Enabling 64-bit processor in ESX Server

Question

Hello,

We have a Dell PowerEdge 2950 with 2 Xeon 2GHz E5335 Quad Core Processors and 16GB of RAM. We are running VMWare ESX Server 3.0.2. I am trying to install Solaris 10 64-bit version on two virtual machines so I can create a virtual cluster. It has to be 64-bit becuase sun cluster 3.2 is only 64-bit, and Cluster Express is too buggy for our needs. When I build the machines, and power them up, I get an error saying that the host processor is incompatible with the virtual machine, even though the processor is 64bit. 64 Bit is enabled in the BIOS and Hyperthreading is enabled, however, I still get the above error. Is there a setting any where else that allows for this setting? I've also enabled VT in the bios for this, still to no avail.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Luke

Dev Mgr · Answer

Normally I'd say you have to enable VT (in the server bios) to be able to power up an x64 VM, but you posted you already tried/did that.

Hyperthreading shouldn't make a difference, but you can try with VT enabled and HT disabled if you haven't already.

nsusa · Answer

Install OpenManage and then run the following:   omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=cpuvt setting=enabled

mbunixadm · Answer

Ok, I got it all figured out. I upgraded the BIOS on two of the servers and then rebooted and went back into the BIOS and enabled VT again. That seemed to do the trick. I guess 1.3.6 doesn't talk to VMWare quite right, but 2.2.6 works like a champ.

PowerEdge Hardware General

Enabling 64-bit processor in ESX Server

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