Hi everyone,
Ask a small question. I have a host whose cpu has the hardware feature, for example, intel processor tracing. If I install vmware workstation and install a VM : debian in the workstation, could I use the intel processor tracing feature in debian?
I also encountered the same question. Based upon my testing using VMware Workstation 12.5.7-5813279, it seems that VMware does not support Intel Processor Trace yet:
x9090@x9090-ubuntu:~/Documents/check_pt_support$ ./check_pt_support
[*] Intel Processor Trace support check:
[-] No PT support!
[*] Intel VT-x/EPT support check:
[+] VMX is enabled
I got the following result on my Windows 10 x64 host machine:
C:\Users\RESEARCHER-WIN10X64\Downloads>check_pt_support.exe
[*] Intel Processor Trace support check:
[+] PT Supported!
[+] ToPA supported!
[+] Multiple ToPA block supported!
[+] IP-Filtering supported!
[*] Intel VT-x/EPT support check:
[+] VMX is enabled
Perhaps it can be enabled through some tweak on VMX configuration but I haven't figured out yet.
Hopefully someone can shed the light.
You could give the Workstation Pro Tech Preview 2017 a try. Workstation Pro Tech Preview
This is from a vmware.log file of a Tech Preview VM, at the very least it seems to check for the Processor Trace capability. This is from a Skylake i7-6700HQ.
vmx| I125: hostCPUID level 00000007, 0: 0x00000000 0x029c6fbf 0x00000000 0x00000000
vmx| I125: hostCPUID level 00000014, 0: 0x00000001 0x0000000f 0x00000007 0x00000000
vmx| I125: hostCPUID level 00000014, 1: 0x02490002 0x003f3fff 0x00000000 0x00000000
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.PT = 0x1
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.TOPA_OUTPUT_SUPPORTED = 0x1
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.IP_TRACESTOP_FTR_PTMSR_PERSIST = 0x1
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.MTC_PKT_GENERATION_SUPPORTED = 0x1
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.PSB_AND_CYCLE_ACCURATE_MODE = 0x1
vmx| I125: Capability Found: cpuid.TOPA_ALLOW_MULTIPLE_ENTRIES = 0x1
There are also the text pt.enable and pt.available in the vmware-vmx-debug.exe binary. So a possible VMX configuration tweak would be
pt.enable = "TRUE"
pt.available = "TRUE"
for a Tech Preview VM.