VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘cpu’

I’ve been reading about the amazing features found in the new Intel Nehalem processors launched last week. This next generation of single, dual, and quad core Xeon processors is a virtualization technology enhancement that almost leaves me speechless. It’s my understanding that 6 and 8 core Nehalem processors are expected by the end of 2009 as well.

Some quick features that amaze me:

• Run up to 21 VMs on a single Nehalem processor server
• One Nehalem core could replace 9 previous generation Xeon processor based servers with 20% energy reduction
• Nehalem cores not being used can power down to conserve power and energy
• When Nehalem cores power down the clock speed of other cores can be boosted

So, rather than try to put all of this in my own words, here is a summary of “bite sized” quotes from various analysts’ articles that I’ve been reading. Be sure to check out all of these links for much more information. Read the rest of this entry »

A reader named Tom commented on my Matrix to Determine VMotion Compatibility by Processor post today asking

“has VMotion evolved at all to the point where differences between Intel chips are less of an issue than they were in June when you blogged this?? “.

It always amazes me when the virtualization blogisphere seems to be talking about the same topics, and no sooner did I finish making my comment to Tom I found the “What is Enhanced vMotion Compatibility anyway?” post from the VMGuy.

So, this post expands on VMGuy’s example using the Matrix from my June post to show how VMware’s EVC can help with previously incompatible CPUs. You decide if this is an evolution or not. Personally, I’d prefer a cluster of hosts that use like, modern hardware which all take full advantage of the latest CPU advancements. Maybe EVC is acceptable in a lab scenario, but I want all “the bells and whistles” of my processors in production.

First, VMware KB Article ID:1003212 titled Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support explains how EVC works: Read the rest of this entry »

If you are planning on re-purposing some of your existing server hardware to run the latest virtualization products or to take advantage of modern hardware optimizations for virtual hosts and machines, you need to be able to determine which of your servers already have Intel-VT or AMD-V features. Here are some utilities and commands you can use to check from both Windows and Linux operating systems.

Read the rest of this entry »

While troubleshooting poor performing VMs this week I was explaining to a customer the process of trying to downgrade the multi processor HAL of a Windows VM that was created by a P2V migration with VMware Converter. I ended up sending them a link to an older VMware Communities forum thread in which Mike Laverick of RTFM Education provides a quick how to guide. I also wrote (and sent the customer) a post earlier this year that offers similar advice, but P2V multi processor servers to single processor VMs instructs you to install a patch specifically for Windows Server 2003 VMs which then allows you to downgrade to a single processor.

The other difference worth mentioning between these two posts is the links to the Microsoft DevCon tool. Although VMware will not officially support using this tool on VMs, using this utility for forcing a HAL downgrade is possible when all else fails.

Check out the following instructions copied here and the various links in this post for more information. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the major disadvantages of VMware Converter is that you do not have the option to choose how many virtual cpus (vCPU) your new VM will have. If your source physical server has 2 CPU sockets your target VM will end up with 2 vCPUs. If your source server’s CPUs are dual core your target VM ends up with 4 vCPUs. It’s a well known best practice to minimize the number of multi processor VMs in your virtual infrastructure. So, how do you make sure servers that you p2v result in single processor VMs? Read the rest of this entry »

Normally you must enable hyper threading in your server’s BIOS before ESX will report it as enabled on the Configuration tab in the Processors section.

For some reason IBM’s HS21 blade with Intel 5160 Xeon processors incorrectly reports hyper-threading by ESX as supported but not enabled. I thought I was losing it when I could not find where to enable hyper-threading in the blade’s BIOS. Turns out the only Intel processor that uses hyper-threading is the Pentium 4 workstation processor.

In fact, the entire family of Intel 5100 server processors do not have hyper-threading. For that matter, Intel does not make a server processor with hyper-threading.

Intel server and workstation processors

VMware Communities: IBM HS21 Blade Servers …