EVC/CPU Masking with ESX3.5

[RichardBrown]

Hi,

I seem to be getting some conflicting information and articles regarding Enhanced VMotion Compatability procssor support. We have a large estate of HP BL465 G5 blade servers currently using AMD Generation 3 model 2356, 2.3GHZ processor and have just receieve a large order of AMD Generation 3 2384, 2.7GHZ processor's which we need to make work in the same cluster.

I am told isn't possible until Version 4 and then i'm told it is possible but not supported in ESX3.5. They are the same family just different speeds and obviously model numbers 2356 and 2384. We are currently at VI 2.5 U1 and ESX3.5 U3 can some tell me if upgrading VI to U3 would enable this family to work with EVC and if so what are the prefered supported steps to using CPU masking.

some articles i have been reffering to are

many Thanks in advance

Rich

[bebman · Accepted solution]

You can do EVC with 3.5 U3. First off, your Virtual Center version should always be at the same Update level or higher than your hosts. Do that first and the EVC option should show up in your cluster settings. On your information about the Generation of processors, you will actually NOT need EVC to Vmotion from the 2356 to the 2384. They are both 2300 series processors, so the CPU flags are the same in the chipsets. If you add later AMD chips (i.e. 2400 series) to your clusters, then you will need EVC. You can reach about the processor series info here: .

Virtually,

VMware Certified Professional

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[ThompsG]

Evening,

I am wondering if the information you were given was in regards to EVC generations. Under ESX3.5 if you enable EVC then the processors will run as Generation I processors. With ESX 4 you can now unlock more feature sets of the processors by running EVC in various Generations, i.e. I, II and III

As the other poster said, in your case I would run without EVC as this will give you the maximum benefit from your hardware.

Kind regards,

Glen