Hardware Virtualization Assist

[mike16]

Ive been researching VM software. Does ESX Server 3.0 require a CPU feature deemed "Hardware Virtualization Assist" to load Windows 2003 VMs?

I ask this, because I ran into an issue with an alternative product called XenSource which said my system could not launch Windows 2003 VMs because my system lacked "hardware virtualization assist support"

[mike16]

I believe the technologies are Intel VT and AMD-V

[Paul_B1]

No, you should be able to run guests on Server or ESX w/o Intel VT enabled. It is my understanding you don't need it unless you want to run 64-bit guests if I'm not mistaken.

Message was edited by:

Paul.B (original was a bit confusing)

[ErMaC1 · Accepted solution]

The complete answer:

1) Intel VT or AMD-V are the names of the various Hardware Virtualization Assist technologies from Intel and AMD, respectively.

2) Running 32-bit Virtual Machines on any CPU type does not require any special instructions.

3) Running 64-bit VMs on an AMD Opteron revision E or later does not require any special instructions.

4) Running 64-bit VMs on an Intel CPU does[/i] require a CPU that supports Intel VT. These processors are anything based on the Core 2 architecture (Xeon 3xxx, 5xxx, 7xxx) or older Xeon MP[/b] CPUs (Xeon DPs do not have it).

Download this:

http://download3.vmware.com/software/vi/CPU_Compatibility.zip

To find out if your CPU supports 64-bit VMs. If it says 64-bit VMWare = Yes, you're golden. But 32-bit VMs will always work.

[Paul_B1]

Ah yes, thanks for posting that, I remember reading something similar but couldn't remember the exact details!

[mike16]

Thank you PaulB and ErMaC, exactly the information I needed to know.

props to the forums users once again for a quick find/solution