TV server on VMware ESXi 4.1 (3 Viewers)

[VirtualMP]

Yeah I had the same problems with the NIC and had to put my DVD on to a USB connection to get it installed, its now staying on USB as its the best way to get it to work on the guest VM using pass through. I had to use a seperate Intel NIC to install but after install the onboard NIC was supported just not during install!

You must install VMWare tools to get the base system driver.

 

[CyDFect]

mmh i figured the base system driver out.
But somehow ESXi was very unstable and updating wasn't that easy.
I gave it up, to use it with ESXi.

I tried now Xen, and its working really nice for me until now
I installed Windows and MediaPortal is already working good. (Just need some time to set it up completly)

 

[VirtualMP]

XEN was my first choice since it supports Graphics passthru where ESXi does not (although I have it working its not supported and only AMD drivers work so Nvidia cards are out of the question). I am not experienced enough with Linux to get XEN installed so went back to ESXi, been very stable with both the HTPC front end and the XP TVServer back end not having any problems so far, over 30 days now.

If ESXi stops working with my GPU I will be stuck though so updates are out of the question now! Really wanted 2 Graphics cards on one machine so I can have my 2 HTPC's and a server all in one box but I could not get that to work on ESXI, XEN are working on it I beleive.

 

[hookx]

AW: TV server on VMware ESXi 4.1

Hi,

which TV-Cards are you using under ESXi working fine?
I'm not sure at the moment if my TBS6981 ist damaged or just has problems with passthrough...

hookx

 

[Lyve]

Mine is a Cinergy S2 PCI

 

[VirtualMP]

I'm currently using a pinnacle 3010ix which is a PCIe x1 card. I had problems using PCI cards because my motherboard, a Gigabyte Q57m has a problem with VIA USB chipsets (even booted straight to Windows not through ESXi) and the 2 different PCI twin tunners I have both use VIA USB chipsets. Gigabyte have given me the option to send them the 3 cards I have problems with, ones a straight 4 port USB card and they will investigate further but for now its working on the PCIe card.

Its a shame to see 2 empty slots on a board that only has 4 slots I would have liked to use them all but I'm now looking into a Asterisk server so I maybe able to use a slot for that.

Still no problems, now using ESXi dedicated MP TV Server for all machines in the house and all recordings no issues whatsoever and much more stable than before when MP TV Server was run in the background of the main HTPC with all other applications runnning on the same machine.

 

[hookx]

AW: TV server on VMware ESXi 4.1

Hi Lyve,

do you already have a solution for running two dvb-s cards in ESXi?
I guess this was the Problem with my TBS6981. Same behavior...

hookx

 

[smursfter]

I Have a Vmware 4.1 server thats been reliably running my TV Server for about 4 months, dvb-s2 and dvb-t

Hardware wise

Supermicro C2sbc-q Q35 Intel Core 2 Series Motherboard Atx (Vmware VT-D)
8gb Memory
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz Socket 775 1333FSB 4MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
4 x Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 5400rpm 32MB Cache (RAID5)
3ware 9650 4port Raid (supports esxi)
1 x PCI Peak DVB-T twin tuner AF9015 (VT-d pass through)
1 x TBS QBOX DVB-S2 USB (usb pass through)

ESXI Setup

1 x windows 2008 R2 domain controller
1 x windows 2008 R2 development server
1 x windows xp pro sp3 tv server

The magic that made this system work for me was to make the dvb-t tuners preload in the tv-server configuration and use the new 1.2 feature of pausing the dvb-s2 card.

I've been using this system to serve 2 HTPC's and its been running rock solid for months.

I tried a few pci s2 cards

1. Prof Revolution S2 7301 PCI (detected but wouldnt pick up any stations when scanning)
2. Blackgold BGT3540 (only 1 dvb-t and dvb-s tuner worked)

It seems that vt-d isnt that reliable and you the better option is to use usb pass through in exsi.
So save some money and dont bother with a vt-d enabled motherboard.

 

[limpwhizkid]

I wonder if there is someone who has had success with running the TV server in VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 4.1? I can not find anything written about this in the forum and is a bit curious.
I have managed to install the TV-server and then watch and record programs, but it is unstable and the picture is very choppy. Sometimes it works to watch live TV for a few hours (with choppy picture), and sometimes only minutes before it stops working. When it stops working I have to reboot the server. Recording seems to work better and can function for days if I do not watch live TV in between.
I run it on old hardware: P4 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, TV card Hauppauge HVR-930C. In the guest I run XP pro with TV-Server 1.1.0. Can the problem be due to old hardware, or is it that I think a limit in wmvare? Someone with personal experience that you want to share?

I tried that also , but in my quest to get tvserver and vms in one system , i ended up doing it the other way around, on win2008 r2... install tvserver on it.. and client (see thread in signature).
As this is the "physical system" tvserver (and client) run perfectly on it and i can still run VM's

However in that topic , there is someone who managed to get it to run under vmware also (with usb passthrough for the usbtvcard)..

I think the reason for the choppy picture is mainly youre hardware indeed..

you will have a way better chance of installing Win2008R2 with that hardware and run tvserver, (and a XP VM if needed)
without choppy picture..

Good luck

 

[smursfter]

XEN was my first choice since it supports Graphics passthru where ESXi does not (although I have it working its not supported and only AMD drivers work so Nvidia cards are out of the question). I am not experienced enough with Linux to get XEN installed so went back to ESXi, been very stable with both the HTPC front end and the XP TVServer back end not having any problems so far, over 30 days now.

If ESXi stops working with my GPU I will be stuck though so updates are out of the question now! Really wanted 2 Graphics cards on one machine so I can have my 2 HTPC's and a server all in one box but I could not get that to work on ESXI, XEN are working on it I beleive.

Why do you have 2 htpc instances on the same virtual host? do you have 2 tv's in the same room?