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Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. Product Support Engineering. VMware Confidential. Module 2 Lessons. Lesson 1 – vCenter Server High Availability Lesson 2 – vCenter Server Distributed Resource Scheduler Lesson 3 – Fault Tolerance Virtual Machines Lesson 4 – Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

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Enhanced vMotion Compatibility

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  1. Enhanced vMotion Compatibility Product Support Engineering VMware Confidential

  2. Module 2 Lessons • Lesson 1 – vCenter Server High Availability • Lesson 2 – vCenter Server Distributed Resource Scheduler • Lesson 3 – Fault Tolerance Virtual Machines • Lesson 4 – Enhanced vMotion Compatibility • Lesson 5 – DPM - IPMI • Lesson 6 – vApps • Lesson 7 – Host Profiles • Lesson 8 – Reliability, Availability, Serviceability ( RAS ) • Lesson 9 – Web Access • Lesson 10 – vCenter Server Update Manager • Lesson 11 – Guided Consolidation • Lesson 12 – Health Status VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  3. Module 2-4 Lessons • Lesson 1 – Overview of Enhanced vMotion Compatibility • Lesson 2 – Compatibility Matrix • Lesson 3 – EVC Baselines • Lesson 4 – Requirements for EVC • Lesson 5 – Enabling EVC on a Cluster • Lesson 6 – Troubleshooting EVC VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  4. OEM VMotion Compatibility Matrix Source: www.dell.com; Similar matrices are available for HP and IBM servers VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  5. Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) • EVC allows vCenter to enforce VMotion compatibility between all hosts in a cluster by forcing hosts to expose a common set of CPU features (baseline) to Virtual Machines. • EVC automatically configures servers whose CPUs feature Intel FlexMigration and AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be VMotion-compatible with servers that use older CPUs. • 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. • This prevents migrations with VMotion from failing due to incompatible CPUs. VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  6. Detecting CPU Features • OS or application software executes CPUID machine instruction • CPUID instruction reports many system properties: • Vendor (e.g. Intel or AMD) • CPU family, model, stepping • Supported CPU features, e.g.: • NX/XD (No execute; memory protection from malware) • AMD-V/VT-x (Virtualization support in hardware) • SSE3 (CPU instructions to optimize streaming applications) • Number of CPU cores, cache size, and many other properties VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  7. EVC Benefits • Enables VMotion across CPU generations • New CPUs are automatically configured to be compatible with earlier versions. • Makes it much easier to add new hardware to existing clusters. • Simple • No manual CPUID masking required VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  8. App OS Intel Core 2 VM ESX ESX Intel Core 2 CPU Future Intel CPU Intel EVC Cluster With Different Generation CPUs • VM sees Intel Core 2 level CPU features and can migrate to any host in the EVC cluster Intel EVC Cluster ESX Intel Core 2 45nm CPU VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  9. App OS Opteron Rev E VM ESX ESX ESX AMD Barcelona CPU Future AMD CPU AMD Rev E CPU AMD EVC Cluster With Different Generation CPUs • VM sees AMD Opteron Rev E CPU features, can migrate to any host in the EVC cluster. AMD EVC Cluster VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  10. EVC Baselines • Baseline: a set of CPU features that is supported by every host in the cluster • Baseline is the least common denominator of all hosts, or less • In ESX 3.5 u2, one baseline per CPU vendor • Intel: CPU features supported by Merom cores • AMD: CPU features supported in Opteron Rev E/F • In VI4, it is expected that two or more baselines can be defined, e.g.: • Intel: Merom, Penryn (SSE4.1), Nehalem (SSE4.2) • AMD: Rev E/F and Greyhound (SSE4A, ABM) VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  11. EVC Baselines (ctd) • Multiple baselines allow the user to choose: • Greater compatibility (fewer cpu features) • More features (less cpu compatibility) • Additional baselines will be introduced for new CPU generations VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  12. EVC baselines & CPU Models • VMware KB article 1003212 lists specific CPU models and which baselines they support • http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003212 • Examples: • Intel Core 2 • Intel Merom baseline: 73xx (Tigerton), 51xx (Woodcrest) • Intel Core 2 45nm • Intel Penryn baseline: 74xx (Dunnington), 54xx (Harpertown) • AMD 2nd Generation • Opteron Rev E/F baseline: 2yy, 8yy, 22yy, 82yy • AMD 3rd Generation • Greyhound baseline: 23yy, 83yy VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  13. App ESX OS Core 2 45 nm VM Intel Core 2 45nm CPU ESX ESX Intel Core 2 45nm CPU Intel Core 2 CPU EVC Cluster With Intel Core 2 45nm (Penryn) Baseline • VM cannot migrate to an Intel Core 2 (Merom) based CPU • It can migrate to an Intel Core 2 45nm (Penryn) based CPU outside the cluster Intel EVC Cluster (Core 2 45nm baseline) ESX Future Intel CPU VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  14. Determine CPU Model • vCenter will display model information for CPUs that already have ESX installed • For new servers that do not have ESX installed, use some of the freeware utilities such as CPU-Z. The E54xx CPUs are ‘Harpertown’ processors from the Penryn series VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  15. EVC & CPU Features • EVC does not affect CPU features • Number of cores per CPU. For example, a Greyhound (quad core) CPU does not lose 2 cores when it’s added to a Rev E/F (dual core) EVC cluster • Cache size • Hardware virtualizationsupport (VT-x, AMD-V, nested paging) • Clock speed. Thus, EVC does not cause any performance penalties • Worst case scenario from implementing EVC: a VM cannot take advantage of new CPU instructions, e.g. SSE 4.1 VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  16. Requirements For EVC • EVC requires ESX 3.5 update 2 or later. • EVC requires Intel CPUs with Core 2 micro architecture and newer, e.g. • Merom: 73xx (Tigerton), 51xx (Woodcrest), 53xx (Clovertown) • Penryn: 74xx (Dunnington), 54xx (Harpertown) • EVC requires AMD second generation Opteron CPUs and newer, e.g. • Rev E/F: models 1yy, 2yy, 8yy, 12yy, 22yy, 82yy • Greyhound: models 13yy, 23yy, 83yy • EVC requires a homogenous cluster; either all Intel or all AMD hosts. • Applications on VMs must be well-behaved. • The applications must be written to use the CPUID machine instruction to discover CPU features. VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  17. Enabling EVC On A Cluster (ctd) VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  18. Using EVC • Once EVC is enabled for a cluster: • All hosts already in, or entering the cluster, are automatically configured to match the EVC cluster baseline. • VC will not allow hosts to enter the cluster which are not capable of exactly matching the cluster EVC requirements. • VMotion will never fail due to CPU incompatibility since all hosts present identical features through EVC baselines . VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  19. ESX ESX Intel Pentium 4 AMD CPU EVC Maintains Complete VMotion Compatibility • Cannot add a host with incompatible hardware • All hosts CPUs must be from the same vendor • CPUs must be on par with the cluster baseline or newer Intel EVC Cluster (Merom Baseline) VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  20. App OS Core 2 45nm VM ESX Intel Core 2 45nm CPU EVC Maintains Complete VMotion Compatibility (ctd) • Cannot add a host with running VMs • The VM could be using CPU features that are not present in all hosts in the cluster. • Must migrate or power off VMs on the ESX that you wish to add to the cluster. Intel EVC Cluster (Core 2 Baseline) VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  21. ESX 3.0.x Opteron Rev F CPU EVC Maintains Complete VMotion Compatibility (ctd) • Cannot add a host with incompatible ESX version • Host must have ESX 3.5 update 2 or newer installed AMD EVC Cluster (Rev E/F Baseline) VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  22. Troubleshooting EVC • VMware CPUID utility • Bootable CDROM • Reports raw CPUID data and “interesting” features • http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html • Intel processor identification utility • http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/ • CPU-Z, a freeware utility for displaying CPU features • www.cpuid.com • VMotion Info tool • Displays CPU info of servers in a vCenter deployment • www.run-virtual.com VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  23. Troubleshooting EVC • Error: Incompatible CPU: “The following hosts have CPUs that do not support EVC. Remove these hosts from the cluster.” • What troubleshooting steps would you take to solve this problem? • You have to unmask the CPU features of all the ESX servers. If any of the bits are masked, you cannot enabled EVC. VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  24. Lesson 2-4 Summary • Learn how to enable EVC on a Cluster • Learn how to create EVC Baselines • Learn how to troubleshoot EVC VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

  25. Lesson 2-4 - Lab 4 • Module 2-4 Lab 4 – VMware vCenter Enhanced vMotion Compatibility • Enable EVC on a Cluster • Checking EVC compatibility • EVC settings • Troubleshooting EVC VI4 - Mod 2-4 - Slide

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