Vmware workstation support intel processor tracing feature?

[mudongliang]

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?

[nofear0720]

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.

[bluefirestorm]

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.