CPU Masking Question for Intel Xeon Processors

randomnut · ‎06-18-2010

I recently upgraded to virtual center update 4.0 1a from 4.0, and since then seem to have problems with vMotion having compatibility issues with our hosts, which worked fine to and from all hosts previously. We have 4 hosts with the following processors-

HP Proliant DL580 G5 - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E7330 @ 2.40GHz

HP Proliant DL580 G4 - Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.40GHz

The error i get when moving from one of the G4's or G5's to the other type of server is as follows-

Host CPU is incompatible with the virtual machine's requirements at CPUID level 0x1 register 'eax'.

Host bits: 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:1111:0110:1000

Required: 0000:0000:0000:xxxx:00xx:0110:xxxx:xxxx

Refer to KB article 1993 for possible solutions.

I've looked at the article and i'm by no means an expert in this field and a lot of it goes a bit beyond my knowledge, but i'd like to get vMotion working again with the newest update. I read that using the VMware CPU Info tool I could get the information i needed, which i've done and attached, although it doesn't mean a lot to me. Could anyone assist with what I need to change exactly to get this working?

Thanks

madieta · ‎08-25-2010

I received those same message when trying to vMotion between an HP Proliant DL580 G4 (CPU 7140M) and HP Proliant DL380 G5 (CPU 5160), and I solved adding that mask to the advanced options of the virtual machine. In the article 1993 says how to do it, but in few words you have to power off the guest, go to advanced options, CPUID Mask, and under level 1, eax register, write 0000:0000:0000:xxxx:00xx:0110:xxxx:xxxx

After that, I got more errors, and had to change also registers ecx and edx to other chains.

It worked for me, but I have tested it only with a Windows 2008 R2 Server, with no applications runing. VMotion with this configuration is not supported by VMware, so you can encounter compatibility issues.

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CPU Masking Question for Intel Xeon Processors