Thunderbolt and VMDirectPath could make an interesting couple

Posted by Paul Braren on Sep 21 2011 in
  • Virtualization
  • ESXi
  • Chipzilla on vZilla sounds good, no?

    http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/17/eyes-on-with-thunderbolt-on-windows-at-idf-2011-video
    https://tinkertry.com/vmdirectpath

    Seriously, imagine passing a Thunderbolt device through to a virtual machine, such as Windows Home Server.  This could be interesting.  At least vZilla is theoretically ready for that day, if it ever happens.  In other words, since I've tested LSI RAID controllers and USB 3.0 with ESXi 5.0 VMDirectPath, and they work fine with native drivers installed in the VM, why couldn't a PCI Express Thunderbolt card use VMDirectPath someday?

    In other words, maybe it's not that important to worry about VMware supporting Thunderbolt or other future technologies natively, when VMDirectPath can help futureproof your system.

    thunderbolt-logo