Enabling the EVC on the cluster fails with the error "fault EVCAdmissionFailed summary"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

To enable the EVC on the cluster / Add the ESXI host to EVC enabled cluster

Symptoms:

• Enabling the EVC on the existing cluster fails with the error "fault EVCAdmissionFailed summary"
• Error highlights the host/s which is cause of the issue. 
• Adding ESXI host to EVC enabled cluster fails with an error 
  • vpxd.log - (/var/log/vmware/vpxd):

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[11762] [Originator@6876 sub=MoEVCMgr opID=11ckmj4j-1912625-auto-14zsu-h5: 70196993-86] EVCAdmissionFailed: one or more features are unsupported.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS warning vpxd[11762] [Originator@6876 sub=Vmomi opID=11ckmj4j-1912625-auto-14zsu-h5: 70196993-86] VMOMI activation LRO failed;
<5200e395-7ee7-48d6-c8a0-7adcef069f8d, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 8085'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 46090'>>,
Vim5Fault18EVCAdmissionFailed9ExceptionE (Fault cause: vim. fault. EVCAdmissionFailed
-- > )
-- > [context]zKq7AVECAQAAAKxmTAEYdnB4ZAAAENk3bGlidm1hY29yZS5zbwAAp3gsACVsLQAt6TKB88IHAWxpYnZpbS10eXB1cy5zbwCBndMHAYGHFggBgYtjCAGBVWYIAQFnlusCh/6AdnB4Z
AC+QGBgYt3LAGCwtZhAYK92WABgv7aYAGCLOpgAYKPF2ABg1rBYAEAp0kjAE+fIwDOZDcDh38AbGlicHRocmVhZC5zby4wAAQvNg9saWJjLnNvLjYA[/context]
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[11762] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=11ckmj4j-1912625-auto-14zsu-h5: 70196993-86] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-8975677
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[11762] [Originator@6876 sub=Default_opID=11ckmj4j-1912625-auto-14zsu-h5: 70196993-86] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-8975677
-- evcdomain-c19850 -- vim. cluster.EVCManager. configureEvc: vim. fault.EVCAdmissionFailed:
-> Result:
-> (vim. fault.EVCAdmissionFailed) {
faultCause = (vmodl. MethodFault) null,
faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
(vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
key = "com. vmware. vim. vpxd. vmcheck. hostCpuType",

• • hostd.log (var/run/log)

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info hostd[2101924] [Originator@6876 sub=Libs opID=lxwsntc4-9913867-auto-5whl8-h5:74411287-c
4-d489 user=vpxuser:<username>] PStrIntern expansion: nBkts=256
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS error hostd[2101924] [Originator@6876 sub=Hostsvc.HaHost opID=lxwsntc4-9913867-auto-5whl8-h5
:74411287-c4-d489 user=vpxuser:<username>] EVC mode requirements not met by host, Cap: (vim.host.FeatureCapability
) [
-->    (vim.host.FeatureCapability) {
-->       key = "cpuid.3dnprefetch",
-->       featureName = "cpuid.3dnprefetch",

 

YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[41584] [Originator@6876 sub=MoHost opID=lxwsntc4-9978550-auto-5xvi0-h5:74441869-19
] Running EVC test on <esxi_fqdn> with evcMode intel-cascadelake,vsga-baseline
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[41584] [Originator@6876 sub=MoEVCMgr opID=lxwsntc4-9978550-auto-5xvi0-h5:74441869-
19] EVCAdmissionFailed: one or more features are unsupported.
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS info vpxd[41584] [Originator@6876 sub=MoHost opID=lxwsntc4-9978550-auto-5xvi0-h5:74441869-19
] Running EVC test on <esxi_fqdn> with evcMode intel-cascadelake,vsga-baseline

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0

Cause

• One or two CPU features missing from the host 
• Feature Virtualization (VX-T) feature is available on the host but is disabled in the BIOS

Resolution

• Confirm the VX-T feature (HV Support ) details of the host by running the command 

 esxcfg-info | grep "HV Support" 

Output will be similar to below 

| ---- Option Name ...............ignoreHwSMBIOSInfo
# esxcfg-info -a | grep -i 'HV Support'
| ----------HV Support.....................................................2

       | ----------World Command Line................grep -i HV Support

or 

| ---- Option Name ...............ignoreHwSMBIOSInfo
#esxcfg-info -a | grep -i 'HV Support'
| ----------HV Support.....................................................3

       | ----------World Command Line................grep -i HV Support

 

• The table below explains the possible values of HV Support.

HV Support	Explanation
0	VT-x / AMD-V support is not available for this hardware.
1	VT-x / AMD-V might be available on this CPU but it is not supported for this hardware.
2	VT-x / AMD-V is available but is currently not enabled in the BIOS.
3	VT-x / AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS and can be used.

 

 

• If the HV Support shows as  "2" then we need to enable the VX-T feature from BIOS on the host 

Steps to enable the same from BIOS 
BIOS--> Advanced --> Processor configuration --> Intel virtualization Technology (or can check in the hardware manual or vendor)