Cpu compatibility with evc mode to determine the enhanced vmotion compatibility evc modes compatible with your cpu, search the vmware compatibility guide. Easier way enabling evc on a cluster when vcenter server is running in a virtual machine posted by paul braren on jul 11 2015 updated on jul 12 2015 in esxi. This video who how you can check cpu compatibility for evc. Intel cpu evc matrix vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility. Using vcheck i found out that a significant number of vms are running at an earlier evc mode than that cluster they are currently running in. If the selected evc mode cannot be selected, the compatibility pane displays the reason or reasons why, along with the relevant hosts for each reason. An esxi host that is running a patched vsphere hypervisor with updated microcode. Effective use of enhanced vmotion also depends on using application software that follows recommended guidelines to support cpu feature detection. If youre experienced vmware admin youll wont find probably anything you dont already know. The general recommendation is to have evc enabled as it will help you in the future where youll be scaling your clusters with new hosts that might contain new cpu models. Add platformssolutions to see if they are compatible with the selected solution.
Jul 11, 2015 easier way enabling evc on a cluster when vcenter server is running in a virtual machine posted by paul braren on jul 11 2015 updated on jul 12 2015 in esxi. Jul 28, 2008 with enhanced vmotion compatibility, vmware infrastructure works in conjunction with hardware to support live migration of virtual machines in a wider range of environments. I have several vmware clusters with either opteron 62xx bulldozer or 63xx piledriver based hosts depending upon when they were put into service. You can find more information about vmsc eol in this kb article vmsc solution listing under pvsp can be found on our partner verified and supported products listing. Vendor documentation will need to be checked or a simple benchmark can be done if you suspect it may be of value. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc requirements before enabling evc for a cluster, the following requirements must be met. If you are thinking about deploying a vmware product or simply upgrading an existing one, you need to ensure that the hardware on which it runs is vmware compliant.
It does this by making available a common cpu feature. Anyway what should be possible is to create a new cluster with the 4 new hosts, and set evc to the desired level cascade lake prior to running vms on it. Jun 02, 2014 lets reference an old, but still very relevant, study by the vmware performance engineering team. Impact of enhanced vmotion compatibility on application. Nov 15, 2016 to simplify vmotion across cpu generations vmware has introduced enhanced vmotion compatibility evc. If dissimilar hardware prevents this, vmware offers enhanced vmotion compatibility, but there are numerous vmware evc disadvantages that administrators need to be aware of. Impact of enhanced vmotion compatibility on performance. Vmware evc enhanced vmotion compatibility enable vmware. Jan 17, 2018 i have several vmware clusters with either opteron 62xx bulldozer or 63xx piledriver based hosts depending upon when they were put into service. Lets reference an old, but still very relevant, study by the vmware performance engineering team. Vmware evc mode explained backup software for hyperv. For vmotion to work, the underlying cpu features on the cluster hosts should be identical. May 29, 2018 everyone knows how vmware evc works on a vsphere cluster and vmware calls it now clusterlevel evc.
That means evc will allow and expose cpu instructionsets to the virtual machines depending on the chosen and supported compatibility level. How to use vmware compatibility tools backup software for. To support vmotion, make sure that the source and destination hosts have compatible cpus. Im having a hard time figuring out how to get evc enabled on my vsan cluster. We did replace several hosts and upgraded evc of the cluster 9 months ago. For example, if the virtual machine does not reside on storage shared by the source and destination hosts, then migration with vmotion cannot occur between these hosts. With enhanced vmotion compatibility, vmware infrastructure works in conjunction with hardware to support live migration of virtual machines in a wider range of environments. From the vmware evc mode dropdown menu, select the baseline cpu feature set you want to enable for the cluster. Vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evc is a vsphere cluster feature which allows virtual machines vms to use vmotion between hosts with different processors.
Find answers to evc compatibility from the expert community at experts exchange. The vmware compatibility guide is the best way to determine which evc modes are compatible with the processors used in your cluster. More information is documented at checkout my blog at. Nov 11, 2014 this video who how you can check cpu compatibility for evc. Evc automatically configures server cpus with intel flexmigration or amdv extended migration technologies to be compatible with older servers.
