Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs

[NucleusVM]

I am trying to install ESXi v5 in VMware Workstation v8. When the virtual machine is booting, I get a warning message saying:

Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs.

This is my computer’s processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU
950  @ 3.07GHz, 3068 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

What must I do to make the warning go away?

Thanks

[continuum]

attach the vmware.log please

[NucleusVM]

Attached

Thanks

[continuum]

add this lines to the vmx-file then it should work

monitor.virtual_mmu = "hardware"
monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"
vhv.enable = "TRUE"
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"

[NucleusVM]

Yep! No warning message now.

Thank you!

[admin]

Ulli Hankeln wrote:

add this lines to the vmx-file then it should work

monitor.virtual_mmu = "hardware"
monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"
vhv.enable = "TRUE"
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"

This can also be done through the user interface.  Just go to VM->Settings, click on Processors, and check the box next to "Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI."

By the way, the last option is not required for any "ESX Server" guest OS types.

[NucleusVM]

Thanks for the clarification :smileyhappy:

[John_Balsillie]

Hey, I'm hoping somebody can help me out here. My problem is exactly the same as that reported at the top of the thread. No matter what I edit into my vESXi vm's .vmx file, or how I configure its processors in Workstation 8, I always get the "you will only be able to run 32 bit guests" report when I power on this vm. It looks like Workstation 8 cannot see the Intel VT capabilities of my Intel Core 2 Duo CPU.

Intel VT is enabled in system BIOS and I have attached a screen dump from the Intel CPU ID utility which also shows VT and 64 capabilities.

Why does Workstation 8 not agree? Is there something else I need to configure in Wrkstn?

Thanks all.

[a_p_]

Even though the Core 2 CPUs support VT-x, they don't support EPT. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Page_Table (Hardware Support) You can also take a look at the VM's vmware.log file to find out which CPU features are recognized/available.

André

[John_Balsillie]

Hi all. Thanks for your reply Andre.

I am confused as to the CPU requirements to run nested 64bit guests on an ESXi5 vm itself running on Workstation 8.

My computer has an Intel Core 2 Duo dual core cpu with 64bit and VT but no EPT (Nehalem and newer required for EPT).

When I power on an ESXi5 vm on Workstation 8, I am informed that I will only be able to run 32bit nested guests. VMware KB 1003945 makes no mention of the need for CPUs to have EPT. The article is about the ability to run 64bit vms, but does not go into the reguirements to run 64bit nested vms.

I cannot find any references that explicitly state what is required to run 64bit nested guests. Is EPT required or not?

Has anybody managed to get a 64bit vm running on a vESXi5 vm running on Workstation 8 on a Core 2 Duo equipped (no EPT) computer?

Thanks all.

John

[admin]

Virtualized hardware-assisted virtualization is required to run nested 64-bit VMs, and SLAT (EPT or RVI) is required for virtualized hardware-assisted virtualization.  See javascript:;.

[jreininger]

Andre

What should we look for in the VMs vmware.log file to ensure EPT is enabled? In my case I am running a Dell T110 w/ a Xeon x3430, I want to ensure my systems is using EPT for all my VMs what is the best way to do this?

(btw, I got this by browsing the datastore my VMs is on in the vCenter datastore browser, copied to my desktop and opened w/ Notepad++)

If I see "EPT memory type WB" = yes (as in bold below) does this mean the VM is using EPT?

2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| VPID and EPT Capabilities (0x00000f0106114141)
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| R=0/W=0/X=1 yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Page-walk length 3 yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| EPT memory type WB yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| 2MB super-page yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| INVEPT support yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 1 INVEPT yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 2 INVEPT yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| INVVPID support yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 0 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 1 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 2 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 3 INVVPID yes

Thanks.

Jonathan Reininger

[admin]

jonathan.reininger wrote:

If I see "EPT memory type WB" = yes (as in bold below) does this mean the VM is using EPT?

2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| VPID and EPT Capabilities (0x00000f0106114141)
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| R=0/W=0/X=1 yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Page-walk length 3 yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| EPT memory type WB yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| 2MB super-page yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| INVEPT support yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 1 INVEPT yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 2 INVEPT yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| INVVPID support yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 0 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 1 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 2 INVVPID yes
2011-08-30T19:05:32.002Z| vmx| Type 3 INVVPID yes

This section of the log file merely enumerates the VT capabilities of your system.  To see if your VM is using EPT, look for the HV Settings line.  If the VM is using EPT, you will see:

HV Settings: virtual exec = 'hardware'; virtual mmu = 'hardware'

[DKamat]

Hi jmattson,

I have the similar problem

was not able to install the Solarwind LEM in the ESXi 5.0

Thanks a lot for reply in this thread

[manishraj]

I m also facing the same issue as mention above.  I m using Intel Core2Duo processor. I checked in log file EPT is disable for my host.

