Virtual machine CPU and socket configuration within the vSphere Web Client

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You are unable to allocate additional Cores per Socket for a virtual machine within the vSphere Web Client.
• The number of Cores per Socket is greater than the number of CPUs allocated to the virtual machine.

Environment

VMware vSphere Web Client 5.5.x

Resolution

When configuring virtual CPUs within the vSphere Web Client, you are able to configure:

• The total number of vCPUs for the virtual machine
• The total number of Cores per Socket

These setting differ from the vSphere Client in which you were able to configure:

• The number of virtual sockets
• The number of cores per socket

To configure the correct amount of virtual CPUs and sockets for a virtual machine within the vSphere Web Client:

1. Determine the total number of vCPUs to allocate to the virtual machine.
2. Login to the vSphere Web Client and select the virtual machine in question.
3. Right-click on the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
4. Under the CPU field within the Virtual Hardware tab, select the total number of vCPUs determined in Step 1.
5. Under the Core per Socket field, enter the total number of cores you would like to allocate to a socket.

This table gives the examples of socket determination based upon CPU and Cores per Socket within the vSphere Web Client:

Total Number of virtual CPUs (CPU)	Cores per Socket	Number of Sockets determined by the vSphere Web Client
1	1	1
2	2	1
2	1	2
4	4	1
4	2	2
4	1	4
8	8	1
8	2	4
8	4	2
8	1	8

Additional Information

• When calculating virtual machine CPUs within the vSphere Client, you multiply the number of sockets selected by the number of cores selected to determine the total number of vCPUs allocated for the virtual machine.
• When calculating sockets in the vSphere Web Client, divide the number of CPUs selected by the number of cores per socket selected.