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sbb72
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CPUs not on compatibly guide for ESX 6.5.

I've got 2 Dell Inc. Precision WorkStation 490 with Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5160 @ 3.00GHz CPUs for my home lab (note for my home lab and for testing only!!!), the CPUs are not compatible with 6.5, only with 6.0 and below.  I just wondered if there was  a way to install ESX 6.5 anyway even though it's not part of the supported compatibly list for my home lab?

I know it will not supported and some 'stuff' might not work.....but wondered if I can install it any way??  I've tried via VUM and booting from iso and it fails, anyway to 'trick' the installation of 6.5 just for testing in my home lab?

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bluefirestorm
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From the list put up by Martin

Intel Xeon 51xx series - Woodcrest   

Intel Xeon 30xx series - Conroe

Intel core 2 duo 6xxx series - Conroe

Intel Xeon 32xx series - Kentsfield

Intel core 2 quad 6xxx series - Kentsfield

Intel Xeon 53xx series - Clovertown

Intel Xeon 72xx/73xx series - Tigerton

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/22796/Woodcrest?q=Woodcrest

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/2680/Conroe?q=Conroe

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/23489/Kentsfield#@Kentsfield

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/23349/Clovertown#@Clovertown

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/25005/Tigerton#@Tigerton

The commonality that I see these CPUs are all before the Nehalem microarchitecture. None of these CPUs would have a feature called Extended Page Table (EPT).

I haven't seen any VMware document that explicitly states EPT or Secondary Level Address Translation (SLAT) is required for ESXi 6.5. But if ESXi 6.5 dropped software-based shadow paging and requires EPT, there would be no way to get around it. On the Workstation Pro 14.x/Fusion 10.x side, EPT is already a required feature from Intel CPUs to run.

Without EPT, you can only run 32-bit guests in a nested virtualisation environment. For example, you can create a VM that is running ESXi 6.0 but you can only run 32-bit VMs inside that ESXi 6.0 VM. And without EPT, I can imagine that it will also be very slow.

You could try creating a VM and attempt to install ESXi 6.5 in it, but it may not get tricked at all considering the absence of EPT and earlier failure to install bare metal ESXi 6.5; and that you are running ESXi 6.0 and trying to install an ESXi 6.5 VM (not the other way around).

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Gavis4569
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You won't be able to install ESXi 6.5 on such hardware 😕

Based on VMware vSphere 6.5 Release Notes

Upgrades and Installations Disallowed for Unsupported CPUs

Comparing the processors supported by vSphere 6.0, vSphere 6.5 no longer supports the following processors:

  • Intel Xeon 51xx series
  • Intel Xeon 30xx series
  • Intel core 2 duo 6xxx series
  • Intel Xeon 32xx series
  • Intel core 2 quad 6xxx series
  • Intel Xeon 53xx series
  • Intel Xeon 72xx/73xx series

During an installation or upgrade, the installer checks the compatibility of the host CPU with vSphere 6.5. If your host hardware is not compatible, a purple screen appears with an incompatibility information message, and the vSphere 6.5 installation process stops.

Martin Gavanda https://martingavanda.com https://learnvmware.online
sbb72
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Thanks Martin.  Yes I know about the HCL etc that just wondered if there was a way to by pass it for my Home Lab.

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bluefirestorm
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From the list put up by Martin

Intel Xeon 51xx series - Woodcrest   

Intel Xeon 30xx series - Conroe

Intel core 2 duo 6xxx series - Conroe

Intel Xeon 32xx series - Kentsfield

Intel core 2 quad 6xxx series - Kentsfield

Intel Xeon 53xx series - Clovertown

Intel Xeon 72xx/73xx series - Tigerton

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/22796/Woodcrest?q=Woodcrest

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/2680/Conroe?q=Conroe

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/23489/Kentsfield#@Kentsfield

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/23349/Clovertown#@Clovertown

https://ark.intel.com/products/codename/25005/Tigerton#@Tigerton

The commonality that I see these CPUs are all before the Nehalem microarchitecture. None of these CPUs would have a feature called Extended Page Table (EPT).

I haven't seen any VMware document that explicitly states EPT or Secondary Level Address Translation (SLAT) is required for ESXi 6.5. But if ESXi 6.5 dropped software-based shadow paging and requires EPT, there would be no way to get around it. On the Workstation Pro 14.x/Fusion 10.x side, EPT is already a required feature from Intel CPUs to run.

Without EPT, you can only run 32-bit guests in a nested virtualisation environment. For example, you can create a VM that is running ESXi 6.0 but you can only run 32-bit VMs inside that ESXi 6.0 VM. And without EPT, I can imagine that it will also be very slow.

You could try creating a VM and attempt to install ESXi 6.5 in it, but it may not get tricked at all considering the absence of EPT and earlier failure to install bare metal ESXi 6.5; and that you are running ESXi 6.0 and trying to install an ESXi 6.5 VM (not the other way around).