Xen users - Apr 2012 - PCI Hotplugging - Could I juggle a video card and other devices between running DomUs?

Hello List!

As I venture a little further down the Xen rabbit hole, I''ve gotten
myself wondering: could I script the use of "xm pci-attach" and
"xm
pci-detach" such that I can shift all of my difficult-to-virtualize
PCI devices, such as video card[s], USB controllers, audio devices,
and so on, from one running DomU to another?  Give myself a button or
key combination---of which the guest OS is aware, so that it may
initiate the process---to switch my hardware from one VM to another on
the fly, implementing what would behave like a software-based KVM
switch (but without the exponentially rising costs associated with
getting more ports, dual-link DVI/Displayport, and so on... not to
mention requiring multiple machines :D).

Could I potentially effortlessly switch between Windows, Linux, and
perhaps a Hackintosh?  That would be quite the awesome application of
cutting edge tech, I say :)

Curious if anyone has experience with attaching/detaching these types
of devices, and whether or not guest OSes and their drivers, play nice
with this feature.

Thanks,
Andrew Bobulsky

I attached devices manually, seems to work fine.  I suppose you could
create a sh script in a linux Dom0 to run the commands, but the real
trouble comes from being able to execute them from the guest HVM''s.

One easy way would be to turn ssh on in Dom0 and putty on windows or ssh
via any other to access & run the scripts.  I''m sure there are
plenty of
alternatives, but I don''t see any reason why you wouldn''t be
able to swap
components in live machines.


On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Andrew Bobulsky <rulerof@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello List!
>
> As I venture a little further down the Xen rabbit hole, I''ve
gotten
> myself wondering: could I script the use of "xm pci-attach" and
"xm
> pci-detach" such that I can shift all of my difficult-to-virtualize
> PCI devices, such as video card[s], USB controllers, audio devices,
> and so on, from one running DomU to another?  Give myself a button or
> key combination---of which the guest OS is aware, so that it may
> initiate the process---to switch my hardware from one VM to another on
> the fly, implementing what would behave like a software-based KVM
> switch (but without the exponentially rising costs associated with
> getting more ports, dual-link DVI/Displayport, and so on... not to
> mention requiring multiple machines :D).
>
> Could I potentially effortlessly switch between Windows, Linux, and
> perhaps a Hackintosh?  That would be quite the awesome application of
> cutting edge tech, I say :)
>
> Curious if anyone has experience with attaching/detaching these types
> of devices, and whether or not guest OSes and their drivers, play nice
> with this feature.
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew Bobulsky
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xen.org
> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>

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