The newer BIOS on IBM x3650 breaks vmotion between server with identical hardware. I received following error message while doing vmotion of guests from ESX host running on x3650 to another IBM x3650.
| Warning: Migration from esxhost365x1 to esxhost365x2: Migration will cause the virtual machine’s configuration to be modified, to preserve the CPU feature requirements for its guest OS. Error: Unable to migrate from esxhost365x1 to esxhost365x2: The CPU of the host is incompatible with the CPU feature requirements of the virtual machine; problem detected at CPUID level 0×80000001 register ‘edx’. |
The VMware ESX esxhost365x1 is an IBM x3650 7979 Quad Core CPU server and esxhost365x2 is also am IBM x3650 Quad code CPU server. The error messages looks like CPU related, comparing these new x3650 server with older x3650 where vmotion works fine we figured out it is because newer x3650 BIOS version is latest then the older x3650.
This was a very helpful tip and tempting enough to compare BIOS setting on both the servers. It turned out to be related to Execute Disable Bit CPU settings in BIOS which for some reason was disabled on newer IBM x3650 . Once I set this feature to “enabled”, I was able to eliminate the error message.
so if you can not do vmotion on IBM x3650 servers then check out BIOS settings in there.
News Tags:
- ,failed to create journal file provider,vmotion is not enabled on the host of the virtual machine,x3650 bios,ibm x3650 bios,ibm x3650 bios settings,The Execute Disable/No Execute CPU feature is not enabled for this machine ibm,the host cpu hardware does not support enhanced vmotion compatibility,the execute disable no execute cpu feature is not enabled for this machine ibm,IBM the execute disable no execute cpu feature is not enabled for this machine,x3650 evc,vmotion is not enabled on the host,ibm x3650 virtualization,the hosts cpu hardware does not support enhanced vmotion compatibility,The hosts CPU hardware does not support Enhanced vMotion Compatibility which is enabled for this cluster,xenserver execute disable bit,IBM 3650 BIOS 1 11,vmware ibm X3650,execute bit vmotion,vmware add host error enhanced vmotion compatibility mode,ibm x3650 enabled cores,how to upgrade BIOS version for x3650,server x3650 -filetype:pdf -filetype:ps -filetype:dwf -filetype:kml -filetype:kmz -filetype:xls -filetype:ppt -filetype:doc -filetype:rtf -filetype:swf,the execute disable no execute cpu feature is not enabled for this machine hs21,IBM 3650 M2 ESXI 5 no execute vsphere,x3650 vmotion fails bios 1 16,ibm x3650 execute disaBLE BIT,execute disable migration will cause the virtual machines configuration to be modified to preserve the CPU feature requirements for its guest OS,IBM 3650 bios level vmware,Esx install bios virtualization enable x3650,evc ibm x3650
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I had the same issue – this BIOS changed worked for me. Very odd though, as the ESX farm had multiple x3650 machines, all with the same BIOS level and settings – just one server would not allow vmotion to occur. Works now!
Thanks!
I had the same issue today, your tip saved my weekend !!!!!!
Thanks a lot !!
Good catch but you actually want that disabled on all of your hosts if you plan on using Enhanced Vmotion Compatibility mode (mixing different CPU steppings or families together, e.g. adding a newer M2 to an existing x3650 farm/cluster):
EVC covers your VMs from the Host level: Put your ESX hosts in to maintenance mode one at a time and make a bios setting change, once the entire farm/cluster is changed, you should then be able to enable Enhanced Vmotion Compatibility (EVC), but you must be on ESX 3.5 Update 2 or higher to use this mode. In the Bios, Execute Protection is Intel eXecute Disable (XD) on Intel processors. You’ll need that set to disable for Virtual Center to see your ESX host as EVC compatible.
Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003212
VMotion CPU Compatibility Requirements for Intel Processors
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1991
EVC and CPU Compatibility FAQ
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1005764
Vmotion info guide:
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmotion_info_guide.pdf
{ 3 trackbacks }