May I get some advice with Ryzen & Fedora 26 Workstation?

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hey guys,

I am a little confused as to what is going on with Ryzen and Fedora 26… A little background…

I work at NASA MSFC and my supervisor and I are into building computers. I mainly build high end workstations running Windows with Linux VMs and he is a Linux user that wants to run Windows VMs.

Well, we decided to build him a new computer and the specs are as follows:
Ryzen 5 1400, 32 GB DDR-4 RAM 3000 MHz, MSI X370 GAMING PRO CARBON, Nvidia Geforce 1050Ti, Coresair 750 Watt PSU, Samsung M.2 960 Pro SSD, and a Samsung 512 GB Sata SSD (for VMs).

He wants to install Fedora 26 Workstation and so I did and to me it seems really slow at times and sometimes none of the programs would start. so we put Windows 10 Pro on and all of the hardware works fin; no issues.

So, he wants to go back to Fedora Workstation 26 as his main OS and use VirtualBox or VMwre or any other hypervriser to run Windows 10 VM, OSSIM (AlienVult) and another Fedora workstation 26 vm.

I have a few questions. is there a Fedora 26 installation guide any of you use for Ryzen systems?I known the basics, install OS, update system install video drivers but is there anything else? He just wants it to host VMs.

What do you guys think is a great hypervriser?> I personally would want him to go out and buy VMware workstations 12 but that’s only because I feel comfortable in it and it has a lot of features that I like.

The main point to this build also is to get OSSIM running, he wants to monitor his network traffic and play with snort and other security tools so I need to know should I put my host OS in a static IP? We do have three network cards; one onboard Intel and one dual gigabit port PCIe x4 card. and would video drivers work to give his VM’s 3D support in both Windows 10 and Fedora workstation 26 VM?

My Linux skills are a little weak, I don’t use it as a daily driver but I do use it for my home network such as firewalls, and NAS.

Can someone help me find a few guides or would anyone be willing to Skype with us? I can send you NASA stuff for your time such as stickers, posters, shirts, etc.

You can add me on Skype: QuantumParadox

PS; any RIT graduates on here reading this? Go Tigers!

2

A few things to mention:

  • Before installing Fedora, check BIOS updates
  • Try different spin of fedora instead of gnome if small lag issues? A thought
  • Latest kernel?
  • If you want VMs, go with KVM on Fedora, you can have windows running in a VM using a full GPU
3

I think for a workstation that 1700/x would be more optimal for your use since you investing in a x370 platform.

5

Yes, I’ve updated the BIOS of course…I do that as I am doing the first test out of the box.
Yes, I do run the latest Kernel.

We are going to try and do a reinstall this weekend. Maybe we had a bad image.

On a different topic, with Vmware Workstation 12.5 running on Windows 10 X64 with Nvidia GeForce 1080 TI, will Linux VM’s use 3D support now or is there still a licensing thing like with VMware workstation 9 or 10? I would like to get a Linux distro running but every time I install Vmware tools, it always seem to skip the display drivers for 3D support.

6

He probably bought the Pro Carbon for the 2 NVMe slots. It’s an inexpensive X370 at 140.00 or so.

7

I haven’t tried with vmware. I actually don’t really know if vmware supports that functionality. I tried it with vfio/kvm and pci-stub/kvm, and with the semi-old hardware I had it worked. Wendell tried it with high end hardware and it worked. It doesn’t need alot of work to have it run, you just have to know what to do, and a few months back it was harder finding clear information on how to do this than actually doing it.

You can find my post where I lay out the steps with vfio. You’ll see it is just like 5 lines outside of the gui (virt-manager).