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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

Error: Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs

I have a HP DL380 G5 test server with 8GB RAM and two Intel Xenon dual-core 5160 - 3.0Ghz processors installed.

Virtualization Technology is enabled in the server"s BIOS.

The server is running Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition and I have VMware 8.1 installed.

When I try to install ESXi 5.0 in VMWare Workstation I get the following error:

"Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs."

Within the Virtual Machine settings I set the Number of Processorts to 2 and the Number of Cores per Processors to 1.

I have enabled "Intel VT-x or AMD-V" as the preferred mode and selected "Virtualized Intel VT-x?EPT or AMD-V/RVI but I get the same message.

I am not sure if the Intel Xeon dual-core processsor 5160 - 3.0Ghz supports EPT and was wondering if I am hitting a barrier with the hardware I am using.

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12 Replies
rickardnobel
Champion
Champion

Discussion moved to VMware Workstation forum.  / Rickard

My VMware blog: www.rickardnobel.se
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Welcome to the Community,

I have enabled "Intel VT-x or AMD-V" as the preferred mode and selected  "Virtualized Intel VT-x?EPT or AMD-V/RVI but I get the same message.

Leave "Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" enabled and set the preferred mote to Automatic. Setting the preferred mode may cause this issue.

André

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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for moving my question to the proper forum.

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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

Andre, when  I make the changes you specified I get the following error in a window when booting from the ESXi 5.0 iso:

Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT requires platform support for Intel support for Intel VT-x/EPT.

Continute without the virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT?

If I choose yes to the above I am afraid that I still will be unable to install 64-bit VMs within my VSphere 5 virtual environment.

Thanks,

John

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Interesting. We had a discussing about the same issue at Any tech wizard? ESXi over VM cannot start VMs... where this setup worked.

Can you please attach the vmware.log from the ESXi VM's folder.

André

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Bernd_Nowak
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Have you applied the latest BIOS update? A DL350 G5 is some years old so it might be not the latest BIOS.

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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

Attached is the requested vmware.log file.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

According to the log file "Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" is currently disabled. Can you please double check. Maybe this is the result of the error. However, it would be good to have a vmware.log file with the option initially enabled.

André

PS: Discussion moved from VMware Workstation to Nested Virtualization

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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

I have updated the BIOS on the server to the lastest release, I still get the same error.

John

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Jbdkz1
Contributor
Contributor

Here is the vmware.log with Virtualization Mode set to "Automatic" and "Virtulize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V?RVI" selected.

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Bernd_Nowak
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

There seemed to be phsical Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5160 in the server but according to Intel they only support software virtualization. Here's the link to the intel specs: http://www.intel.com/cd/channel/reseller/asmo-na/eng/products/server/processors/5100/feature/index.h...

I'm not that technical but I can sense that running nested VM's is not possible with 'software' VT. You can for sure run 64 Bit VMs but not a Hypervisor, VMware Workstation, starting another Hypervisor, ESX and then run 64 bit OS inside the 2nd Hypervisor, ESX.

But I'm not that deep into this stuff and maybe someone else can give a better explanation what's going wrong.

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

These processors do not support EPT.  EPT is required for virtualizing VT-x/EPT.

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