Any issues for existing VM's after changing VT setting in PowerEdge 2950?

[cwhicks]

Hi,

We have ESXi 4 installed, a number of windows 2003 32bit servers running but need to install 64bit 2008 server. Didn't realize these settings were there till tried to install 64bit OS and got the error message. I have read through other posts but didn't see a direct answer to this question:

Are there any possible negative repercussions for my existing 32 bit servers after I go in and change VT to enabled, NX to enabled?

Thanks

[a_p_]

Nothing negative that I would know of.

With changing the VT option, your 32-bit VM's also benefit, because until now they were running with binary translation.

Hint: Some systems need to be powered off once after enabling VT in the BIOS!

André

[admin · Accepted solution]

Are there any possible negative repercussions for my existing 32 bit servers after I go in and change VT to enabled, NX to enabled?

No; the default execution mode for 32-bit Windows 2003 is binary translation, whether or not VT is enabled in the BIOS.

If your Windows 2003 guests are running SP2, you might find that you can get better performance by changing the execution mode to VT-x (or VT-x/EPT on EPT-capable systems). Prior to SP2, you definitely want to stick with binary translation.

[admin]

I take that back (well, some of it, anyway). If you have a Penryn or later, the default execution mode for 32-bit Windows 2003 is VT (when enabled in the BIOS). This can result in performance degradation for some workloads if you are not running SP2.

If you are not running SP2, you may want to manually set the execution mode to binary translation.

[cwhicks]

All the servers currently on there are patched up to today and on SP2.

Thanks, I will give it a try.