Aug 06, 2018 vmware s enhanced vmotion compatibility feature can migrate workloads across dissimilar hardware, but vmware administrators hoping to take advantage of this technology must be aware of the vmware evc disadvantages, including the risks it can pose to production environments. Vmware evc compatibility question vmware communities. I have a production cluster of 16 xeon 56xxseries hosts running esxi 4. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc explained vmware. More recent processor architectures are compatible with evc. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc processor support kb 1003212 unfortunately theres no easy way to know if your applications are using any of these special instruction sets. Cisco hyperflex systems installation guide for vmware esxi. Cpu compatibility for vmotion in order to to perform a vsphere vmotion operation, cpus in both hosts must be compatible.
The way that evc works is basically masking the advanced capabilities of the newer cpus in order to have the same level fo instructions across the whole vmware cluster. Vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evcavailable in vmware infrastructure 3 beginning with version 3. Vmware evc is actually the defacto solution for vmotion across hosts with different cpu generations. The way evc allows for uniform vmotion compatibility, is by enforcing a cpuid instruction baseline for the virtual machines running on the esxi hosts. Mar 16, 2016 this posts explores two tools used to ensure vmware compatibility when installing or upgrading both software and hardware. My customer has a pe6850 with 4x xeon dual core pro 7m,8mb l3 cache, 3. Vmwares compatibility guide does not show epyc based servers as compatible with any opteron evc enhanced vmotion capability modes. Configuring vmware evc enhanced vmotion compatibility. For more information on supported servers and processors models, see the systems compatibility guide for your esx version verify the bios settings for these processors enable hardware virtualization if available and execute protection. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc simplifies vmotion compatibility issues across cpu generations. Why would only one vm give an error, and all other vms migrate without one. Evc puo essere abilitato tra differenti cpu purche dello stesso vendor, intelintel amdamd. To improve cpu compatibility between hosts that have varying cpu feature sets, you can hide some host cpu features from the virtual machine by placing the host in an enhanced vmotion compatibility evc cluster. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc processor support.
This would be compatible now with the sandybridge cpu of the old server. In this post, we will explain the difference between vmware cluster. You can use the enhanced vmotion compatibility evc feature to help ensure vmotion compatibility for the hosts in a cluster. The maximum evc mode that can be supported by a particular processor is listed in the vmware compatibility guide for that processor. Search for the server model or cpu family, and click the entry in the cpu series column to display the compatible evc modes. Configuring vmware evc enhanced vmotion compatibility although unusual, you might end up having hosts in a cluster with same make cpus but with uncommon featuresets. Vmware compatibility guide cpu just want to make sure before going on thanks. It also seems like you are asking for compatibility issues if you are not at vsphere 6 using haswell. To simplify vmotion across cpu generations vmware has introduced enhanced vmotion compatibility evc. Mar 23, 2017 vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evc is a vsphere cluster feature which allows virtual machines vms to use vmotion between hosts with different processors.
In this post, we will explain the difference between vmware clusterlevel evc and vmware pervm evc. One of the biggest advantages of a vmware environment is the ability to use vmotion to migrate vms across servers. The difference between vmware clusterlevel evc and vmware. Sep 12, 2018 more factors than cpu compatibility are used to determine vmotion compatibility. We found out that we could not vmotion live vms from the new host to one o. Jan 27, 2020 cpu compatibility with evc mode to determine the enhanced vmotion compatibility evc modes compatible with your cpu, search the vmware compatibility guide. In the drop down menu of vmware evc mode, we should select intel penryn generation. However, the processors must come from the same vendor class amd or intel to be vmotion compatible. Cpu compatibility scenarios vcenter server s cpu compatibility checks compare the cpu features available on the source host, the subset of features that the virtual machine can access, and the features available on the target host.
Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc requirements vmware esxi. Then migrate the vms from the old to the new cluster. This results in having two evc baselines for every microarchitecture. Vmware s compatibility guide does not show epyc based servers as compatible with any opteron evc enhanced vmotion capability modes. After that, in the vmware evc section, the information that vmware evc is enabled is displayed. Just an opinion looking at the vmware compat matrix. Hosts in an evc cluster and hosts that you add to an existing evc cluster must meet evc requirements. Vmware evc is a feature in vmware vsphere virtualization that allows virtual machines vms to move between esxesxi hosts on different cpus. Vmware compatibility guide cpu compatibility for vmware vmotion. I have found documentation on vmware website, which says we need version 6.
