Vcenter Server Appliance fails with no VT support in nested ESXi 5.1

[MNGZ]

I’m trying to run vCenter Server Appliance in a nested ESXi 5.1 64bit environment.

When starting the vCenter Server Appliance it fails with:

This virtual machine is configured for 64-bit guest operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible.

This host does not support VT. For more detailed information, see http://vmware.com/info?id=152.

My setup is:

Hardware           Intel Serverboard S1200BTS

                        Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.30GHZ CPU

                        (This processor does support VT + EPT)

BIOS                Intel VT is enabled

                        Intel VT for directed IO is enabled

                        Latest BIOS version

HW-ESXI 5.1     vhv.allow = “TRUE”  is set

VM-ESXi 5.1      CPU/MMU Virtualization - Intel VT + EPT enabled

vCenter Server Appliance was installed with the VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.1.0.5200-880472_OVF10.ova file.

What am I missing here?

[Datto]

See if putting the following line into the VMX file of your nested ESXi 5.1 host makes it work for you:

vhv.enable = "TRUE"

Datto

[Datto]

Did putting vhv.enable = "TRUE" in the VMX file of the nested ESXi 5.1 VM work for you?

Datto

[Datto]

Also, you can review this blog for a method to determine if your physical ESXi 5.1 host thinks it's capable of providing nesting capablity:

http://www.vladan.fr/how-to-check-if-your-host-is-capable-to-run-nested-esxi/?_m=3n.0086.42.kk0aof39...

Datto

[MNGZ]

Thx Datto for you help sofar. Unfortunately I don't have access to my homelab right now.

[MNGZ]

Hi Datto,

Putting vhv.enable = "TRUE" in my nested ESXi 5.1 did not make any difference.

Following the Vladan procedure I found that for the nested ESXi 5.1 nestedHVSupported reads false,

the hardware ESXi 5.1 nestedHVSupported reads true.

Below the processor specs at the end it reads VT yes, EPT yes.

http://ark.intel.com/products/65732/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1230V2-8M-Cache-3_30-GHz

The issue applies to all 64 bit guests OS's and is not linked to the Vcenter Server Appliance.

[admin · Accepted solution]

MNGZ wrote:

Putting vhv.enable = "TRUE" in my nested ESXi 5.1 did not make any difference.

Did you put this in the .vmx file for your ESXi 5.1 VM?

[Datto]

One note -- you have to have the nested ESXi 5.1 VM powered down and off before you insert vhv.enable = "TRUE" in the nested ESXi 5.1 VM.

Did you have the nested ESXi 5.1 VM powered down and off before you put the vhv.enable = "TRUE" into the VMX file of the nested ESXi 5.1 VM?

Datto

[MNGZ]

No it was in /etc/config/vmware of the nested ESXi5.1-VM but putting it in the vmx did the trick.

Up and running now. Thank you.