I have a relatively powerful computer used for playing games in Windows, not too demanding games but with definite need of the GPU card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760). I would like Windows to run in a VM, without the users (my kids) having a password to the host machine, and without any video problems. I want to be able to snapshot the Windows VM, back it up, and run other VMs on the machine that would not use the physical keyboard or screen, all without interfering with the Windows VM. Running VMPlayer or similar means that the user of the VM can also delete the VM or simply forget about using it and use the host machine.
I was thinking that it might be possible to configure ESXi, KVM or Xen to recognize the serial port or the built-in VGA + a specific USB port as primary console, and dedicate (hardware pass-through?) the GPU and other USB ports to the Windows VM.
Does any one know if this is usefully feasible, and which virtualization solution would be my best bet?
Answer
So, I had some time to explore, and I tried out ESXi, which I usually use in a professional setting (vSphere vCenter with all the bells and whistles and hardware bought according to the compatibility list). No luck, my RealTek network card is not supported by ESXi, ESXi will not install at all. There might be a way around that.
So I found Debian VGAPassthrough and tried the KVM way. While looking for the network driver (my RealTek network card is not supported out-of-the box by Debian either, but it is by Ubuntu) I found Multiheaded NVIDIA Gaming, which describes exactly the kind of setup I am looking for, both with ESXi and Ubuntu, and helpfully notes that the setup is not possible when combining ESXi and the GeForce card I have. I won't have to waste time on ESXi, and I'll go the KVM route.
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