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BrennanB
Contributor
Contributor

EVC Mode Issues w/ Xeon E5440, X5470 and X5560

Need to add a new Dell R710 . So I went through the steps of creating new cluster with EVC Mode of Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™ 2. All hosts are running are 3.5 U4.

Moved a host off of old cluster into new cluster and then tried migrating VM's from old cluster to new EVC enabled cluster. When validating, the VM's are kicking up the mismatch error which from my undersntading shouldnt be happening between these CPU's. We have 3 hosts with Xeon 5440 and one with a Xeon 5740 so I didnt think we would have this issue. Should I have set the EVC mode to Intel® Xeon® Core™ 2 instead of Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™ 2?

Host 1-3 = Xeon E5440

Host 4 = Xeon X5470

New Host = X5560

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Yep that error is unexpected. I have to ask: are you sure that the cluster is set up for 45nm Core 2, and not just Core 2?

And this is a migration from outside the EVC cluster to a destination inside the cluster?

Assuming that the EVC mode is in fact 45nm Core 2, then the destination host should definitely be advertising SSE 4.1 support. If you don't mind I'd like to have a look at:

  • The contents of /etc/vmware/config on the destination host (particularly any line that begins with "cpuidMask").

  • /proc/vmware/cpuinfo from the destination host

  • The config of the VM (particularly any line that begins with "hostCPUID", "guestCPUID", or "userCPUID").

Also... the destination host is not in maintenance mode, correct?

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BrennanB
Contributor
Contributor

Just noticed something that caught my eye. I decided to delete the new cluster and create a new one. After I create the cluster and go into the EVC section and click Enable EVC a baseline is already showing as set and it does not give me a drop down to change it. At this point I have not added any hosts so it shouldnt have anything to "detect"

The baseline it is setting it to is "Merom" which I know is not what we want. So guess as this point is the baseline is not set right but the fact that I cannot choose a baseline doesnt make sense. In this new cluster there are no hosts yet.

*And this is a migration from outside the EVC cluster to a destination inside the cluster? * Correct

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

What version of vCenter are you using?

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BrennanB
Contributor
Contributor

2.5.0 build 147633

Just came across a doc that is puzzling. If you scroll down

to Table 3.1: EVC Baselines on Intel CPUs it it showing that on ESX 3.5 U2 and

up that the only EVC baseline supported is Intel® Xeon® Core™2.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that part of the table, but I'm puzzled about a more fundamental issue now:

In VC 2.5, you don't have the option to choose from multiple EVC modes. You will always get Merom (Xeon Core 2) for Intel, or Rev. E (Opteron Generation 1) for AMD.

You won't be able to choose any other modes, like Xeon 45nm Core 2, unless you use VC 4.0.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

I believe the KB article is incorrect. ESX 3.5u2 or later is required to use EVC, but it should be able to use any mode if it is being managed by VC 4.0 or later.

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BrennanB
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the clarification. I didnt realize there were so many running VC 4 with 3.5 hosts which is what tripped me up.

We upgraded to VC 4.0 today and proceeded and it worked as expected.

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