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23.7 Legacy Series / Re: Port forwarding not working when running as VM - hours spent on this
« on: January 18, 2024, 07:54:55 am »
I wasn't sure if it was going to insert them within the post with my captions or simply add them all at the bottom like some other sites.
Regardless, I found my solution. The problem was virtualization specific. I was passing through my ethernet adapter via bridging on Unraid . Although the VM had sole access to the ethernet, this was breaking port forwarding due to some deeper technical stuff I cannot explain. Long story sort, switching to PCI passthrough fixed this. Enabling Multi-Function PCIe ACS override, binding the ethernet card to VFIO at bootup, and then assigning the VM the PCI devices directly in the VM settings resolved this.
Another note, after hours of work, I could NOT get a Realtek RTL8125 based ethernet card working. PCI passthrough would entirely fail, and using bridging with Unraid resulted in WAN working but the LAN port failing to operate at all. That ethernet card not working was a massive part in this taking me forever to troubleshoot. Everything is working great and with the preferred method of PCI passthrough with an Intel I225 based ethernet card. If I had started with the I225 card instead of trying to save some money with the RTL8125 I would have saved myself some serious effort. Lesson learnt.
Regardless, I found my solution. The problem was virtualization specific. I was passing through my ethernet adapter via bridging on Unraid . Although the VM had sole access to the ethernet, this was breaking port forwarding due to some deeper technical stuff I cannot explain. Long story sort, switching to PCI passthrough fixed this. Enabling Multi-Function PCIe ACS override, binding the ethernet card to VFIO at bootup, and then assigning the VM the PCI devices directly in the VM settings resolved this.
Another note, after hours of work, I could NOT get a Realtek RTL8125 based ethernet card working. PCI passthrough would entirely fail, and using bridging with Unraid resulted in WAN working but the LAN port failing to operate at all. That ethernet card not working was a massive part in this taking me forever to troubleshoot. Everything is working great and with the preferred method of PCI passthrough with an Intel I225 based ethernet card. If I had started with the I225 card instead of trying to save some money with the RTL8125 I would have saved myself some serious effort. Lesson learnt.