Help Nested Esxi 5 VM Issues!!!

[jitla1971]

Hi All

I have installed esxi 5 on my physical host.

Which worked fine, i am able to start and create 64Bit Guest VM's.

After reading esxi 5 can be virtualised, i thought it would be ideal, for training as i only have 1 physical server and

something like this would be great for my home lab.

My Server is a Dell T310 with a Intel Xeon X3440 quad core processor.

I checked vmware hcl both server and processor is esxi 5 supported.

When i try to create my virtual esxi 5 server vm, i keep getting a Hardware Virtualization error, which states either cpu doesnt support hardware virtualization or that its not enabled in the bios.

This is the error message i get:

(HARDWARE_VIRTUALIZATION WARNING: Hardware virtualization is not a feature of this CPU, or it is not enabled in the BIOS)

Link to my cpu: http://ark.intel.com/products/42928/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X3440-%288M-Cache-2_53-GHz%29

Clearly States Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-X) Yes

I have checked the bios, virtualization technology is enabled, i also disabled this feature and tested starting a windows 64bit vm, but this failed due to VT not being enabled inthe bios.

After enabling VT again, i attempted the installation again, but again same error message.

Have i missed something? just dont know why esx vm is not seeing the VT cpu instruction set.

I can created normal Windows VM's but no nested esxi vm's.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I followd information, from virtualghetto website, if that helps.

Regards

Jitesh

[RParker]

My Server is a Dell T310 with a Intel Xeon X3440 quad core processor.

I checked vmware hcl both server and processor is esxi 5 supported.

When i try to create my virtual esxi 5 server vm, i keep getting a Hardware Virtualization error, which states either cpu doesnt support hardware virtualization or that its not enabled in the bios.

I have checked the bios, virtualization technology is enabled, i also disabled this feature and tested starting a windows 64bit vm, but this failed due to VT not being enabled inthe bios.

After enabling VT again, i attempted the installation again, but again same error message.

Have i missed something? just dont know why esx vm is not seeing the VT cpu instruction set.

I can created normal Windows VM's but no nested esxi vm's.

That's correct Hyper visor doesn't have 64-bit capability since it's nested.. so no way to run 64-bit VM's like this

[Dave_Mishchenko]

You'll need to update the configuration file /etc/vmware/config on your host to enable passthrough of VT-x into the guest hypervisor.  See the details here -

communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970/version/30

[jitla1971]

Hi Dave

Thank you for the link.

I already added the below line to my config file, but yet still get the same error.

To allow the use of this feature, the ESXi administrator must add the following configuration option to the /etc/vmware/config file on the physical host:

vhv.allow = TRUE

I am at work, but i will post a screenshot, but i am sure it contains, the above value.

[admin]

Make sure that the guestOS type for the ESXi 5.0 VM is "vmkernel5" and its virtual hardware version is 8.

[jitla1971]

silly question, but how do i check the Guest OS Type for Esxi 5.0 VM?

I think hardware version is 8, not sure about this vmkernel 5 setting.

[admin]

The configuration file for the VM should have:

guestOS = "vmkernel5"

From the UI, you can edit the properties of the VM, and the guest OS type should be "ESX Server 5."

If the guest OS type is not "ESX Server 4" or "ESX Server 5," then virtualized hardware-assisted virtualization will not be enabled by default.

[jitla1971]

checked the vmx file of my vm and i got this:

4

v

ide1:0.present = "TRUE"

ide1:0.fileName = "/vmfs/volumes/4cd9bdd1-f987f37f-bae2-842b2b084aed/iso files/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0-469512.x86_64.iso"

ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

floppy0.startConnected = "FALSE"

floppy0.fileName = ""

floppy0.clientDevice = "TRUE"

ethernet0.present = "TRUE"