Please see the attached log file suggest.

Thanks

Manish

[admin]

The Core 2 Duo does not have EPT support and cannot run 64-bit nested VMs.

[Marvilis]

This is the work around that worked for me.

Create a new VM

Choose > Custome (advanced)

Choose > I will install the operating system later

For the  Operating System Choose > Linux

Version> Red Hat Linux Enterprise Version 4 64-Bit

Keep going thru the setup for your VM and when you get to the end Click on the Customize Hardware button

Click the the Processors and choose Preferred mode: Intel VT-x or AND-V (leave the other two options uncheked)

Click on Display and uncheck 3D graphics if checked

Click on the CD Rom and mount the ESX iso

Remove any un-needed hardware

At this point click finish and make sure you dont turn on the VM.

Close vmworkstation (make sure vmworkstation is not running before going to the next step)

Go edit the VMX file of your new VM and add the line below and save the file.

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor="true"

Run vmwaorstation and install esx!

This worked for me and I'm able to run 64 Bit OS's inside my ESX VM on vmworkstation 8.

I hope this helps someone...

[admin]

Let me suggest the following alternative procedure:

1) For the guest operating system, choose "ESX Server 4" or "ESX Server 5," as appropriate.

2) On the processors tab, check the box next to "Virtualize VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI."

3) Install ESX.

[mullanp2]

Hi,

I did have this error but not now thanks to this thread.

I dont know if anyone has come across this but here goes:

I have acer aspire 9920g with Intel core 2 duo (T7700) with VT-x. ( no VT-x/ept)

The origional or most recent acer bios did not have a CPU or VT enable category so I installed a modified bios from notebookreview.com.

This new mod bios allowed me to enable VT and I thought that would be that.

I installed windows 7 ultimate x86_64 and then installed ESXi 5.

I then created a new vm and enabled VT-t only and boot from ESXi 5 .iso file.

I got the VT-x/ept is disabled message as my CPU dosent support EPT. Thats fine....

But when I continue I get the attached message saying "hardware virtualization is not a feature of the cpu or is not enbled in the bios".

I have checked and rechecked (enable/disabled) VT in the bios and Im now stuck.

Has anyone come across this issue and I apologise if this is the wrong thread

[mullanp2]

Also attached is a copy of my CPU-Z output for my Acer Aspire 9920G

Although it says Acer bios Version 1.2 it does allow me to get to the Intel-->CPU sub menu--> VT enable

[admin]

The ESXi installation warning refers to the virtual CPU, not the physical CPU.  Since you don't have EPT, virtualized VT-x is not supported, so the virtual CPU is not capable of hardware-assisted virtualization.  You should just ignore this warning and continue with the installation.

[RameshRajan]

Hi,

I have a Dell T5400 with Intel Xeon X5450 Processor. As per all the research i did this processor has Intel VT-x capabilities but does not have VT-x/EPT.

I tried all the workarounds around given by jmattson and others but was only able to avoid the error message but cannot achieve the functionality of nested 64-bit vms and fault tolerance capability.

I run Ubuntu Server and then have vmware player to run 2 ESxi 5 hosts for my home lab. Due to the non-availability of VT-x/EPT in certain(most of the) Intel Xeon processors you cannot virtualize a fully functional hypervisor (like ESXi, Xen etc). At the best what you lose is

1) vMotion

2) Fault Tolerance

3) Ability to import vmware marketplace OVF appliances because they have require a compiant ESXi.

I am still a novice and apologize if i was not accurate.

RR

[admin]

RameshRajan wrote:

I have a Dell T5400 with Intel Xeon X5450 Processor. As per all the research i did this processor has Intel VT-x capabilities but does not have VT-x/EPT.

I tried all the workarounds around given by jmattson and others but was only able to avoid the error message but cannot achieve the functionality of nested 64-bit vms and fault tolerance capability.

Though you cannot run nested 64-bit VMs on this processor, you should be able to run 32-bit fault tolerance using binary translation.

I run Ubuntu Server and then have vmware player to run 2 ESxi 5 hosts for my home lab. Due to the non-availability of VT-x/EPT in certain(most of the) Intel Xeon processors you cannot virtualize a fully functional hypervisor (like ESXi, Xen etc). At the best what you lose is

1) vMotion

2) Fault Tolerance

3) Ability to import vmware marketplace OVF appliances because they have require a compiant ESXi.

