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mike2906
Contributor
Contributor

Enable server 2008 role for Hyper-V in Fusion... Possible?

I have installed Server 2008 x64 bit and the install was almost flawless under Fusion (total opposite result with Parallels, by the way). The issue I am having is I want to enable the Hyper-V role on the server so I can take some screenshots of the Hyper-V consoles for training purposes. When I attempt to enable this role, Windows shoots back an error mentioning that the processor will not support the role and I cannot enable it. I am running on a MacPro 2.4.

Any ideas on what I can do to get it to work? I know it's not "supported", but c'mon... we're geeks.

THX.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Unfortunately, you will not be able to use Hyper-V in a virtual machine.

Hyper-V requires hardware assist from the CPU (such as VT), but VMware uses the same functionality to run 64-bit guests, and only one piece of virtualization software is able to use it at a time.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

You can't run Hyper-V virtual machines under Fusion because Fusion does not virtualize the VMX extensions required by Hyper-V. In other words, the virtual CPU in a Fusion VM does not support VT.

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

...roll-on to Mar, 2010....

Well, that was then - but what about now?

You can run ESX 4 under Fusion 3. I'm on new MBP which is running Windows 2008 R2 64-bit guest. One would assume (always a dangerous thing to do) that a new Intel-based MBP would have Intel-VT enabled in the BIOs. However, W2K8 R2 still complains when you try to enable the HyperV role...

I guess the error message can only mean two things. 1. Intel-VT IS not enabled on a MBP (which seems unlikely). 2. You need a special backdoor entry in the .VMX file (as you do in ESX) to make this work...

Time to googlewack and experiment.

I would normally have not interest in this. But Intel-VT and AMD-V are mandatory for HyperV (unlike ESX!) and the only machine I have that would support that atttribute is the MBP...

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book:http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2010/03/22/new-administrating-vmware-site-recovery-manager-4-0/

Free PDF or at-cost Hard Copy

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Any change on this as its now 2010 and Fusion 3?

Trying to get hyperV to work in W2K8+R2 working on my MBP...

Tried all the VMX hacks I know - but they don't help... I've checked

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book:http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2010/03/22/new-administrating-vmware-site-recovery-manager-4-0/

Free PDF or at-cost Hard Copy

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

No change. Current VMware products do not virtualize AMD-V or VT-x.

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

OK. I accept it doesn't work... But

Perhaps I am being a bit dense...

If Fusion 3 doesn't expose the Intel-VT attribute - how does it make 64-bit guest work on Intel for Fusion?

And... if it does expose Intel-VT to the guest operating system - how come HyperV complains?

I notice your saying Intel-VT-x. Not noticed that -x before, what's that meant to represent...? Is the sub-edition of Intel-VT-x?

Just trying understand what attribute HyperV is looking for, and why/what Fusion presents...

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book:http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2010/03/22/new-administrating-vmware-site-recovery-manager-4-0/

Free PDF or at-cost Hard Copy

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

If Fusion 3 doesn't expose the Intel-VT attribute - how does it make 64-bit guest work on Intel for Fusion?

Fusion 3 uses VT-x for running 64-bit guests. It just doesn't virtualize VT-x for the guest to use. Typically, the guest doesn't need VT-x. Aside from other hypervisors, no guest OS would have any use for VT-x. Running nested hypervisors is not very practical for performance reasons, so there isn't a tremendous motivation to virtualize the hardware-assisted virtualization features of the CPU.

I notice your saying Intel-VT-x. Not noticed that -x before, what's that meant to represent...? Is the sub-edition of Intel-VT-x?

Intel VT covers VT-x for the x86 architecture and VT-i for Itanium.

Just trying understand what attribute HyperV is looking for, and why/what Fusion presents...

Hyper-V is looking for bit 5 of CPUID[1].ecx to be set, indicating support for the VMX instructions. Since Fusion does not support these instructions in a guest, we report bit 5 of CPUID[1].ecx to be clear. All of the VMX instructions trap to the hypervisor when executed in a guest, so Fusion would have to emulate the effects of these instructions. That code has not been written yet.

To the best of my knowledge, the only hypervisor that virtualizes the hardware-assisted virtualization features of the CPU is kvm. Also, as far as I know, they have only done so for AMD-V to date; they have not virtualized VT-x yet.

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Michelle_Laveri
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

OK. I think I'm with you now...

Although the reference to KVM threw me - after all ESX4 can run ESX4 and ESX3 as VM...

What I'm not getting is this - if Fusion can run ESX4, why can't it run Hyper-V. I ass-um-ed that a virtual ESX & Hyper-V would want to see the same attributes?

Regards

Mike Laverick

RTFM Education

http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk

Author of the SRM Book:http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/2010/03/22/new-administrating-vmware-site-recovery-manager-4-0/

Free PDF or at-cost Hard Copy

Regards
Michelle Laverick
@m_laverick
http://www.michellelaverick.com
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

What I'm not getting is this - if Fusion can run ESX4, why can't it run Hyper-V. I ass-um-ed that a virtual ESX & Hyper-V would want to see the same attributes?

ESX does not require hardware-assisted virtualization to run 32-bit guests. It has the option of running 32-bit guests with binary translation. Hyper-V does not include binary translation technology (although Microsoft's other hypervisors, VPC 2007 and Windows Virtual PC, do.)

However, if you were to try to run a 64-bit nested guest under virtual ESX, you would encounter the same issue: ESX would complain that it cannot run a 64-bit guest without VT-x.

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basukiwinoto
Contributor
Contributor

Mike,

It's 2011, and my recent experiment still confirm Hyper-V will not fully functioning in Fusion. Though, I get to have the Hyper-V installed, remote access from Windows 7 (VM), create VM. But it refuses to start the VM in Hyper-V.. bummer.

I don't see any workaround to this, until somebody at VMware decided to pass through VT-x feature to the guest OS.

I am running Fusion 3.1.2 on iMac 27 (late 2009)

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