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Processors and guest operating systems that support VMware Fault Tolerance

Details

VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) requires specific processors and guest operating systems.

Solution

Processors

VMware collaborated with AMD and Intel in providing an efficient VMware FT capability on modern x86 processors. The collaboration required changes in both the performance counter architecture and virtualization hardware assists of both Intel and AMD. These changes could only be included in recent processors from both vendors: 3rd-Generation AMD Opteron based on the AMD Barcelona, Budapest and Shanghai processor families; and Intel Xeon processors based on the Penryn and Nehalem microarchitectures and their successors.

Download the VMware SiteSurvey (http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html ) utility to check if your configuration can run VMware FT.

For VMware FT to be supported, the servers that host the virtual machines must each use a supported processor from the same category as documented below:

Intel Xeon based on 45nm Core 2 Microarchitecture Category:

3100 Series
3300 Series
5200 Series (DP)
5400 Series
7400 Series

Intel Xeon based on Core i7 Microarchitecture Category:

3500 Series
5500 Series

AMD 3rd Generation Opteron Category:

1300 and 1400 Series
2300 and 2400 Series (DP)
8300 and 8400 Series (MP)

Guest Operating Systems

The following table displays guest operating system support for VMware FT. For specific guest operating system version information, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://www.vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide.pdf.

The following values appear in the table:

Yes - Virtual machine can be FT-enabled while powered on.
Yes/Off - Virtual machine must be powered off before FT is enabled
No - Not supported by VMware FT.

Guest Operating System	Fault Tolerance Support with Intel Xeon Based on 45nm Core 2 Microarchitecture	Fault Tolerance Support with Intel Xeon Based on Core i7 Microarchitecture	Fault Tolerance Support with AMD 3rd Generation Opteron
Windows Server 2008	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Windows Vista	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Windows Server 2003 (64 bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Windows Server 2003 (32 bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off (Requires Service Pack 2 or greater)
Windows XP (64 bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Windows XP (32 bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	No
Windows 2000	Yes/Off	Yes/Off	No
Windows NT 4.0	Yes/Off	Yes/Off	No
Linux (all ESX-supported distributions)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Netware Server	Yes/Off	Yes/Off	Yes/Off
Solaris 10 (64-bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off (Requires Solaris U1)
Solaris 10 (32-bit)	Yes	Yes/Off	No
FreeBSD (all ESX-supported distributions)	Yes	Yes/Off	Yes/Off

Note: System vendors are certifying that their systems work with FT. You can find details on the FT-certified systems at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility. More systems are being certified all the time, so check back if your platform is not currently listed.

You can also check processor, operating system, and virtual machine configuration compliance with FT by downloading and running the VMware SiteSurvey utility from http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html. It highlights compliance issues and describes how to correct them.

For more information about VMware Fault Tolerance, refer to the article: VMware Fault Tolerance FAQ (1013428)

Keywords

FT; Fault Tolerance; VMware Fault Tolerance; ESX; ESXi; processor; Guest Operating System; requirements

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KB Article: 1008027
Updated: Sep 25, 2009

Products:
VMware ESX
VMware ESXi
VMware vCenter Server
Product Versions:
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

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