15.3. PCI passthrough with virt-install

To use PCI passthrough with the virt-install parameter, use the additional --host-device parameter.

  1. Identify the PCI device

    Identify the PCI device designated for passthrough to the guest. The virsh nodedev-list command lists all devices attached to the system. The --tree option is useful for identifying devices attached to the PCI device (for example, disk controllers and USB controllers). 
    # virsh nodedev-list --tree
    For a list of only PCI devices, run the following command: 
    # virsh nodedev-list | grep pci
    Each PCI device is identified by a string in the following format (where 8086 is a variable that in this case represents Intel equipment, and **** is a four digit hexadecimal code specific to each device): 
    pci_8086_****

    Note

    Comparing lspci output to lspci -n (which turns off name resolution) output can assist in deriving which device has which device identifier code.

  2. Add the device

    Use the PCI identifier output from the virsh nodedev command as the value for the --host-device parameter. 
    # virt-install \
 -n hostdev-test -r 1024 --vcpus 2 \
 --os-variant fedora11 -v --accelerate \
 -l http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/x86_64/os \
 -x 'console=ttyS0 vnc' --nonetworks --nographics  \
 --disk pool=default,size=8 \
 --debug --host-device=pci_8086_10bd

  3. Complete the installation

    Complete the guest installation. The PCI device should be attached to the guest.