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I have a Linux (Ubuntu 16.04) server and want to create a Windows 10 virtual machine instance with kvm as hypervisor and virtual manager as ui. Furthermore, I want to pass through 2 hard drives to the VM and my question is how I can pass through hard drives in kvm and whether I can set up storage spaces within Windows 10, using the passed through hard drives?
I do not need to access content on the 2 hard drives from within Linux but like to manage the storage space from within the Windows 10 VM and share folders across my lan network on which other windows machines connect to.
If this is possible which virtualization environment do you recommend me to install on the linux server to host the Windows 10 instance and pass through the hard drives?
Matthias Wolf
Posted 2017-12-24T12:42:37.853
Reputation: 375
Why do you want to create Windows 10 VM not a Linux VM? – Biswapriyo – 2017-12-24T12:56:26.657
As a general rule, I never mange block devices in a vm if I care about throughout or stability. I let the host mange the block devices, make virtual disks and attach to the vm for direct use. With that said you should be able to do it. Just create virtual disks, attach then to your vm, then do what you want with storage spaces. – Damon – 2017-12-24T15:52:27.567
@Biswa, because I use Linux for AI compute purposes which require direct access to my gpus. Gpu pass-through is still very unstable and immature. – Matthias Wolf – 2017-12-25T03:38:29.507
@Damon, I am confused by your comment. Managing physical device hardware is my definition always more stable than software/simulated/virtual solutions. And how does creating virtual disks help my problem? The issues I see with this is : problems with spinning down drives in Linux (HD parm and HD-idle have massive problems with wd drives), but more importantly a very ugly solution of storage spaces on top of virtual disks, something that is impossible to use should any of the OSs crash. I want a clean storage space, accessing the hard drives directly cause then I can swap the drives out and – Matthias Wolf – 2017-12-25T03:42:25.170
... Directly use in another windows machine. – Matthias Wolf – 2017-12-25T03:42:48.853
Passing through disks and using storage spaces from a VM is not the same in throughout or stability as managing the disks from the host/hypervisor and attaching standard virtual disks to a VM. On that note I am recommending AGAINST passing through disks and running storage spaces from the VM. I am recommending you have your hypervisor/host manage the disks/arrays and then create virtual disks on those devices and attach the virtual disks to the VM and NOT use storage spaces at all. – Damon – 2017-12-25T06:52:19.860
But more direct to your question, you are looking for a hypervisor that does "pass through" of the disks to a VM. Just search for that feature on your potential hypervisors. Or you could use a windows host and then run storage spaces on the host and run a windows VM with VDs created on the storage-space-devices and attached to the VM. – Damon – 2017-12-25T06:53:06.853
@Damon, thanks and I appreciate your opinion but in my specific use case I need to pass through the disks directly which is what my question was specifically about. How can I do that with kvm as hypervisor and ideally from within the virtual manager UI itself? – Matthias Wolf – 2017-12-25T07:20:41.630