WMC (7 or 8) on an ESXi VM

[McGary]

Anyone running Windows Media Center on an ESXi virtual machine?

I'd think with pass-through for a disk that this would work just fine as long as you use network tuners (e.g. HDHomeRuns) ... and it would be a great solution to the "what if my PC fails" issue with protected content -- as long as the VM is backed up you could run it on a different host. I've read a few threads about folks trying this with Hyper-V, but there were stuttering issues, but haven't seen anything about doing it with VMware Workstation (using independent physical disks) or ESXi (where the controller can actually be passed through to the VM, so performance is native).

[OwensJC]

Running Win7 WMC as a vm on xenserver 6.5, running very well.

I passed through a 750GB hard drive and the Ceton pci tuner. I have not tried the network tuners as I'm accessing WMC through xbox 360 extenders.
I've noticed a small difference in channel change time as compared to running on a physical host but only in the 1-2 second range, not a big deal.

The xenserver is running an i7 cpu with 32GB ram. There is another vm running that monitors and records 10 security cameras and a 3rd vm that runs my weather station.
According the the system monitor it's not even breathing hard.
Overall I'm very happy with the setup

[McGary]

Are you using the 6-tuner version of the Ceton? I'm sure the CPU resources aren't an issue (all of my systems are either i7's or Xeon E3's) ... my concern is whether or not the passed-through hard drive can handle the bandwidth for recording 6 HD channels at a time.

[RyC]

Working great with ESXi 6 with a Ceton ETH6. The NIC and HBA are passed through, but I did use RDM for a while for the recording drive and it worked fine.

[OwensJC]

Are you using the 6-tuner version of the Ceton? I'm sure the CPU resources aren't an issue (all of my systems are either i7's or Xeon E3's) ... my concern is whether or not the passed-through hard drive can handle the bandwidth for recording 6 HD channels at a time.

Using the 4 tuner version.
No problems recording 4 tuners at once and watching a recorded show.
I also passed thru a NIC to the media center vm.

[McGary]

Thanks for the details. I'm definitely thinking of making my next system an ESXi-based WMC instance, as that SHOULD allow the VM to be moved to any ESXi host without losing the ability to play the previously recorded protected content, since the virtual hardware will be identical. And as long as all the tuners are network tuners, that move would be VERY simple. This is a nearly perfect way to protect against content loss in the event of a hardware failure in your PC.

[RyC]

Well actually I've tried migrating my WMC VM to a different host to try exactly that and PlayReady broke. But if you want to try it out, I'd be curious to see if it works for you

[McGary]

That's unfortunate -- I'd have thought it would be fine. I've not tried this with ESXi, but I know that if you move a VM in VMware Workstation all is fine -- at least with Windows activation. Note that you have to MOVE it ... NOT "Copy" it (VMware Workstation asks if you "moved or copied" the VM when you first run it on the new system. Does ESXi work the same way?

[wiretap]

Works here for me on ESXi 6.0. (Windows 8.1 x64 Pro w/ MCE in a VM)

Ceton InfiniTV4 works in pass-through with the DRM bypass. (using ServerWMC to share the tuners to the client HTPC's for digital cable) Maybe once a month ESXi will drop the tuner and it disappears, then a reboot of the whole machine will fix it. Don't know why, but I know a lot of people have problems with Ceton pass-through on ESXi. I think it's just the tuner itself is dying because I had problems with it towards the end of using my last media server. I have since cancelled my cable and just use a HDhomerun Connect. That works good as well. No stuttering on either tuners, and no problems. I also have the OS backed up to separate drives, and a backup ESXi datastore if I ever have to perform a restore.

[bollockz]

Running Win7 WMC as a vm on xenserver 6.5, running very well.

I passed through a 750GB hard drive and the Ceton pci tuner. I have not tried the network tuners as I'm accessing WMC through xbox 360 extenders.
I've noticed a small difference in channel change time as compared to running on a physical host but only in the 1-2 second range, not a big deal.

The xenserver is running an i7 cpu with 32GB ram. There is another vm running that monitors and records 10 security cameras and a 3rd vm that runs my weather station.
According the the system monitor it's not even breathing hard.
Overall I'm very happy with the setup

How did you get the Ceton card working in Xen 6.5? I have been trying for a week.

[DavidinCT]

Works here for me on ESXi 6.0. (Windows 8.1 x64 Pro w/ MCE in a VM)

Ceton InfiniTV4 works in pass-through with the DRM bypass. (using ServerWMC to share the tuners to the client HTPC's for digital cable) Maybe once a month ESXi will drop the tuner and it disappears, then a reboot of the whole machine will fix it. Don't know why, but I know a lot of people have problems with Ceton pass-through on ESXi. I think it's just the tuner itself is dying because I had problems with it towards the end of using my last media server. I have since cancelled my cable and just use a HDhomerun Connect. That works good as well. No stuttering on either tuners, and no problems. I also have the OS backed up to separate drives, and a backup ESXi datastore if I ever have to perform a restore.

I work on ESX servers for a living (systems admin), The direct hardware I thought was a ESX 4/5 issue where it would stop working out of the blue. One of the sites I take care of has a SCSI card that goes to a tape backup system(ESX 4.1), every few months it needs a reboot because of the same issue.

As your using ESX 6, I guess that is not resolved yet

I guess WMC network tuners would be the best, and if your running a cablecard you might not pass the cablecard tests but, there is a overide script for it to turn it into a "pass"