Does ESXi 5.1 Host supports Intel "Haswell" Generation ?

[TonyJK]

We are running a cluster of 3 ESXi 5.1 hosts - 2 of them are Xeon E7440 @ 2.4GHz (64GB RAM) and 1 of them is Xeon X5460 @ 3.16GHz (32GB RAM).

We would like to add a new Host running Intel E5-2600v3 processors to this cluster.

However, it seems that both ESXi 5.1 and ESXi 5.1 don't support "Haswell" Generation processors.  Is it correct ?

http://www.virten.net/2013/04/intel-cpu-evc-matrix/

Thanks

[dhanarajramesh · Accepted solution]

esxi 5.1 Update2 and update 3 patches onwards, it supported. kindly look in to VMware HCL page VMware Compatibility Guide: cpu

[TonyJK]

Many thanks for your advice.

Do I still use "Penryn" Generation as EVC when the new host is added ?

Thanks again.

[MKguy]

Do I still use "Penryn" Generation as EVC when the new host is added ?

Yes. The highest possible EVC mode you can enable on a cluster is determined bu the oldest CPU generation that participates in it. So as long as you don't get rid of your old Penryn hosts, you'll have to stick with that EVC mode.

I would not mix hosts with CPU generations that are 8 years apart to be honest, Penryn is not even using the integrated memory controller MMU scheme that was introduced with Nehalem. You're losing out on too many improved/new instruction sets for your applications.