Many Xeon processors do support EPT.  The CPU needs to be based on the Nehalem architecture or later.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon#Nehalem-based_Xeon.

I cannot speak to point (3), but even without virtualized VT-x/EPT, you should be able to take advantage of vMotion, and you can use fault tolerance with binary translation.  See http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-nested-vft-virtual-fault.html for some good instructions.

[RameshRajan]

Thanks, Jim. I am going to follow the instruction in the links you provided here and will post an update.

By the way when i checked my ESXi VMs (Summary Tab) they say vmotion, ECV and Fault Tolerance as N/A. That's how i came to the conclusion that they were not supported unless you have VT-x/EPT. Again it was my pet peeve against Intel where you have to be very careful on the CPUs you buy as against AMD. All AMD CPUs support AMD-V with RVI.

[admin]

RameshRajan wrote:

By the way when i checked my ESXi VMs (Summary Tab) they say vmotion, ECV and Fault Tolerance as N/A. That's how i came to the conclusion that they were not supported unless you have VT-x/EPT.

These are among the many reasons that ESXi in a VM is only supported under Workstation "for educational and demonstration purposes only."  However, you can get these things to work with some effort.

Again it was my pet peeve against Intel where you have to be very careful on the CPUs you buy as against AMD. All AMD CPUs support AMD-V with RVI.

That's not quite fair.  Early AMD64 parts supported neither.  Then there were AMD64 parts that only supported AMD-V, but not RVI...and the AMD-V support had a serious design flaw.  Only since Barcelona have all AMD64 parts supported AMD-V and RVI.

Your Xeon pre-dates Intel support for EPT.  Since Nehalem, all Intel CPUs with VT-x support also support EPT.  Having said that, it is true that some Intel skus do not have VT-x support at all.

[RameshRajan]

As per jmattson i have to take back some points i wrote earlier.

1. vmotion and storage vmotion works flawlessly even when you have nested ESxi

2. I was uanble to get Fault Tolerance working

     - My ESXi hosts are in cluster with Vsphere HA enabled

     - I have a centralized NFS data store which stores fileset of VMs

     - I received the following message which clearly points to an unsupported CPU

3. I tried to install vcenter server appliance in OVF format and failed. It points to cpu incompatibility as well.

All said I can live without Fault Tolerance. Thanks for your help j.

[chanaka_ek]

All,

I had this same problem today but it turned out that since all my VM's were created in Vmware workstation 7, HPET wasn't enabled and was the reason for this. So, while most of the comments here provide some of the correct steps to take, dont think any of them include all the steps required (assuming that your nested hypervisor VM's were NOT freshly created in Workstation 8 with the HPET support turned on (if this is on, when you go to settings and select processors, on the bottom right, you'd see 2 check boxes and the one that says "Virtualise Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" should be available.)

So, if you power the VM off, select it in the left hand pane within the workstation, you will see on the right to  "Upgrade this virtual machine" select that, select the Hardware compatibility to Workstation 8 to enable HPET, select Alter this VM and  when you click next, you'll see the changes to apply include Adding: HPET.

Once thats done, go to the settings of the VM (while powered off) and select the processors on the left and make sure the checkbox "Virtualise Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI" is checked. And also make sure the guest OS is selected as ESXi 5 under options.

Thats all you need to do.

if this is to be done through editing the vmx file. amongst the following is the key

hpet0.present = "TRUE"

If the VM was freshly created on Workstation 8, this would be there by default (provided that you used the ESXi5 installation CD during the creation time)

Hope this makes sense. (& dont forget to award points)

ChanEK

[admin]

Actually, the HPET doesn't have to be present, but the virtual hardware version does have to be 8.  New virtual CPU features are typically tied to a new  virtual hardware version.

In the case of virtualized VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI, we didn't quite make the cut-off for virtual hardware version 8, which first appeared in ESXi 5.0, but we decided to release the feature in Workstation 8 anyway.  That's what the warning is about.  Future products will probably tie virtualized VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI to hardware version 9.  (It is possible that hardware version 8 VMs with the feature will be grandfathered in, but you won't be able to add the feature to a hardware version 8 VM that doesn't already have it.)

[baroforo]

Hello everyone, I have  a question similar to the original post. Sorry I am am unclear on some virtualization concepts so I will try to be as clear as I can with my case.

I wanted to evaluate vCenter and I setup a vmware environment on my laptop in order to play around with vCenter and spin out some test VMs using an ESXi5 host as a datastore for this vCenter

On my physical laptop (Dell latitude e6500 - in the BIOS, virtualization is enabled on this physical laptop), I am running VM Workstation 8

I am running 2 VMs, 1st is a Win2008 R2 x64 server with the vCenter client and vCenter server installed. The 2nd is a ESXi5 hypervisor (host/datastore).

