Help with understanding processor issue??

[PaulRitchie]

Hi-

this is my first post here and i did some searching but wasnt able to find out why im experiencing what i see..Ill get to it:

Im following this article about setting up a VMWare Lab in an completely virtualized environmnet.  http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/virtualization/vmware-lab-setup---a-virtualized-lab-for-testing-... . Everything that is mentioned here i've been able to accomplish with the exception of the "Closing Summary" section.

In short, i have a Win 7 64bit Desktop, with what i beleived to be the required hardware to complete the lab but im stuck and cant find a reason why..

Hardware:

AMD Phenom II x2 Black Edition- Link below

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103887

Relavent tech specs:

Core :Callisto
Multi-Core: Dual-Core
Name: Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition
Operating Frequency: 3.3GHz
Hyper Transports: 4000MHz
L1 Cache:128KB+128KB
L2 Cache:2 x 512KB
L3 Cache:6MB
Manufacturing Tech: 45 nm
64 bit Support: Yes
Hyper-Transport Support: Yes
Virtualization Technology Support :Yes
Multimedia Instruction : MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4a, Advanced Bit Manipulation, AMD64 technology, AMD-V (virtualization) technology, Enhanced Virus Protection

In anycase, when i try to power on a VM in Vsphere i get this message:

This Virtual Machine is configured for 64-bit guest operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible. Longmode is disabled for this virtual machine. Continue withough 64bit support? yes/no

what im having trouble with here is the entire lab is Virtualized. I have VMWare Workstation running w/ 5 VM's:

1- 2008 R2 DC (2008 r2 64Bit)

2- Esxi Installations
1 FreeNas

1- Virtual Center Server (2008 r2 64Bit)

Ive downloaded the VMWare guest64bit check utility and it tells me that my processor is NOT supported???? How is that possible w/ all the 64 bit OS's i've already got running??

Can someone PLEASE help...

[wdroush1]

Do you have AMD-V enabled in BIOS? Extremely common thing to miss.

[PaulRitchie]

Yeah.. Its not called that exactly but its some version of "virtualization" and "enabled".. which it is... Im still looking all over the place for a reason/help for this. I've tried updating BIOS, disabling 2 the 2 "unlocked" cores, changing the virtualization engine on the Virtualized ESX host from Automatic to AMD-v specific.. still no dice. I just dont understand how VMWare Workstation would allow me to install 64b OS's all day?

[gkn1]

Hi, I have the same issue with VMware fusion for Mac. I think it has something to do with nesting 64bit OS on 64bit Host (ESXi). Let me hear if you find out something. BTW: You are able to install 32bit OS on the ESXi right?

/Gert

[wdroush1]

Gert Kjerselv wrote:

Hi, I have the same issue with VMware fusion for Mac. I think it has something to do with nesting 64bit OS on 64bit Host (ESXi). Let me hear if you find out something. BTW: You are able to install 32bit OS on the ESXi right?

/Gert

Oh wait, he's trying to run a 64-bit guest on the ESXi box in workstation? Yeah, the hypervisor needs to specifically pass that ability down, workstation AFAIK doesn't, ESXi 5.0 JUST started supporting that.

[PaulRitchie]

I understand and can definitely see the reasons being stated here as the "reason"... I would assume ( yeah yeah ) that someone else has tried to do what im doing. for the record: Workstation 7.1 and esxi5 - I'd love to hear from someone who was able to do it... If i need to buy a new proc i will.. i just dont want to if i have no chance of doing what i want to do here.

I suppose that it doesnt even matter 64b vs 32b at that level.. its all for testing/studying etc i just hate having something done halfway or "rigged" in some mannor or another.

Thanks everyone for helping out.. much appreciated!!!

Paul

[mcowger]

Its not possible with current versions of workstation.

[Datto]

I run 32 bit and 64 bit VMs on nested hypervisor VMs running on ESXi 5.0 physical hosts. Here are some suggestions from my experience doing this for myself:

1) 64 bit VMs running on nested hypervisors doesn't work on current 7.x version of VMware Workstation -- it may or may not run on Workstation 8.x when it is released (I'm not a beta participant in the Workstation Beta Program). If you want to use VMware Workstation, you'll have to wait to see whether that feature is available with Workstation 8.x when it is released.

2) If you want to run 64 bit VMs on a nested hypervisor VM on an ESXi 5.0 server, then your physical CPUs will likely need  RVI (for AMD CPUs) or EPT (for Intel CPUs) in addition to standard Intel VT-x or AMD-V. For AMD Opterons, this means the 13xx, 23xx, or 83xx series of CPUs and some recently made AMD CPUs for desktop white boxes. You'd have to visit the AMD or Intel websites to determine whether a CPU has that feature or not.

There's a discussion on Eric Gray's website http://www.vcritical.com about running VMs on nested hypervisors that might be of interest to you.

Datto