Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

To use EVC, you must be running ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 or higher with Virtual Center 2.5 Update 2 or higher and have compatible processors in your servers. EVC does not allow for migration with VMotion between Intel and AMD processors. Note the following restrictions:

1. VMware cannot verify whether all processor models listed are capable of EVC support. For more information on supported servers and processors models, see the Systems Compatibility Guide for your ESX version.

2. You must ensure the BIOS settings for these processors enable Hardware Virtualization (if available) and Execute Protection. Default BIOS settings may not always enable these features. Hardware Virtualization is Intel VT on Intel processors and AMD-V on (supported) AMD processors. Execute Protection is Intel eXecute Disable (XD) on Intel processors and AMD No eXecute (NX) on AMD processors.
   

   EVC capabilities of your server are based on two factors:

   1. ESX version installed on that host AND
   2. The underlying CPU architecture of that processor
      
      Tables 1.1 and 1.2 lists the available EVC baselines their description. Table 2 describes EVC baselines supported by different ESX versions
      Tables 3 and 4 describe EVC baselines supported by different CPU architectures.

   This section contains the following subjects:

   • Table 1.1: Description of Intel EVC Baselines
   • Table 1.2: Description of AMD EVC Baselines
   • Table 2: EVC Baselines supported in ESX releases
   • Table 3.1: EVC Baselines on Intel CPUs
   • Table 3.2: EVC Baselines on AMD CPUs
   • References

   Table 1.1: Description of Intel EVC Baselines

   EVC Baseline	Description
   Intel® Xeon® Core™ 2	Applies baseline feature set of Intel® Xeon® Core™2 (Merom) processors to all hosts in the cluster.
   Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™ 2	Applies baseline feature set of Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™2 (Penryn) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® Xeon® Core™2 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4.1
   Intel® Xeon® Core™ i7	Applies baseline feature set of Intel® Xeon® Core™i7 (Nehalem) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™2 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4.2 and POPCOUNT

   Table 1.2: Description of AMD EVC Baselines

   EVC Baseline	Description
   AMD Opteron™ Generation 1	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 1 (Rev. E) processors to all hosts in the cluster.
   AMD Opteron™ Generation 2	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 2 (Rev. F) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 1 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including CPMXCHG16B and RDTSCP.
   AMD Opteron™ Generation 3	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (Greyhound) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 2 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4A, MisAlignSSE, POPCOUNT and ABM (LZCNT)

   Table 2: EVC Baselines supported in ESX releases

   	EVC Cluster Baseline
   ESX Release	AMD Opteron™ Generation 1	AMD Opteron™ Generation 2	AMD Opteron™ Generation 3	Intel® Xeon® Core™2	Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™2	Intel® Xeon® Core™ i7
   ESX 3.5 U2 and later updates*	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
   ESX 4.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
   *Newer processors supported on later ESX updates will operate at the EVC baselines listed in this table.

   Table 3.1: EVC Baselines on Intel CPUs

   	EVC Cluster Baseline
   Host CPU Model	Intel® Xeon® Core™2	Intel® Xeon® 45nm Core™2	Intel® Xeon® Core™ i7
   Intel® Xeon® 3000 Series (numbered 30xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 3200 Series (numbered 32xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 5100 Series (numbered 51xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 5300 Series (numbered 53xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 7200 Series (numbered 72xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 7300 Series (numbered 73xx)	Yes	No	No
   Intel® Xeon® 3100 Series (numbered 31xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   Intel® Xeon® 3300 Series (numbered 33xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   Intel® Xeon® 5200 Series (numbered 52xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   Intel® Xeon® 5400 Series (numbered 54xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   Intel® Xeon® 7400 Series (numbered 74xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   Intel® Xeon® 3500 Series (numbered 35xx)	Yes	Yes	Yes
   Intel® Xeon® 5500 Series (numbered 55xx)	Yes	Yes	Yes

   Legend: CPU Architecture

   Intel® Core™2 (Merom)

   Intel® 45nm Core™2 (Penryn)

   Intel® Core™ i7 (Nehalem)

   Table 3.2: EVC Baselines on AMD CPUs

   	EVC Cluster Baseline
   Host CPU Model	AMD Opteron™ Generation 1	AMD Opteron™ Generation 2	AMD Opteron™ Generation 3
   AMD Opteron® 100 Series (numbered 1xx)	Yes	No	No
   AMD Opteron® 200 Series (numbered 2xx)	Yes	No	No
   AMD Opteron® 800 Series (numbered 8xx)	Yes	No	No
   AMD Opteron® 1200 Series (numbered 12xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   AMD Opteron® 2200 Series (numbered 22xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   AMD Opteron® 8200 Series (numbered 82xx)	Yes	Yes	No
   AMD Opteron® 1300 Series (numbered 13xx)	Yes	Yes	Yes
   AMD Opteron® 2300 Series (numbered 23xx)	Yes	Yes	Yes
   AMD Opteron® 8300 Series (numbered 83xx)	Yes	Yes	Yes

   Legend: CPU Architecture

   AMD Opteron™ Generation 1 (Rev. E)

   AMD Opteron™ Generation 2 (Rev. F)

   AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (Greyhound)

   References:

   See the following VMware references for information on the following subjects:

   • For a list of servers supported in an ESX release, see the VMware Systems Compatibility Guide.
   • For information on configuring EVC, see the “Migrating Virtual Machines” chapter in the Basic System Administration Guide for your ESX release.
   • For general information on VMotion see the VMotion Compatibility Info Guide.
   • For general VMotion processor compatibility information, see KB 1991 for Intel processors and KB 1992 for AMD processors.
   • For VMotion and Compatibility FAQs, see KB 1005764.
   • For detecting and using CPU Features in applications, see KB 1005763.

   Also, see the following third-party references:

   • The Intel processor spec finder, http://processorfinder.intel.com/
   • The AMD products spec, http://products.amd.com/en-us