Suitability of Skylake platform for unRAID server 6.x (including virtualization!)?

[VirtualLarry]

Just wondering. I've got a pair of MeegoPad T02 Compute Sticks coming my way. Thinking of ditching the ATX rigs altogether, and running them as my daily-driver box. Only, with a twist. Doing some more research on unRAID 6.x, which supports VMs. So I can run a VM of Windows 7 64-bit, on my unRAID server, and use the Compute Stick, as an RDP terminal. (Got some USB2.0 to Gigabit ethernet dongles on order too, coming on the slow boat.)

Currently my unRAID box has some 2TB HDDs, running 5.x trial version, on an old Gigabyte P35 board, with an underclocked Q6600. I just ordered a new PSU (current one is decent, but 5+ years old), an Antec NeoECO 620C (on SS, with rebate, for only $30). So I was thinking of swapping in my A85X mobo, which has 8 SATA6G ports on it. I still need a Trinity APU to go with it, if I do that.

But then, that got me thinking. I've read that A85X does support IOMMU, but it can strongly depend on the BIOS support too.

I don't know if Trinity supports virtualizing the APU's GPU.

Here's what I want to know about Skylake. Can the consumer chipsets and CPUs (6400T, probably) support IOMMU (ASRock probably will have the best UEFI support for that feature, if supported by the chipset), and does the Skylake CPU support GPU virtualization (under Linux/KVM)?

 

[ShintaiDK]

VT-D is supported, if they include it in BIOS.

 

[zir_blazer]

There is no "GPU virtualization" there. What you're talking about is PCI/VGA Passthrough.

GPU virtualization is supported on Haswells and Broadwells (No word on Skylake yet) with XenGT/KVMGT, so you can share the IGP with up to 4 VMs. However, they're still in the preview stage (Since more than a year ago...) and you need to either use their Ubuntu-based preview install instructions, or have enough knowledge to figure out how to take their code and patch the Linux Kernel, QEMU, SeaBIOS and Xen yourself, and pray that it works. Still didn't saw someone that adapted their code to something else.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I thought unRAID VMs were just Virtualbox installs?

If you want a virtualized workstation, just install Linux/KVM or ESXi yourself and do it right. Don't dink around with application level virtualization.

If unRAID is using KVM now, well... that could be pretty cool. But yeah, hardware and CPU has to support PCI-passthrough. Check the CPU specifications on Ark before you buy.