Media VM and Gaming VM, that both would display full-screen on the monitor. I've understood that the 3D GPU requirements of the Gaming VM might present problems. There would also be some other VMs I use for development work, but these have no special requirements.

    The hardware setup is one computer with one monitor, keyboard and mouse. I guess possible configurations could include:

    • the hypervisor somehow allows to switch display between Media VM or Gaming VM
    • or, the Media VM is always displayed on the monitor, and inside this a console or remote desktop tool can be used to show the Gaming VM
    • or, two graphics cards are used so each VM can own (by passthrough) its own GPU and the monitor gets connected with one cable to each graphics card
    • or, other setups?

    Thanks
    Mike

     

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  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 18:11
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    You only get hi-resolution graphics if you use RDP to connect to the RDP Service of the VM client.

    Hyper-V have a built in VMConsole application but it is limited to very basic 256 colors.

    The GPU option that you propose; research RemoteFX vGPU - the card compatibility list is small and specific.

    The other option is to use boot to VHD and simply boot to one system or the other.  The OS booted to gets the benefit of running on the bare metal with nothing lost to virtualization (or the implementation complexities of virtualization).  The only drawback is that only one OS can be running at a time.

    Brian Ehlert
    http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
    Learn. Apply. Repeat.
    Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 19:28
     
     
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    Thanks Brian,

    Booting one system at a atime is a no go, f ex I need to be able to record a TV show in the Media VM at the same time the kids play a game in the Gaming VM.

    RemoteFX:

    What kind of performance loss can you expect when using the virtual GPU? Will modern games be playable if they are playable on a native setup with the same card?

    This page http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/11/26/remotefx-features-for-windows-8-and-windows-server-2012.aspx says that vGPU is only available when the guest VM runs a Windows Enterprise version. Is this correct? (as a home user I have only Pro licenses)

    (You didn't mention the dual passed through graphics cards alternative so I assume it is not doable?)



    • Bearbeitet mikewse Montag, 28. Januar 2013 19:30
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  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 19:59
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    There is a very similar thread to this one and I am hoping I am not confusing the two of you.

    Also, if your machine has capture devices (tuner cards, USB video capture, etc.) - they won't work within the VM.  These devices cannot be passed through.  It just is not a designed for scenario.

    IMHO - your easiest and most compatible option is to use "boot from VHD" and simply boot into one OS or the other.  As you get everything except both machines running at the same time.

    The vGPU is designed for users that require high-fidelity form a VM - all hypervisors now support it in some way - specifically for highly graphic intensive users, think graphics workstations, CAD or mapping software, video processing.  Giving that level of workstation fidelity from a VM.

    One possibility is this.  Instead of making both a VM one is your management OS - your Media Center.

    This would require Win 8 Pro, and its Media Center Key.  It would give your capture device access (I think, but I am not 100% positive).  And only the Gamer machine is the VM.

    Brian Ehlert
    http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
    Learn. Apply. Repeat.
    Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 20:19
     
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    There are several issues with the free Hyper-V server if you try to go that route.

    1. You need another computer (Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012) to manage/access it.  The free Hyper-V Server 2012 has no GUI interface, it's designed to be run headless and interacted with remotely.

    2. There is no "passthrough" with video cards, like you're referring to with Hyper-V.

    3. Your TV Tuner won't be accessible via a VM, there's no PCI/PCIe accessibility from a VM to host hardware.  If its USB, you would need to be connected via RDP (on a 2nd system) to be able to access USB devices.

    There is some overhead with RemoteFX.  Also, keep in mind that your average gaming card probably won't work with it, RemoteFX is designed for workstation video cards.

    What you might consider is running Windows 8 as your "server" and media PC and then setting up a Windows 8 (or Win 7 enterprise) gaming VM for the kids.  (Note that I've not done this yet myself...I'm planning on trying out a remoteFX setup (win 8 on win 8) this week if time permits.

     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 20:20
     
     
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    @Brian

    I'm probably missing something but I can't see what advantages "boot from VHD" would have over a classic dual-boot setup? And booting into the other operating system would force shutdown of the other VMs for both these setups.

    As you say, if the tuners cannot be passed through that rules out the Media VM. Letting the Media installation be the host system is actually how I do things today with Windows 7, running my other VMs in Virtual PC or VirtualBox.

    While not ideal, this solution is still acceptable. The question remains though about vGPU performance and the requirement to use Windows 7/8 Enterprise in the Gaming VM?

    Thanks
    Mike


    • Bearbeitet mikewse Montag, 28. Januar 2013 21:28
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  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 21:39
     
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    Another issue is that there are no licenses for the guest operating systems.  Therefore, to have a VM per game also means that your need an operating system per game, too.  That is going to get pretty expensive really fast.

    .:|:.:|:. tim

     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 21:56
     
     
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    @Steve

    Thanks for shutting the door on the free Hyper-V Server :-P

    I'll be very interested in hearing how your Win 8 on Win8 experiment turns out! I saw this discussion that seems to indicate that mainstream graphics cards work too: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproSP/thread/79d5258f-a069-451a-a558-75b39a707fdf

     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 22:25
     
     
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    Also, will the RDP client allow the Gaming VM to go into full screen on the host monitor even if it runs with another resolution than the host?
     
  • Montag, 28. Januar 2013 22:49
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    Using the RDP Client you get the full maximum resolution possibility of RDP (it is pretty big) and not the restricted VMConnect VM console window.

    Brian Ehlert
    http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
    Learn. Apply. Repeat.
    Disclaimer: Attempting change is of your own free will.

     
  • Sonntag, 14. April 2013 10:58
     
     
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    What you might consider is running Windows 8 as your "server" and media PC and then setting up a Windows 8 (or Win 7 enterprise) gaming VM for the kids.  (Note that I've not done this yet myself...I'm planning on trying out a remoteFX setup (win 8 on win 8) this week if time permits.

    Hey Steve, did you get to trying this? I'm still very interested to hear if it works :-)