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EkilErif
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Migration between Intel and AMD

Hi All,

As far as I know VMotion between a server with an AMD CPU and a server with an Intel CPU, assuming default configuration, will not work. How about migrating offline boxes ie. I have an Intel based ESX server at 1 site and am looking to move this to a server in another location where the host is an AMD Server?

Please let me know your feedback,

Kind regards

Richard

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TCronin
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I'm sorry rentonj, I have to disagree.

You will be able to cold migrate, but the CPU will be diffrent from the guest perspecitve. Moving from AMD to Intel the OS will see the change in the CPU type. If the virtual processor presented to the OS were the same on both pieces of hardware then you would be able to vmotion. In order to do that then ESX would be working as an emulator, and it doesn't. If you look at the CPU properties in a guest you will see AMD listed when on an AMD host and Intel listed when on an Intel host.

The only caveat I know of when moving between AMD and Intel is with Linux guests. If you built it on AMD, then it will kernel panic on Intel. The other direction works fine. The problem is the microcode installed for CPU enhancements. The AMD one tries to load and fails causing a kernel panic, the Intel one just fails to load.

Tom Cronin, VCP, VMware vExpert 2009 - 2021, Co-Leader Buffalo, NY VMUG

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jrenton
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You will be able to cold migrate servers between AMD and Intel. The virtual processor presented to the virtual machine will be the same on both types of hardware as it comes from the virtualisation layer presented by ESX. ESX deals with the transition of the virtual processor to the physical hardware.

TCronin
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I'm sorry rentonj, I have to disagree.

You will be able to cold migrate, but the CPU will be diffrent from the guest perspecitve. Moving from AMD to Intel the OS will see the change in the CPU type. If the virtual processor presented to the OS were the same on both pieces of hardware then you would be able to vmotion. In order to do that then ESX would be working as an emulator, and it doesn't. If you look at the CPU properties in a guest you will see AMD listed when on an AMD host and Intel listed when on an Intel host.

The only caveat I know of when moving between AMD and Intel is with Linux guests. If you built it on AMD, then it will kernel panic on Intel. The other direction works fine. The problem is the microcode installed for CPU enhancements. The AMD one tries to load and fails causing a kernel panic, the Intel one just fails to load.

Tom Cronin, VCP, VMware vExpert 2009 - 2021, Co-Leader Buffalo, NY VMUG
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weinstein5
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tcronin is correct - the CPU that is presented is the physical cpu in the esx host - so the quest o/s will see an AMD processor when running on AMD box and Intel when on Intel - and his caveat about Linux VMs

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malaysiavm
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The cpu device on the VM will detect as different once you move the VM from Intel host to AMD host.

Malaysia VMware Communities -

Craig vExpert 2009 & 2010 Netapp NCIE, NCDA 8.0.1 Malaysia VMware Communities - http://www.malaysiavm.com
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EkilErif
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Thanks for the quick answers. I suspected this was the case.

Richard

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