We are running ESX 3.0 on DL585, two single core AMD and one dual core AMD. The single core AMD's doesnt support SSE3 and the dual core does.
Running virtual center 2.0. Vmotion between the single core machines works fine, but the dual core is marked as cpu not compatible in VC.
Have read alot of different docs on this topic but still havent found a answer that helps, so the questions are..
1. Is it possible to do VMotion between AMD dual/single SSE3/nonSSE3 ?
2. If so, how ? using ESX3.0 and VC 2.0
3. Is it supported ?
4. If not, will it be ?
With ESX 3.0 and VC 2.0 the only supported method I know of is to mask the CPU features that aren't shared from the VMs. On a VM Edit Settings > Options > Advanced[/b] under CPU Identification Mask > Advanced[/b] there are places to mask certain features. There is a Legen[/b] option on that screen that will show what options can be put into the mask.
Looking at /proc/vmware/cpuinfo[/b] of each machine should give more clues into what needs changed. You might check out this topic[/url] for some discussion into the matter. That one is about Intel processors though it still should be useful.
Here is my cpu info:
pcpu 00
family 15
model 01
type 00
stepping 00
cpuKhz 2199929
busKhz 199993
name AuthenticAMD
ebx 0x00020800
ecxFeat 0x00000001
edxFeat 0x178bfbff
initApic 0x00000000
apicID 0x00000000
pcpu 00
family 15
model 05
type 00
stepping 10
cpuKhz 2396863
busKhz 199738
name AuthenticAMD
ebx 0x00000800
ecxFeat 0x00000000
edxFeat 0x078bfbff
initApic 0x00000000
apicID 0x00000000
If i do a cold migrate from A dual to B single it only changes the CPUID Fn8000_0001_EDX
to -
-
---0 -
-
-
-
-
Is there an easy way of figuring out what other masks i need to change
Most people that have been doing this have just tried some settings and tested it out.
I know, when I did cold migrations from 2.5.x to 3.0 that VirtualCenter automatically generated the masks for me. Not sure if it is a cross LUN migration that kicks that masking off or it was only the version change migration though.
So, am I correct that if one masked out the differences they'd be likely to be vmotionable?
For the above given example, would these masks be likely to work:
ebx -
-
-
--0- -
-
-
-
ecx -
-
-
-
-
-
-
---0
edx ---0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
It looks to me like, this (or using F instead of 0 maybe) would make the featureset identical between the procs. Am I correct?
Is there a whitepaper on this, or at least a cross processor reference on the flag bits. I'd hate to need to decipher all the various cpu models docs myself. Hopefully VMWare has this available.
Thanks,
Warren
To my knowledge there isn't a document provide by VMware at this time. Unless it is fairly new.
I would suggest creating a test machine and testing it out.
If i use the masking above i still get this -> CPU incompatible. problem detected at CPUID level 0x80000001 register 'edx'
Maybe change
edx ---0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
to
edx 0000 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
?
kverneland, have you every get this to work? i'm in the exact same situation at the moment and need to know if this will work.
Thanks.
No one who did this before?
I can't test this masking thing cause the systems aren't onsite.
I got the same deal going on...Vmotion was fine before; however after the vc upgrade it failed....Im thinking of going all dual core and replacing the processors sounds like a great idea!!!