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

ethernet0.networkName = "Domain Controllers"

ethernet0.addressType = "generated"

chipset.onlineStandby = "FALSE"

guestOS = "rhel6-64"

uuid.location = "56 4d ac af 9f bf a3 8e-4e 92 50 a7 7e 12 65 d9"

uuid.bios = "56 4d ac af 9f bf a3 8e-4e 92 50 a7 7e 12 65 d9"

vc.uuid = "52 53 23 2a 27 a4 b0 1a-48 9f 08 bd 96 6c 59 73"

snapshot.action = "keep"

sched.cpu.min = "0"

sched.cpu.units = "mhz"

sched.cpu.shares = "normal"

sched.mem.min = "0"

sched.mem.shares = "normal"

vcpu.hotadd = "TRUE"

mem.hotadd = "TRUE"

bios.forceSetupOnce = "FALSE"

ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:12:65:d9"

svga.vramSize = "8388608"

vmci0.id = "2115134937"

tools.syncTime = "FALSE"

cleanShutdown = "TRUE"

replay.supported = "FALSE"

sched.swap.derivedName = "/vmfs/volumes/4e1f439d-f7bc73fc-c983-842b2b084aec/vesxi5a/vesxi5a-09d455bd.vswp"

replay.filename = ""

scsi0:0.redo = ""

pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"

pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"

pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"

pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"

pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"

scsi0.pciSlotNumber = "160"

ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "33"

vmci0.pciSlotNumber = "32"

scsi0.sasWWID = "50 05 05 6f 9f bf a3 80"

ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"

hostCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

hostCPUID.1 = "000106e5001008000098e3fdbfebfbff"

hostCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

guestCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

guestCPUID.1 = "000106e500010800809822010febfbff"

guestCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

userCPUID.0 = "0000000b756e65476c65746e49656e69"

userCPUID.1 = "000106e500100800009822010febfbff"

userCPUID.80000001 = "00000000000000000000000128100800"

evcCompatibilityMode = "FALSE"

vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "8388608"

sched.scsi0:0.shares = "normal"

sched.scsi0:0.throughputCap = "off"

monitor.virtual_mmu = "hardware"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

/vmfs/volumes/4e1f439d-f7bc73fc-c983-842b2b084aec/vesxi5a #

[admin]

Change rhel6-64 to vmkernel5, and you should be good to go.

[jitla1971]

i will try that now

my vi skills are not very good

[jitla1971]

how do i make sure guestos type is always vmkernel5 for nested vm's?

am i missing something during vm creation?

[Dave_Mishchenko]

When you create the ESXi VM you'll want to set the OS to VMware ESXi 5.x.  The nested VMs that you create on your ESXi VM can be setup with the guest OS to match what you'll be installing.

[admin]

Note that the creation wizard does not allow you to select "ESX Server 5" as the guest OS type (because "ESX Server 5" is not officially supported as a guest).  However, this option is available when you edit the VM properties.  So, pick something innocuous, like "Other 64-bit" when creating an ESXi VM, and then change it to "ESX Server 5" after exiting the creation wizard.

[jitla1971]

Thank you all very much, for helping me with this issue.

I have created esxi 5.0 vm and the installation of esxi worked, without any error messages.

so thank you all so much.

just a quick question, how should i use my lab to prepare for the vcp5 exam?

using this new found nested esxi can i vmotion between 2 virtual esxi hosts?

thanks

jitesh

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Once you have 2 ESXi VMs setup with shared storage you can enable vMotion, HA and DRS.  I think that even FT may be possible.

You can pull course info and an exam blue print from here - http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www to tailor your studies.  Note that unless you have your VCP4 you'll be required to take the course associated with the VCP5 exam.

[lamw]

Dave,

vFT is actually possible, there is a minor tweak in ESXi 5 to get this working which I blogged about here - http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-nested-vft-virtual-fault.html

[ITRC_Architect]

One more note for everybody who may be trying to solve this issue...

If you have VMware EVC enabled "Merom" on the cluster, then try disabling it.  That solved our HARDWARE_VIRTUALIZATION WARNING problem.