Help! Dell PowerEdge r710 says it can't run 64-bit Guests?

[Kooch]

I posted last week because my old PowerEdge 2800 said it couldn't run 64bit guests and was informed that those processors don't have the VT-x extension which is why they can run a Physical 64bit OS, but can't run a 64bit Guest VM, I guess I expected that one given the old single core processors thus I have resigned myself to having to dumb down rebuild to 32bit on that server. But this one doesn't make any sense, my PowerEdge R710 says it can't run 64bit guests? You've got to be kidding me. This is an 8 month old PE r710 with dual Xeon 5570 Quad Core CPUs and 24GB of Ram, I have the VT-x turned on in the BIOS and so there's no reason that I can see why I should be having this problem.

Here's what I am trying to do, and how I'm trying to do it:

I am trying to get the old Dell PowerEdge 2800 in a position to install ESXi for Proof of Concept to the bosses as part of my Virtualization Initiative but before I can do that I need to move that server OS and its data somewhere without turning it off and without my users losing access to it. My plan was to, and I have, installed Converter on that server which runs Server 2008 Enterprise 64bit then I P2V'd it over to a partition on the new Dell PowerEdge r710 where I have VMWare workstation 6.04 running (I am very restricted by what versions I can use on the network my servers reside and so this is what I can use so please withold comment on the WS version). The plan was to Seamlessly (planned) stand up the 2800 in a VM on the r710, then once I was sure that we had access to all the data/shares while running in the VM on the r710, then I would rebuild the 2800 with ESXi in which I would create a VM and do a fresh install of Server 2008 32bit and then when I had patched up and duplicated the 64bit server, then I would switch over to the 32bit VM in ESXi on the 2800 and turn off the VM on the r710. The r710 is our Uber Important Server and is thus Hands Off for putting ESXi on until I can prove to the bosses that this Virtual stuff really works, so with any luck I'll have it VM'd by the end of the year.

So, just what is it that is keeping me from being able to run a 64bit guest on the r710? Heck, I had absolutely no problem doing a P2V of my 64bit Vista Ultimate OS and then running it in the old VMWare Player 2.5 on my 12GB Core i7 975x machines, and the r710 is basically 2.5 to 3 times (or more) the i7 975x. Help!

[RParker]

Call Dell they can explain it.

[a_p_]

Reading your post I could think of two potential issues:

1. Has VT-x already been enabled or did you enable it? After setting VT-x to enabled/disabled the systems usually need to be power cycled (a reboot is not sufficient)

2. If I'm not mistaken, VMware Workstation 6.0x only had experimental support for a Windows 2008 host. Try a newer version.

André

[Kooch]

I enabled it a few months ago and it has had 2 or 3 complete power down cycles since then.

[wila]

Hi,

Read this document: and possibly also

Official VT-x support didn't arrive before Workstation 6.5

As you can read in the first document, one reason for Workstation not being able to use VT-x is a faulty BIOS, so you might want to verify that you are using the latest available version.

I enabled it a few months ago and it has had 2 or 3 complete power down cycles since then.

Not completely sure what that entails in your definition, but you really have to shut down the host, a simple reset isn't sufficient!

Pull the power cable if you want to make absolutely sure. The why is in the first document.

You're mentioning that you run Workstation 6.0.4 and can't change that, but you're not saying why.

If it is because of no budget, then beware that the 6.5 upgrade is a free upgrade from 6.0.x and certainly worthwhile at least for troubleshooting purposes.

Hope this helps,

--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

Contributing author at blog www.planetvm.net

Twitter: @wilva

edit: added note about power down vs reset vs pull power cable.

[Borja_Mari]

Hi,

i would recommend you to check carefully this post.

