I've been running ESX 4.1 for a few months on 6 Dell R710 servers and have been having no vmotion problems, but I have now added 2 additional (identical)Dell R710 servers with ESXi 4.1 on them.
The problem I have is I can't vmotion running servers on to the ESXi servers.
I can vmotion shutdown server on to these ESXi servers no problem, and vmotion running (on ESXi) between these 2 ESXi R710s.
I also can't vmotion running servers (on ESXi) on to the ESX servers.
I get the same error message, re cpu's are different! although they are not.
Many thanks for taking the time to respond to this.
J
This error message usually occurs if the hosts have different BIOS settings or even different BIOS versions.
see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029785
André
One of the issues which could cause this, is the "NX"/"No Execute disable" BIOS setting. This should be configured the same way (usually "Enabled") on all hosts.
I get the same error message, re cpu's are different! although they are not.
Can you confirm the CPU's are the same model/stepping?
André
I enabled VT under CPU in the bios and have confirmed the No Execute is enabled also when I built the servers. Bare in mind I can vmotion running servers across my two esxi hosts, just not between them and my esx hosts.
Thanks for the reply.
edit
All the servers have the same model/speed processors.
Which error message/warning do you get when you try to vMotion between the different hosts?
André
Thanks for your help, I'll be back in work tomorrow and will copy the full message down for you first thing.
J
"Host CPU is incompatable with the virtual machines requirements at CPUID level 0x1 register 'ecx'
Then it goes on to say use a cluster with EVC enabled.
Thanks.
This error message usually occurs if the hosts have different BIOS settings or even different BIOS versions.
see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029785
André
Many thanks for this, I'm marking it correct......as I'm sure it will be a bios version difference, although I can't currently upgrade the bios on the ESX servers, to test this but as soon as I can I'll test this.
Many thanks for the "mega fast" reply on each of my posts
James
I can now confirm this is a BIOS issue.
I upgraded the bios on one of my esx servers to 2.2.10 (the same as the 2 x ESXi servers) and am now able to vmotion between them all.
No server with a bios of less than 2.2.10 is then able to vmotion on to either the ESXi or ESX servers running 2.2.10, so the problem was not ESXi related at all.
I just need to upgrade the bios on all my other running ESX servers to 2.2.10 and I'll be back to what I needed.
Once again many thanks.