PowerEdge R630 and iDRAC and integrate video and GPU

[Klug]

Hello all.

I could not find any clear documentation on this (but might have missed it too).

I'd like to put Proxmox on a R630 (I've done this dozen of times already).
This one in a new way: I want to add a GPU (Intel A310) and pass-through it to a Linux VM (while running other VM such as W2016 on the server).
BUT
I'd like to keep the integrated VGA card enabled for console (local use of the server) and iDRAC (if I disable it, no more console in iDRAC).

The how-to I found were not specific to Proxmox (more Windows) and each time they disabled the integrated VGA to be able to use the added GPU.
It's not clear to me if this is a Windows-specific requirement (cannot manage both video cards) or R630 requirement (if you add a GPU you _have_ to disable integrated VGA).

Has anyone done this before (keep the integrated VGA and add a GPU to pass-through it)?

 

[celemine1gig]

You pass-through what you need and leave what you need on the host (!) out of the vfio-pci configuration. Should be as easy as that, basically. That means you define your added Intel A310 with it's PCI-ID for vfio-pci, while you just do nothing about the server internal graphics.
See chapter "Host Device Passthrough" here: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/PCI(e)_Passthrough

Just make sure to set the R630 BIOS up in a way, that the "onboard" video also stays the primary output for your video signal. There should be a setting for that. Otherwise it might prefer the external GPU.

The pass-through of the A310 might have specialities/issues/quirks of its own. So, that might be a different topic for another day, until you have it fully working.