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Passthrough of Intel Iris Xe Integrated GPU on 11th Gen NUC results in Error Code 43

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I recently ran into an issue after enabling ESXi passthrough of the new Intel Iris Xe Integrated GPU (iGPU), which is available with the latest Intel 11th Gen Pro (Tiger Canyon) NUC and SimplyNUC Topaz. After installing the latest Intel Graphics Driver and rebooting the Microsoft Windows 10 (20H2) VM, I noticed Microsoft Device Manager would show the iGPU device with the following error message:

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)


Unfortunately, this generic error message was not very useful in identifying the underlying issue. I was hoping the process was going to be seamless like it was for enabling passthrough of the iGPU in Intel NUC 10 (Frost Canyon) NUC, especially with the higher execution units for the 11the Gen NUC i3 (48 EU), i5 (80 EU) and i7 (96 EU).

I currently have a case open with the Intel NUC team and see if they can help investigate the underlying issue for their driver. For the time being, it looks like passthrough of the new iGPU is not fully functional when using ESXi 7.0 Update 2 and I will update this blog post if/when I have further updates to share.

ESXi on SimplyNUC Ruby and Topaz

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Ruby and Topaz is the latest in SimplyNUC's custom lineup of NUC-like systems which they started to build and sell a couple of years ago. The Ruby platform is based on the AMD Ryzen 4000 Series and the Topaz platform is based on Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake Series.

Given the current global chip shortage that may last a couple more years, it may take some time before everyone can get their hands on either of these platforms, but I have slowly been seeing new inquiries about these platforms as folks are starting to receive their units. Of course, the most popular inquiry that I have received is whether these systems can be used with ESXi? 😀

Topaz

Since Topaz uses the same Intel 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPU, it works exactly the same as the Intel NUC 11 Performance (Panther Canyon) and Intel NUC 11 Pro (Tiger Canyon), which requires the Community Networking Driver for ESXi to enable both the 2.5GbE and 1GbE onboard network adapters when installing ESXi on Topaz. One really nice feature of Topaz is that all three models (i7, i5 and i3) include dual onboard network adapters, where as this option is only available on Intel NUC 11 Pro as an add-on card that must be purchased separately.

Here is screenshot of the latest ESXi 7.0 Update 2 release running on Topaz

Ruby

Although there was quite a bit of community interests in running ESXi on the Ruby platform, I was not particularly optimistic mainly because both the onboard network adapters are from Realtek. Since there are no ESXi networking drivers from Realtek, ESXi would not be able to detect either of the network adapters which is the same behavior that I have seen for other AMD-NUC like kits such as the ASRock Gen 1 and Gen 2 systems.

Unfortunately, there has been no progress with Realtek joining VMware's I/O Vendor Partner (IOVP), which would enable the development of an official network driver for ESXi. Although folks can add networking to these platforms leveraging the USB Network Native Driver for ESXi, it is less than ideal. At this point in time, I can not recommend Ruby or other AMD-based NUCs that uses Realtek-based network adapters.

Here is screenshot of ESXi 7.0 with USB network adapter running on Ruby

VMware customer production use cases for Intel NUC 

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The Intel NUC also known as the Next Unit of Computing is a very popular platform for running VMware based homelabs. I have been working with the Intel NUCs since 2016 with their 6th Generation model when I decided to rebuild my personal home lab. Since then I have continued my efforts to ensure that vSphere continues to run extremely well on this amazing little platform even if it is not officially supported by VMware, which now also includes the latest 11th Generation (Tiger and Panther Canyon NUCs).

At the end of last year, I came across this fascinating Intel NUC documentary that was put together by Robtech, which I highly recommend a watch.

While listening to some of the use cases that SimplyNUC had observed over the years which has spanned land ⛰️, air 🛫, sea 🛳️ and space 🚀, it got me thinking about some of the use cases that I had come across while talking to our VMware customers.

Disclaimer: The Intel NUC is not officially supported by VMware and therefore they are not listed on the VMware HCL

A common misconception is that Intel NUCs are only useful for homelab purposes and has no place for running production workloads, which is just simply not true. Here are some of the common use cases that I have seen over the years, most of which are deployed at the Edge/ROBO:

  • vSphere Development/Testing, Education and Training
  • Retail, Grocery, Industrial Factories and Ships
  • Build Automation (CI/CD)
  • Telco/NFV (e.g. Network/Hardware monitoring)
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

I also wanted to take this opportunity and to share some of the stories on how some of our customers have taken advantage of this platform, even though it is not officially supported by VMware and some of the underlying business drivers. Hopefully these stories will educate, resonate and perhaps even inspire other customers to explore different computing platforms, especially at the Edge where constraints and requirements will differ quite significantly when compared to a typical Enterprise Datacenter.

If you would like to share your story of how you are using Intel NUC and VMware for production, feel free to reach out using the contact page.

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