Enabling EVC on ESXi 4.1

[wstclair41]

I am going to need to enable EVC on DRS Clusters in my ESXi 4.1 environment vCenter server is on a virtual machine. I read the following KB

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101311...

My question is is it really necessary to create a new cluster and follow the steps in that KB? Can I not just power off all my VMs in a particular cluster and enable EVC then power back on the VMs? I have two clusters one is a "Infrastructure cluster" which holds servers such as vCenter, SQL etc. I will not be enabling EVC on that cluster. I have a second cluster "VDI cluster" which I will be enabling EVC. So on that VDI cluster can I just power off the VMs enable EVC then power the VMs back on?

Thanks!

[aravinds3107 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Communites!!

KB1013111 which you are referring to is applicable only for vCenter 4.0.x, I assume you already vCenter 4.1 running in your enviroment.

Note:  With vCenter Server 4.1 it is possible to add a host with running VMs  to an EVC cluster as long as none of the VMs on the host are running  instructions not supported by the EVC baseline. If any VM is running an  instruction not supported by the baseline a warning will be displayed.  For further information see the vSphere Datacenter Administration Guide.

If you are planning to enable EVC on the cluster if vCenter is NOT running then you should be good to Power OFF the VM's, place host in MM and enable EVC. Refer KB1009571

[wstclair41]

Thanks that is what I thought but I wasn't 100% sure. If I was going to enable EVC on the cluster that holds my vCenter server could I follow the same steps?