Can't power on 64-bit guest inside ESX 4.0 hosted in Workstation 6.5.2

[DSeaman]

Hardware:

Asus P6T Delxue V2

Intel i7 920

Virtualization enabled in BIOS

Software:

Windows 7 x64 RTM host OS

Vmware Workstation 6.5.2

vSphere 4.0

When I try to power-on a 64-bit guest VM inside of ESX running inside Workstation 6.5.2 I get:

Host CPU is incompatible with virtual machine's requirements at CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'edx'. Host bits: 0000:1000:0001:0000:0000:1000:0000:0000.

I thought it was possible to execute 64-bit VMs inside of ESX running inside Workstation?

[admin]

I thought it was possible to execute 64-bit VMs inside of ESX running inside Workstation?

Sorry, but the outer VM does not virtualize the hardware virtualization capabilities of the processor. Therefore, only 32-bit VMs can be nested inside another VM.

[DSeaman]

Thanks, but that makes ESX under Workstation completely useless to me. :smileyangry:

[DrBadvibes]

Do you think there will be an update (soon) to workstation to make this work? With most of Microsofts products being now 64-bit, it would be really great if you can do this.

Fred van Donk

[DSeaman]

I have not a clue. I HOPE workstation 7.0 can do this, but it wasn't mentioned in any of the leaked beta enhancement lists I've seen. I don't know if it's even possible..I would think it is with enough trouble. But if they can't do that in hardware, it may be so slow they don't think its useful. I agree as everything moves to 64-bit, this will become a bigger and bigger limitation.

[admin]

This feature is not likely to be available any time soon.

[DrBadvibes]

Just trying to uderstand the why. Is it because workstation now is only a 32bit app, and for this to work, workstation has to become a 64 bit app first?

Thanks your your prompt responses, much apreciated.

[admin · Accepted solution]

Not at all. It's because virtualizing the hardware virtualization features of the processor is a significant development effort. By design, the hardware virtualization features of the processor are not available to a virtual machine that runs under hardware virtualization, so these features have to be emulated by the hypervisor.

[DSeaman]

I hope that VMware invests the development effort. Before long all enterprise MS apps will be 64-bit, not to mention all server OSes will be 64-bit. It's just a matter of time before clients shift to all 64-bit. I don't really care too much about performance, since this would be in a test or lab scenario.