Does VMware Workstation Pro 15 support Intel Processor Tracing (Intel PT)?

[Programmer208]

Does VMware Workstation Pro 15 support Intel Processor Tracing?

If yes then is this feature usable with a nested hypervisor?

[bluefirestorm]

If you look at the vmware.log Miscellaneous VMX Data section you will see that VM power up checks for that capability in the CPU. It will be "yes" for CPUs that has Intel Processor Trace. As far as I know, Intel PT is available in Broadwell and newer; but Intel CPU features are not always guaranteed to be available in all CPUs (sometimes not even in the same generation).

This is from a VMware Player 15.0.0 vmware.log. I think version 14 has something similar already.

vmx| I125: Miscellaneous VMX Data (0x000000007004c1e7)

vmx| I125:   Processor trace in VMX           yes

You could try adding the setting

pt.enable = "TRUE"

to the vmx configuration file of the VM.

I haven't tried (yet) to see if it works with the Intel PT tools inside a VM.

[Programmer208]

I added the pt.enable = "TRUE" setting to my vm's .vmx file, but it does not enable the feature in the guest. I'm using workstation pro 14.

The log file for this vm reports that processor tracing is not a supported capability:

2018-10-12T23:37:04.397-06:00| vmx| I125: Host VT-x Capabilities:

...

2018-10-12T23:37:04.397-06:00| vmx| I125:   Processor trace in VMX           yes

...

2018-10-12T23:37:11.724-06:00| vmx| I125: Guest VT-x Capabilities:

...

2018-10-12T23:37:11.739-06:00| vmx| I125:   Processor trace in VMX            no

I am not sure if this indicates that it's possible with some modifications or if the feature is not available on workstation pro 14.

[bluefirestorm]

There are quite a number of VT-x capabilities that work only at the first level VM and becomes unavailable on the subsequent level/nested VM (i.e. appear as "yes" or "{0,1}" in the "Host VT-x capabilities" but appear as "no" or "{0}" on the "Guest VT-x capabilities" section). Based on this vmware.log entries you pasted, it would appear PT is one of them. This isn't necessarily a VMware limitation but how the Intel CPU/VT-x feature is designed.

I haven't come across any official VMware announcement/document indicating support of Intel PT within VMs (let alone within nested VM).

Having said that does the first level VM Processor Trace work? Did you get to try it at the first level VM instead of within a nested VM? If it doesn't work at the first level VM, my best guess it isn't supported yet but the groundwork is being laid for some future release.