How to competently make virtualization with the connection of external equipment?

Question

Virtualization

I have no experience in serious adult virtualization, so I ask for advice.
What is now: about a dozen Windows (software only for Windows) machines, to which signal receivers are connected via which ports.
It is planned to purchase additional software that will collect all the signals in one computer.
I would like to somehow try to reduce the number of physical machines. But I don’t quite understand how to forward signal receivers over several VMs. As far as I have enough knowledge, I will have to forward PCI, but given the average number of PCI on motherboards, it will have to have somewhere around 3 virtual "servers" (desktops). Or now there are any other options for forwarding specific connectors?
And what is the best hypervisor to use for such a case, where there are fewer compatibility problems? It seems that somewhere in the comments on Habré it flew that the new hyper-vee from the 2016 server can forward pci.
vmware - I don't particularly consider it because of the whims of the hardware.
xen - possible as an option
Other options?

Answer 1

If your devices are connected via COM ports, how will PCI forwarding help you? You must have an appropriate number of available COM ports on the virtualization host that can be hardware-forwarded inside the virtual machine. One port can be forwarded to one virtual machine. Accordingly, if you have 10 hardware COM ports, you can forward them to 10 virtual machines.
Another question is that modern computers with COM ports are generally tight, and the issue with their (ports) number can only be solved by installing separate multi-COM-port boards. And here the question of the availability of drivers for this piece of hardware for the system that will work on the host already comes into play.
There is, of course, another USB-to-COM option, but here you are definitely not on the way with Hyper-V, because Microsoft does not have USB forwarding inside virtual machines, and will not. And VMware has it. There are other things like USB Anywhere, but how the "USB-COM-adapter ---> USB AnyWhere hub ---> TCP/IP ---> virtual machine" bundle will work is a big question, and I'm afraid nothing but a bold practical experiment can answer him.

Answer 2

What kind of whims? The COM port from the host is perfectly forwarded to the virtual machine - now I have oops connected to the virtual machine with linux. It is not the map that is forwarded, but the port. COM multiport is taken (I don’t know how it is now, but earlier in the days of modems, they were widely used), put in the host. Then one port is thrown into the car, well, or two or as many as necessary.
The option of forwarding COM ports in VMWare has definitely been since 2013, maybe earlier, I didn’t look.
The last Hyper-V did not look, but the one from 2008 R2 did not know how to forward COM ports.
If it matters, one VMWare host doesn't require a license - it's free. There, of course, some chips will not work, but for a single host they are about nothing. Hyper-V host requireslicenses (although it allows you to deploy a certain number of Windows Server machines).