ESXi 6.5 AMD 1800X Support?

[ParkvilleCS]

Does anyone have information on an update to ESXi to support the new AMD CPUs? I have an 1800X crying to run ESXi. At this point I am forced to run VMware Workstation Pro on it due to incompatibility with ESXi.

Thank you for any info you may be able to share.

Eric

[ParkvilleCS]

No love in 6.5B. Come on VMware!

[ParkvilleCS]

No love in 6.5D update.

[ParkvilleCS]

If you turn off SMT you can install ESXi 6.5 on Ryzen but you lose your hyper-threading.

VMware, cant you at least tell us if you are working on this?

[cyberance]

Hi, same question here. It would really help my purchasing planning if I had some idea when VMWare will, if ever, support the AMD Ryzen CPU series.

thanks!

[childs9991]

Hi, same question here. It would really help my purchasing planning if I had some idea when VMWare will, if ever, support the AMD Ryzen CPU series.

thanks!

[Darius Davis]

What's the error message or failure you are receiving?  Attach a screenshot/photo if you think it might be useful.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[ParkvilleCS]

It is the pink PSOD screen. This article explains what is happening. My understanding is if you disable SMT in the bios you can run ESXi 6.5. But what is the point in that? By disabling SMT you are turning off "Hyper Threading". So you go from a great 16 thread CPU back down to 8 threads.

AMD Ryzen "Working" with VMware ESXi 6.5 to an extent

I check the site weakly for an update but nothing since April. AMD also has threadripper on the way and then their server line of CPUs. So I expect VMware will eventually get this worked out. So for now I have a 1800X sitting on the shelf waiting for the update.

[Darius Davis]

OK, so the PSOD message is "pcpu 15 has a bad apicID 0xf".  This is presumably the same PSOD as childs9991​ was encountering over in Ryzen 7 1700 - PSOD .

To help troubleshoot this, if you have Workstation running on that same host, please create a fresh VM (no OS required, just a blank VM configured for MS-DOS in its default configuration will do), power it on once and let it fail to find an OS, then power it off, and grab the vmware.log from inside that VM's directory and attach it here in this thread.  (Just use the Attach link in the lower-right corner when composing a reply... please don't copy-and-paste.)

Thanks,

--

Darius

[ParkvilleCS]

I can not do this test as I can not install ESXi on the Host. So I can not create a VM as requested.

[Darius Davis]

It's fine to create the VM using Workstation running directly on the host OS and collect the information that way.  I'm mostly just looking for the various bits of of host CPU information that are collected in the log, and Workstation should collect much the same information as ESXi would.  (In theory you could probably run ESXi inside Workstation, but please don't do that for this test... just create the blank VM using Workstation running on your host.  It'll be easier, and the information collected will be ​much​ more useful)  Thanks!

--

Darius

[ParkvilleCS]

Log attached.

[Darius Davis]

Thanks!  Got it.  It turns out that there's a fix for this already queued up for a future ESXi 6.5 patch/update.  I can't give a timeline... sorry.

Does your host firmware settings allow for disabling of individual processor cores/threads?  If so, note that this problem will only affect processors with more than 15 cores/threads... Disabling one core and enabling hyperthreading would at least get you 14 threads of execution until the fixed release is available.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[ParkvilleCS]

I will try your suggestion about disabling a core. I do believe that is possible in this boards bios. I will update when complete.

[ParkvilleCS]

I did find a "Core Step Down" setting. I could not disable just one core. I had to disable 2. So the processor is running 6 core / 12 thread. ESXi 6.5 did install with this configuration. While not optimal, you are the first person I found that could give me an answer and temp workaround. Thank you for your help and I hope this thread helps others. I look forward to that update!

[cyberance]

This means that ESXi should work with Ryzen 5 processors. This is great news. Thanks!!!

[Darius Davis]

Also, which motherboard are you using?

[ParkvilleCS]

Aorus AX370-Gaming K7 Motherboard

[ParkvilleCS]

Has anyone heard of an update coming? I've still been checking every week since the last update. This update needs to happen before Threadripper!

I wonder if Intel is behind this taking so long. Pressure from Intel because of the likes of the new AMD processors?

PLEASE VMWARE UPDATE SO WE CAN USE THESE AWSOME PROCESSORS!

[Darius Davis]

I wonder if Intel is behind this taking so long. Pressure from Intel because of the likes of the new AMD processors?

That's an awesome conspiracy theory... :smileygrin:  The reality is just that it is a defect that we didn't catch until too late, and our general vSphere/ESXi update pipeline is ... not optimized for speed, shall we say?

The update is coming, but I really can't say when it'll be out... sorry!  Hopefully not too much longer.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[ParkvilleCS]

Thank you for the "awesome conspiracy theory". I thought that was good. :smileygrin:

[Tim2015]

Any updates on Ryzen / ESXi 6.5  with U1 released on the 27th July?  are things working o.k?  Very keen on some feedback before i pull the trigger on an AMD cpu for my home lab.  More bang for my $ compared to Intel - if it works :smileyhappy:

Any feedback would be great.

Tim

[ParkvilleCS]

Yes the new update will install and boot with the 1800X. Thank you VMware!

Also keep in mind that Threadripper is coming in August also...

[ParkvilleCS]

Update:

Everything has been running really well. I had some crashes that seem to be associated with Memory. If you are doing a Ryzen server make sure you have the latest bios and supported memory. I find that some memory and some speeds will make your system very unstable. Check your motherboards recommend/supported memory before you buy. You will save yourself a lot of time and headache. G.Skill and Corsair have a high compatibility with Ryzen but always check your motherboard specs for recommended model numbers.

Thanks,

Eric

[Funks]

Be careful - If the UA build date on your chip is older than WEEK 25 of 2017, then you might have one of the "marginal" Ryzen chips that SEGV's under high compile / work load (even on BIOS default settings)

You can find out what your UA build date is by looking at the Integrated Heat Spreader (it's stamped there) which requires removal of your HSF.

For example

UA 1725SUS

The 3rd and 4th digits is the YEAR, the 5th and 6th digit is the WEEK.   You can test it out on your system by performing the following (Live USB method)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/6rwggi/ryzen_build_loop_compile_failures_under_linux/

If you get a SEGV in the build loop - then you may want to get an RMA from AMD (they'll most likely give you a new chip with a build date of 1725 or newer) otherwise you might end up chasing weird issues.  ThreadRipper is not affected per AMD, most of them are built 27th+ week of 2017.

More info here.

gcc segmentation faults on Ryzen / Linux | Community

and here

AMD Confirms Linux Performance Marginality Problem Affecting Some, Doesn't Affect Epyc / TR - Phoronix

[subcontracting]

Ryzen processors support.