When I try to spin out a new 64 bit VM (nested VM) in the vCenter client, and then power it on,  I get the following error:

on the ESXi host/datastore for the vCenter (virtual), I have VT-x/EPT enabled:

I tried to check the BIOS of the ESXi, but there are no options to enable the virtualization

I also updated the /etc/vmware/config (on the ESXi server) to set the vhv values to TRUE

but running the esxcfg-info| grep "HV Support" I am getting a '0'

So what I am unclear about is 1) how do I enable virtualization on teh ESXi 5 host, when after checking of the VM > Settings > Processors > enable Virtualize Intel VT-x.. and updating the config file I am still getting a '0' for HV Support

and 2) should I enable any other setting on the vCenter server (win2008 R2 x64), or is this related to the ESXi server only? I am not sure where the error to run the 64bit VMs is coming from, is it only from the ESXi host or is it also from the vCenter server?

I hope I explained this clearly.. Thanks!

[admin]

It is likely that your CPU is too old to support virtualized VT-x/EPT.  You need a Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 to use this feature.

[vBigG]

I had a lot of trouble runing 64 bit VMs on with Workstation 7 installed Server 2008 R2 some time ago. Initially I bought a 1st Gen Core i5. Then I found out I needed both a CPU and Motherbaord/Chipset that supported Intel VT-d to run 64bit VMs. A New CPU and carefully selected motherboard later all was fine!

I'm now running workstation 8 and looking to upgrade my host machines and landed on this thread looking for info on VT-x/EPT.

Now Intel do have a couple of helpful pages the first being this one where you can search for CPUs that are support features for virtualisation including VT-x, VT-d and EPT. http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t

There's also a page on Intel Motehrbaords listing INTEL Desktop motherbaords/Chipsets that are compatible with VT and VT-d.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm

I can't seem to find anything similar for VT-x/EPT. This may now be included under the Intel "VT" umbrella.... but I'm not sure. But my tip for folks is the CPU feature support is only part of the puzzle. Both your Chipset AND BIOS needs to support the Intel virtualisation features and it can be very tricky trying to find out before you buy!

[admin]

vBigG wrote:

I had a lot of trouble runing 64 bit VMs on with Workstation 7 installed Server 2008 R2 some time ago. Initially I bought a 1st Gen Core i5. Then I found out I needed both a CPU and Motherbaord/Chipset that supported Intel VT-d to run 64bit VMs. A New CPU and carefully selected motherboard later all was fine!

Actually, Workstation makes no use of VT-d.

Now Intel do have a couple of helpful pages the first being this one where you can search for CPUs that are support features for virtualisation including VT-x, VT-d and EPT. http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced/?s=t

Unfortunately, this web site is notoriously wrong about which CPUs have EPT support.  Currently, only the "products formerly" Nehalem, Westmere, Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge have EPT support.

[tandonhat]

Yes, notoriously wrong indeed.

In my case, I have a Xeon X3220, which they clearly indicate to support both VT-x and EPT (http://ark.intel.com/products/28034/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X3220-8M-Cache-2_40-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB), but when I install ESXi 5, the message "Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported on this platform" still appears. I take that as the X3220 does not support EPT?  (Although it may support VT-x as according to the CPUZ readings)

So is there any official confirmation about this? And is there any workaround for me to install ESXi on a Workstaion 9?

This misannoucement really annoys me.

Thanks for the information anyway.

[admin]

tandonhat wrote:

Yes, notoriously wrong indeed.

In my case, I have a Xeon X3220, which they clearly indicate to support both VT-x and EPT (http://ark.intel.com/products/28034/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X3220-8M-Cache-2_40-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB), but when I install ESXi 5, the message "Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported on this platform" still appears. I take that as the X3220 does not support EPT?  (Although it may support VT-x as according to the CPUZ readings)

The Xeon X3220 does not support EPT.  It was released well before EPT was available.

So is there any official confirmation about this? And is there any workaround for me to install ESXi on a Workstaion 9?

There is no official confirmation, but you can either read the MSRs yourself or trust the dump of the MSRs in the vmware.log file, where they are decoded for human readability.  You are looking for the line that says:

Enable EPT                     { 0 }

or

Enable EPT                     {0,1}

The latter implies EPT support; the former does not.

You can still install ESXi under Workstation 9, but you will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs using binary translation.

[tandonhat]

Well the application i want to deploy requires 64 bit machines so... I think I meet a dead end here. Perhaps I should start looking for new hardware

Thanks for the help, jmattson.

[mistaJ]

do this :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj7ApVwhcFE