The answer on how to apply an SSE 4.1 mask is likely in this document -- you may have to use this change on a per VM basis:
Move to the section for "Modifying Default Mask" under the VC 2.5 section (not the VC 1.X section). Also, look at the "Global Masking with ESX Server 2.x and ESX Server 3.x" and see if there's a global change you can add to your vpxd.cfg file on your VC server rather than applying the change only to VMs.
You'll likely have an unsupported cluster if you apply this to your cluster so it might be best to just create two different clusters.
You might also research out whether Enhanced Vmotion Compatibiilty (EVC) might work for you but that would require that you build a blank cluster and feed in the lowest of your boxes first to create the baseline masking, then adding the others into the cluster. You'd probably want to test this first to see if it would work. That may require that you move to ESX 3.5 Update 4 from your existing Update 2 level in order to get the EVC capability.
Datto
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/121727
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Hi,
VMotion CPU Compatibility Requirements for Intel Processors:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1991
Group B 53xx
Group C 74xx
For B<->C VMotion, apply SSE4.1 mask (not supported).
The answer on how to apply an SSE 4.1 mask is likely in this document -- you may have to use this change on a per VM basis:
Move to the section for "Modifying Default Mask" under the VC 2.5 section (not the VC 1.X section). Also, look at the "Global Masking with ESX Server 2.x and ESX Server 3.x" and see if there's a global change you can add to your vpxd.cfg file on your VC server rather than applying the change only to VMs.
You'll likely have an unsupported cluster if you apply this to your cluster so it might be best to just create two different clusters.
You might also research out whether Enhanced Vmotion Compatibiilty (EVC) might work for you but that would require that you build a blank cluster and feed in the lowest of your boxes first to create the baseline masking, then adding the others into the cluster. You'd probably want to test this first to see if it would work. That may require that you move to ESX 3.5 Update 4 from your existing Update 2 level in order to get the EVC capability.
Datto