VMware Cloud Community
sahancelikag
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Intel E7 v2 CPUs do not support virtualization!?

Hi everyone, having issues with Intel those days.

When you check the specs of Intel E7 v2 CPU family there is no VT-x virtualization support in specs sheet.

Please see yourself link below list of intel CPUs that support virtualization.

http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology  -->No E7 v2 CPUs here…!?

Also check in comparison chart with a E5v3  in attached snapshot. There is no virtualization technology.

ARK | Compare Intel® Products

When you check Vmware's support matrix, this CPU looks to be fine for virtualization.

I am confused. Even Intel USA cannot give clear answer to this question. So if there is any VMware employee here, could you please escalate my query?

Thanks in advance.

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
sahancelikag
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Today I see that they have updated the specs sheet. Now it is all fine Smiley Happy

It looks life officially E7 V2 CPUs support Virtualization Smiley Happy

http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
6 Replies
Alistar
Expert
Expert
Jump to solution

Heya,

this is strange, the exact same processor and a few others are showing the support for virtualization for me. On the other hand why would they start making Xeons without VT-x, that would make no sense :smileyshocked:

intel.png

Stop by my blog if you'd like 🙂 I dabble in vSphere troubleshooting, PowerCLI scripting and NetApp storage - and I share my journeys at http://vmxp.wordpress.com/
Reply
0 Kudos
sahancelikag
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Alistar if you double check the specs you sent there is no VT-x Virtualization support there. Please do not get confused with VT-x EPT or VT-x d with VT-x only.

VT-x EPT is for memory management

VTx-D for I/O-device virtualization

Please see below.

vtx.png

Reply
0 Kudos
Alistar
Expert
Expert
Jump to solution

Thank you for clarifying that up for me. I have tried it on my own and now I see that the feature is indeed missing. I have taken a look at the spec sheet for E7 v2 family (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-e7-v2-datasheet-vol-1.html) and found this at the bottom of page 13:

1.1.2 Supported Technologies

• Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)

• Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)

...

Compared to E7 datasheet volume 2, page 8 (http://www.intel.co.uk/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/xeon-e7-8800-4800-2800-fami...😞

Intel® Xeon® Processor E7-8800/4800/2800 Product Families Features:

Support for Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for IA-32 Intel® Architecture 2 (Intel® VT-x 2)

Which is strange, VT is advertised, but no VT-x. Maybe they changed the technology naming because of dropping IA-32 architecture translation used by obsolete Itanium without letting anyone know?

Stop by my blog if you'd like 🙂 I dabble in vSphere troubleshooting, PowerCLI scripting and NetApp storage - and I share my journeys at http://vmxp.wordpress.com/
Reply
0 Kudos
sahancelikag
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Thats the another point making me confused.

If you look at the link below which shows Intel Virtualization supported CPU's, you wont find E7 V2 there.

http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology  -->No E7 v2 CPUs here…!?

Strange!

This is the reason why I asked if there is any VMware employee to escalate this unknown mystery?

Thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

The data on ark.intel.com are notoriously unreliable.  All current Xeon CPUs support VT-x.

sahancelikag
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Today I see that they have updated the specs sheet. Now it is all fine Smiley Happy

It looks life officially E7 V2 CPUs support Virtualization Smiley Happy

http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology

Reply
0 Kudos