Newb Question: Install drivers on Host, VM/CT, or both?

[Axiomatic]

I could see reasons for all 3 positions.

 

[Dunuin]

Depends...
Virtio driver = inside VM.
Driver of PCI passthroughed hardware = inside VM
Drivers of non-passthroughed hardware = on host

LXCs shares the kernel with the host, so host needs drivers and not the LXC.

 

[Axiomatic]

Depends...
Virtio driver = inside VM.
Driver of PCI passthroughed hardware = inside VM
Drivers of non-passthroughed hardware = on host

LXCs shares the kernel with the host, so host needs drivers and not the LXC.

Ah! Thanks for the info! That makes sense.

Do you think it would be a bad idea to install drivers on both just in case? I'm trying to stitch together a small (but very performant) work storage server with a couple of Mellanox ConnectX-4 cards. Having a hell of a time getting drivers properly installed and configured. I can't really tell if I'm supposed to be in a VM or on the pve host itself

 

[Dunuin]

Ah! Thanks for the info! That makes sense.

Do you think it would be a bad idea to install drivers on both just in case? I'm trying to stitch together a small (but very performant) work storage server with a couple of Mellanox ConnectX-4 cards. Having a hell of a time getting drivers properly installed and configured. I can't really tell if I'm supposed to be in a VM or on the pve host itself

If you don't use PCI passthrough to passthough the NICs into the VM it would be useless to install the Mellanox drivers inside the VM, as the VM then only sees the virtual E1000 or virtual virtio NICs. VMs can't make use of physical hardware that isn't passed through, so the VM only needs the drivers of the virtual devices (so E1000 or virtio drivers). I wouldn`t install the Mellanox drivers inside the VM. Just more bloatware and confusing when administrating it.

 

[Axiomatic]

If you don't use PCI passthrough to passthough the NICs into the VM it would be useless to install the Mellanox drivers inside the VM, as the VM then only sees the virtual E1000 or virtual virtio NICs. VMs can't make use of physical hardware that isn't passed through, so the VM only needs the drivers of the virtual devices (so E1000 or virtio drivers). I wouldn`t install the Mellanox drivers inside the VM. Just more bloatware and confusing when administrating it.

Ah! That makes a lot of sense. Thank you!