It will automatically masks the non compatible features of different generation. Entry and midrange storage enterprise storage allflash storage software defined storage storage management and networking cloud shop all data storage products. This technology ensures vsphere vmotion compatibility for the different hosts in the cluster by creating the common cpu id baseline for all the hosts within the cluster. Does evc complain about the cpu if you select a higher evc level. We found out that we could not vmotion live vms from the new host to one of the older hosts because of a cpu compatibility mismatch. During a drs cluster creation, you can choose to enable vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evc. For most enterprise applications you can see there is no, or an almost immeasurable, performance impact when using evc. Cpus must be from the same vendor amd or intel, for example, must be in the same family p4 or opteron, for example, and must support the same features. Everyone knows how vmware evc works on a vsphere cluster and vmware calls it now clusterlevel evc.
Vmware evc stands for vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility. The online vmware compatibility guide supports server, io, and san guides for esx releases 3. Vmware cannot verify whether all processor models listed are capable of evc support. Limitedtime offer applies to the first charge of a new subscription only. My take on this from the diagram, as i have the same question, is that you are crossing between ivy bridge and haswell and that you would have to be at ivy bridge evc mode.
Jun 11, 2019 vsphere enhanced vmotion compatibility evc ensures that workloads can be live migrated, using vmotion, between esxi hosts in a cluster that are running different cpu generations. Without the use of evc, any mismatch between two hosts userlevel features blocks migration, whether or not the virtual machine itself has access. Evc compatibility sandy bridge and cascade lake vmware. I know that evc isnt compatible for this cpu on esxi 5. Using evc prevents migrations with vmotion from failing because of incompatible cpus. Jul 30, 2009 although vmware evc enhanced vmotion compatibility has been around for a while, many vmware administrators still does not know about it or just over looked it. Looking for metro storage cluster vmsc solutions listed under pvsp.
We want to use nehalem compatibility, however i cannot vmotion vms into this cluster because the running vms may be using hidden cpu features. Vmware evc hides relevant cpu features that do not match across all vmotionenabled hosts, such as clock speed or number of cores. Vmware evc cannot enable vmotions between amd and intel processors, however. Evc ensures that all hosts in a cluster present the same cpu feature set to virtual machines, even if the actual cpus on the hosts differ. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc requirements vmware. Easier way enabling evc on a cluster when vcenter server is. Evc only works with different cpus in the same family, for example with different amd operon families. Please send us your issues or suggestions for product interoperability matrixes. For completeness sake, im adding an example on how to determine which evc mode to use given 3 types of intel processors. Nov 26, 2015 the vmware compatibility guide is the best way to determine which evc modes are compatible with the processors used in your cluster.
To resolve cpu incompatibilities, use a cluster with enhanced vmotion compatibility evc enabled. This posts explores two tools used to ensure vmware compatibility when installing or upgrading both software and hardware. Apr 25, 20 my take on this from the diagram, as i have the same question, is that you are crossing between ivy bridge and haswell and that you would have to be at ivy bridge evc mode. Easier way enabling evc on a cluster when vcenter server.
Vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evc available in vmware infrastructure 3 beginning with version 3. At the bottom of the window, you should see validation succeeded in the compatibility section. Although vmware evc enhanced vmotion compatibility has been around for a while, many vmware administrators still does not know about it or just over looked it. To check if your cpus are compatible for vmotion under enhanced vmotion compatibility evc, please refer to. Vmware designed their vsphere software with regard to the situations that can occur. What is vmware evc vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility. Theyre setup as using the evc mode intel xeon 32nm core i7, but i want to add some older 55xxseries hosts which obviously cant run in that mode theyll need the intel xeon core i7 mode instead. For earlier esx releases or other product compatibility guides, please use the other documents tab. To determine the evc modes compatible with your cpu, search the vmware compatibility guide. To improve cpu compatibility between hosts that have varying cpu feature sets, you can hide some host cpu features from the virtual machines by placing the host in an enhanced vmotion compatibility evc cluster. What is vmware enhanced vmotion compatibility evc esx. This feature works for different versions of cpus from the same chipmaker. Enhanced vmotion compatibility evc processor support 1003212. Vmware compatibility guide cpu compatibility for vmware.