CPU Support

[Asarian20111014]

Hello guys;

Just finished installing my first ever ESXI (ESXI 5) and in the client console i see that there are only a maximum of 4CPUs available for a virtual machine. Now i know that is a limit set by VMWare, but what i want to know is, what is the number of total availavle to my host?

To explain, when i install vmware player it will show me 8CPUs available for use, but in ESXI i can't see anywhere 8CPUs.

I have a single Quad core Intel CPu and Intel VT is enabled in bios.

Aother thing, would you please post a link on how to copy ab existing virtual machine to ESXI?

Thanks in Advance.

[twindude]

@Asarian

please let us know what you mean by copy to esxi? do you have a Virtual cneter server setup?

[Asarian20111014]

I have a vritual machine files on a separate Vmware server installed on Windows 2003 host. How can i copy the files of that Virtual server from my vmwareserver to ESXI 5 server?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

ESXi 5 doesn't have core licensing restrictions, but you license the CPUs (and memory).  With ESXi free you can license any number of CPUs, but with the paid editions you have to purchase a license for each CPU.

In the vSphere client you can look at the summary page for the host to see the CPU capacity.  It will be listed as CPU core count x processor speed.  You can also select the Configuration > Processor page to see more details about the CPUs in the system.

[twindude]

so you are going from vmware server (free vesion) to esxi 5? if this is the case then use vmware converter

fi mvoing from esx to esxi then try this, use something like winscp to copy/move the files to the new esxi server's shared storage and then import the .vmx file

let us know

[Asarian20111014]

Thanks dave;

It's marked as 4x2.1 ghz, which is correct, but in this case it just looks like ESXi does not use Intel VT?

If i install vmwareplayer on the same Physical machine, vmware player will show me 8 CPUs instead of four. Why is it like that?

Thanks.

[Asarian20111014]

Thanks Twindude;

Yes i'm moving from vmware server (free) to ESXI 5. But hold on i thought VSXI 5 was free also right?

I already used the converter to export a physical machine to a virtual mchine, my main question was, how to copy the files to the new server? I see you are mentioning winscp, i'll give it a try and let you know.

[Asarian20111014]

Oh boy, i see that i don't need to use winscp or anything. Vsphere client  has builtin copy capabilities to the storage, great.

Please guys help me with this CPU issue.

[twindude]

yes VC can copy as well, depends on where you are running VC..  but should work

the CPU i'm still thinking on this one...

[Asarian20111014]

I really appreciate your quick responds, how about if ESXI 5 is free or not?

[golddiggie]

When you select the host, and view the Summary tab, what does it display for the CPU category? What processor(s) do you have in the host? You should see a listing under CPU Cores: and Processor Type: in that section. So, if you have two 6 core CPU's, you'll see "12 CPUs x n.nnn GHz". If the processors are hyperthreading (in a way that ESXi recognizes) you'll see the Hyperthreading: Active line, as well as "Logical Processors:" equal to double the total core count. You'll also see the License listing, showing what type of license the host has applied to it.

Looks like they removed the vCPU count limitation with ESXi 5, even the free release. Generally speaking, you don't want to assign too many vCPUs to a VM. Generally we start off with either one or two vCPUs per VM. Better to start off with one, adding another IF you need to. With Server 2008 you can enabled the hot add feature, so increasing the CPU, and memory, amount is much easier.

[Asarian20111014]

Thanks for your reply Golddiggie

Here is a screencap of the summary. As for licenses, i still did not apply the free license, i don't know if that makes a difference, but what puzzles me is that, if i install vmware player or workstation on the same machine, i get a total of 8CPUs for use instead of just four in ESXI 5.

I,m not intending to assign more than two per virtual machine, but if i have only four CPUs to use, then i will have less virtual machines.

The goal from this server is to replicate my infrastructur for testing and development (LAB)

Thanks

[golddiggie]

Check to see if you have hyperthreading available/active in bios... A single E5605 Xeon, is just four cores, so the count is valid... It could be that hyperthreading either isn't enabled, or the server doesn't transmit it in such a way that it plays right with ESXi...

[Asarian20111014]

I defenitly don't have Hyperthreading in my Bios, anyways now i have another problem, i think the free version of ESXi 5 is limited to one physical CPU, even if you register for two CPU license.

[golddiggie · Accepted solution]

Since you've not entered the key yet, since it's still listing "Evaluation Mode" that doesn't apply. Historically, evaluation mode has been Enterprise Plus license (everything available to you). Once you apply a license key, then you get those features. Do you have two physical CPUs installed in the server?

I've not, yet, installed ESXi 5 on my host, since I need to test for iSCSI communication with my SAN/NAS before committing. I might do it via a nested VM, or with Workstation 8 on my main worker... You could have one slightly flaky CPU in the box, which ESXi simply doesn't like where the other operating systems are willing to deal with it. ESX/ESXi has been known to reject hardware that other operating systems accept/work with, even though it's compatible.

Just for giggles, pull down the full diagnostics flash drive image, install to a new flash drive, boot the server from that and run it on a loop for a day or three. That should pick up any hardware issues. I would also run memtest on the host for at least 2-3 days. That will flush out any questionable memory sticks in the host. I've had that discover memory that was just bad enough to cause issues with ESX/ESXi, but not other operating systems. Replacing the memory before it's being actively used is usually the better choice. As such, a memtest 'burn-in' of at least 4-5 days is now SOP for me.