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

[shakaru]

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.

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[shotgun]

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.

[Keninishna]

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!

[nemo]

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

More than 20.

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

[padrino]

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.

[drgr33n]

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

[blumpkinpie76]

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?

[nebiki]

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.

[drgr33n]

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 ?

[Capitan]

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]

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.

[carbonc]

I would probably not recommend doing this if they are Production VM's.  You risk slowing down those VM's because the mining software not only uses GPU but also some CPU cycles...  
I would seriously think twice about this if this is a production system your about to screw with...
people get fired for stealing resources.

[drgr33n]

I would probably not recommend doing this if they are Production VM's.  You risk slowing down those VM's because the mining software not only uses GPU but also some CPU cycles...  
I would seriously think twice about this if this is a production system your about to screw with...
people get fired for stealing resources.

Don't think it would affect the performance at all linuxcoin hardly touches the CPU. But I do agree with you if this is not your server you would be playing with fire I think your boss might have something to say when your rack gets about 70C hotter and about 3 times more noisy Unless you could convince him that its a good idea and try to bribe him with a cut hahaha

[Capitan]

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.

Well in his OP he said the reason he didn't want to run windows as a the host OS was because it uses a  lot of CPU. I got the impression that's why he wanted to run ESXi as the host OS. Am I wrong, or was it simply a thinly veiled attempt at making the post not look like a blatant attempt to run mining on someone else's server? His company's server, a server of a client of his company?

[DavinciJ15]

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.

The point is to use the GPUs for mining and the other resources for visualization why have all those resources go to waste.

[DavinciJ15]

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.

One way or another I would like to run my miners on a box where I can have virtual servers doing something else other than mining.

Thanks for this post.

[DavinciJ15]

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?

The reason is to run other applications on the box doing mining the make money leveraging all aspects of the hardware.
BTW Yes I am the guy who makes silver videos.   

[DavinciJ15]

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.

I have looked and tried every version of the drivers none of them use 0% CPU time unless you plug in a monitor to first card mine device 0 then plug in the monitor to second card and mine device 0.  That process works but there is no way to automate it.

As for running a guest that does the mining, from this thread you can see it does not work.

[DavinciJ15]

Well in his OP he said the reason he didn't want to run windows as a the host OS was because it uses a  lot of CPU. I got the impression that's why he wanted to run ESXi as the host OS. Am I wrong, or was it simply a thinly veiled attempt at making the post not look like a blatant attempt to run mining on someone else's server? His company's server, a server of a client of his company?

Negative, Negative, I wanted to use the resources of the CPU and ram for some other task since I have so many of them it would be nice to leverage their power in other ways.

[Tmoney]

Install Virtualbox on top of Linux.