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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Is it possible to enable vt-x on ESXi 3.5 ?

I've had a good look around and I cant find a definitive answer to this. I'm trying to run a VMware player inside ESXi 3.5 and the OS I am trying to run requires hardware virtualization. I have an Intel Xeon CPU which supports VT-x but I don't get an option to enable virtualization in the default PhoenixBIOS that comes with ESXi. Is there a way to force VT-x on or can I update the bios of the host VM to have that option? I have tried various things including:

vhv.allow = TRUE

monitor.virtual_exec = hardware

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = TRUE

monitor_control.vt32 = TRUE

any ideas?

Thanks

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marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

I think you will need to upgrade the BIOS, with some luck this should be supported by the motherboard...

Marcelo Soares
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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean upgrade the bios of the actual ESXi server or the BIOS of the virtual machine? If its the VM, which BIOS would I need?

Thanks

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zXi_Gamer
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Let me put this in a simple way, If ESXi supports vt-x and your motherboard supports vt-x, then yes you can ask ESXi to use the vt32 parameter. If your motherboard supports VT-X and you are unable to locate the vt-x option in your BIOS, then it means, that your mother board is indeed capable of supporting vt-x but your bios is not intelligent enough to show it.

For this, you might need to update BIOS on your motherboard. Do consult your hardware specifications and schedule a downtime, for bios upgrade.

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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

The host machine (HP ProLiant DL380) BIOS does support it and it was off so I have turned it on but it doesn't appear to have made a change on the actual VM's. Does anyone know the configuration parameters for each VM I need to set to get this working ?

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zXi_Gamer
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

In the virtual machine properties, under Options> CPU/MMUU virtualization, are you able to see the "Use Intel VT-x......." options enabled OR they are grayed out. Do check this option and try out the same.

Do ignore the following link, if you have already visited.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/339536

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vGuy
Expert
Expert

you can also use esxcfg-info command to determine the VT status:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1011712

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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Don't have those options at all. I have

Virtualized MMU (hardware page table virtualization) - Enabled (Force use of these features where available)

Paravirtualization - Enabled (support VMI paravirtualization is ticked)

CPUID Mask - Expose the Nx flag to guest is ticked

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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

vGuy, on the box I ran

~ # esxcfg-info | grep "HV"
         |----HV Support............................................3

according to the link you gave means

3 - VT/AMD-V indicates that VT or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS and can be used.

So thats a good thing I guess, still doesn't appear to work though :smileygrin:

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marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

What OS you have on the ESXi guest VM? If you can send us some screenshot of the error you are seeing, better.

Sorry about the mistake about the BIOS, thought you were talking about the physical system one.

Marcelo Soares
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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Just trying to run a 64bit OS, it says "is not supported with software virtualization, you need a host  on which VMware player supports hardware virtualization"

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vGuy
Expert
Expert

Are you trying to run 64-bit guest on virtual ESXi host on a vmware player? If so, you will need to use vmware workstation 8 which enables you to run 64-bit nested VMs.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Hi sam121er

Welcome to the communites.

Its completely depend upon the BIOS  .

Please check with your manufacture portal if they have upgraded the BIOS version then check the updradation documentation.

You'll have to delete all of them to use the Clone feature. Next time before you take a snapshot, power-off VM

"Life is never easy for those who dream"
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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Hi vGuy, yep its a nested VM. Is workstation 8 the same as ESXi 5, I'm currently on 3.5 so not sure what the best upgrade path would be for this?

thanks

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sam121er
Contributor
Contributor

Hi aarav, I have enabled VT-x in the BIOS of the physical machine. The option does not appear in the VM's PhoenixBIOS so I am assuming its passed across to the VM. This is a nested vmware though (ESXi host, windows VM with a VMWare player inside that trying to load a 64bit OS)

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vGuy
Expert
Expert

sam121er wrote:

Hi vGuy, yep its a nested VM. Is workstation 8 the same as ESXi 5, I'm currently on 3.5 so not sure what the best upgrade path would be for this?

Not exactly, both are different products. VMware workstation is considered as Type II hypervisor which runs as an app on top of an Operating systems such as Windows or Linux,  while ESX/i is a Type I hypervisor which runs directly on the Physical hardware.

Frankly, I am not sure if you can run a 64-bit Guest OS on the virtual ESX 3.5 host. You should alteast have VMware workstation 8 with ESX 4.1. This article seems to have good explanation of the steps: http://www.fixtheexchange.com/64bit-guests-nested-esxivsphere-now-possible-thanks-workstation-8

....hth!

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