Problem with CPU masking

[TronAr]

Hi,

I'm trying to get something working that involves CPU masking. And I'm getting puzzled

I have a set of servers, all of them shiny Sandy Bridge and one Westmere. So vMotion barfs when trying to go there.

I know (and in fact I have tested it) that setting a VM CPU mask solves the issue.

But this is complicated and has to be done VM by VM.

It used to be the case that you could have a vCenter wide mask by editing vpxd.cfg. This seems not to work in VS5.

It is also mentioned in some posts a way to disable CPU validation altogether, Does not work either.

Finally, reading vmotion_info_guide.pdf I found that the default masking for different guest OSs is configured from

some xml files that are at /etc/vmware/hostd/env. Checking the mask panel seems to validate this.

So I managed to change that file to preset the mask I need. And it does not work.

Now I'm puzzled....

Does anybody know a magic wand to use ? I know of EVC, but this is not good for me.

Attached the error, and the working setting. Note that the default OS mask already has the zeroes where I need them,

and still without setting the mask it does not work.

Thanks for reading,

-Carlos

[a_p_]

Sorry to answer your question with a question.

I know of EVC, but this is not good for me.

Why is this not good for you? EVC is a perfectly working feature built for exactly cases like yours!?

André

[TronAr]

This is a lab environment and I don't want to talk about EVC upfront.

I want to hide this complexity as much as possible.

Thanks.

[TronAr]

Well, after some more reading, I had a moment of inspiration: what if the destination host Guest OS default mask was being used for the compatibility check ?

And it seems it is. After changing the destination host mask, it works. It does not make a lot of sense to me though, because the destination host was the one without the feature I'm masking... but all the masking stuff is not that documented so go figure.

-Carlos