If anything of this works, then maybe a BIOS upgrade or an call with Dell helps

Regards/Saludos,
Pablo

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[Kooch]

Well, after digging around I got clarification from high up enough to satisfy my desire to install Wkst 6.5...but now I have another issue. I was able to uninstall 6.0.4 as part of the version upgrade, but now when I try to install 6.5 I get an error telling me "Setup cannot continue because Hyper-V is being used, disable Hyper-V reboot and run install again". Well, I have disabled all Hyper-V services, I removed the Hyper-V Role, I did a Shutdown and Restart, also there are no Microsoft type Virtual Machines loaded anywhere to cause conflict, but still No Joy, so what is causing the problem? We initially tried to go with Hyper-V but ran into the well known Physical Network connectivity issues which led us to look at VMWare (which we later found out is the vendor for the Enterprise Virtualization Program that would be directed to us anyway so this switch made sense) I have searched enough to find out that I cannot uninstall Hyper-V and KB950050 that installs it, so what do I need to do to work around this? Thanks

[wila]

Hi,

Having two hypervisors available at the same time is a very very specific use case and while VMware has managed to get this working in VMware Workstation 7 for a number of hypervisors, I'm not sure if it includes Hyper-V. Sorry I'm not too familiar with Microsoft's product, it has been years since i've touched their virtualisation products.

If you can't uninstall this somehow then I guess your options are to either re-install the host, or go for VMware Workstation 7.

You can always download a 30 days evalutation version of that and see if it allows you to install it onto the host.

I guess you could also find out using some tools what the installer is checking and get around that bit, but then you end up with an unsupported host and when something weird happens you'd never know why...

--
Wil
_____________________________________________________
VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

Contributing author at blog www.planetvm.net

Twitter: @wilva

[Scissor]

...We initially tried to go with Hyper-V but ran into the well known Physical Network connectivity issues

What "well known Physical Network connectivity issues" exist with Hyper-V? Only thing I am aware of is that some older NIC Teaming software doesn't work well with Hyper-V. Oh, and a hotfix exists for when a Win2003 Guest with high network load causes the network stack to reset.

Actually, I just found these lists of recommended Hotfixes for Hyper-V:

Win2008 R2 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff394763(WS.10).aspx

Win2008 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd430893(WS.10).aspx

... I have searched enough to find out that I cannot uninstall Hyper-V and KB950050 that installs it, so what do I need to do to work around this? Thanks

Have you tried removing the Hyper-V Role from the "Server Manager" Application?

Hyper-V And VMware Workstation cannot be installed at the same time. That most likely explains your problem. Hyper-V starts first and prevents VMware from seeing the necessary CPU's VT extensions for 64 bit Guests.

Once you get the Hyper-V Role removed, than VMware Workstation should start working for you.

If it was my server, I'd rebuild it from scratch just to make sure nothing else was messed up, but perhaps one of these links will help you with a possible workaround:

- http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/04/14/creating-a-no-hypervisor-boot-entry.aspx

- http://ybbest.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/uninstalling-the-hyper-v-role-using-command-line/

[Kooch]

Well, I had a heck of a time getting a P2V'd Server Virtual Machine talking to the Domain, after many internet searches and too many hours working on it, we had enough information to know that we wanted to look at VMWare.

The problem that I am having with Hyper-V is that I have removed the Role 2x and so far it still won't go away after 1 Reboot, and 1 Cold Boot. I am going to try again tomorrow when the server will be available for Mx, but if there's anything that might be causing the Role to not remove please let me know.

Thanks

[Kooch]

Success! Third time's a Charm, on the 3rd boot cycle the Hyper-V Role finally removed from the system, this allowed me to complete the VMWare Workstation Upgrade. Once the install was complete, it already had the previously loaded VM of the Server I was trying to start, and it started and runs just fine. After moving the Cat-6 from the physical server over to an open nic on the host server and setting the IP's etc, I logged out and then logged in and Voila! I was back on the domain with a Server VM...How cool is that! I have been messing around with VMs on my work desktop and my home computers for a long time now, but this was my first foray into the domain attached server arena. I had to re-provisioning the Shares, and I have an issue with the Update Patch Scanner that runs on the Domain as it is not scanning and reporting the fact that my machine had only 2 updates due but was showing 1081 due when I decided to shut it down to investigate. Anyway, Thanks for the tip on the Hyper-V hijacking the VT-x it really made a lot of sense. I am sure that Hyper-V works great for some people and that it is a good V platform, but after spending half a day trying/failing to get a Hyper-V VM to talk to the Physical Network Domain in addtion to the local LAN machines, I made the switch to VMWare (I didn't know at the time but found out that I would have wound up being forced to use VMW in the near future anyway) and it took all of 2 minutes to get the VM on the Domain. Next comes the ESXi build on the old PowerEdge 2800, Thanks Again.