Vmotion and AMD Opteron 2200 vs 2300

[Quickdraw]

Does anyone know if vmotion will work between an AMD 2200 and a 2300? I'm setting up a new host with dual proc and quad core 2300 and getting an error that says "Host CPU incompatiable with VM requirements". I'm assuming this is due to the different processors. Any way to work around this. I thought that same families of processors were compatiable even if they were different series.

Thanks

-Patrick

[lamw]

You can double this document to see if they're compatiable: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1992

But if you're running ESX 3.5 Update 2 + VC 2.5 Update 2, you can create an EVC enabled cluster to have your Hosts be auto-configure to either AMD or INTEL cpu to ensure compatiablity of VMotion across different CPUs specifically from newer ones to the older ones and if it can not configure a host, it will let you know and not allow you to add it to the cluster. Take a look at the release notes and you can look at my previous posts about how to get it working, saves VI Admins lots of time from having to create cpuid masks everytime you add a new generation of CPUs to your existing cluster.

[prashantprahlad]

Quickdraw, what does the error message state exactly?

A quick search shows 2200s are RevE/F Opterons and 2300s are Barcelonas. If you are using ESX 3.5 Update 2 with VC 2.5 Update 2, you can use EVC to ensure these two processors are compatible for VMotion. Just make sure you have No eXecute (NX) and AMD-V (aka SVM, Hardware support for Virtualization, etc.) enabled.

[Quickdraw]

The exact error is "Unable to migrate from esx1 to esx17; Host CPU is incompatible with the virtual machine's requirements at CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'ecx'

host bits; 0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0111:1111:1111

required:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:000x:1xxx"

I'm working on updraging to update 2 to try the EVC cluster now.

Thanks

[prashantprahlad]

Great, this is definitely a feature level mismatch. Update 2 with EVC should fix the problem. Just make sure the BIOS defaults are OK.

[shamim-a]

Great..go ahead..

I can not leave without telling that, I was able to do vmotion one VM from Intel Host to AMD Host by following the below KB.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1993&slice... 0 20624652

Its not practical in a production environment, but to prove that Its possible, I sat for very long time changing CPU properties etc etc and finally succeeded.

it was a nice experience

Shamim

http:.//vmwareblogs.blogspot.com