ESXi offers support for several 64-bit guest operating systems. For a complete list of operating systems supported for ESXi, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
Hosts running virtual machines with 64-bit guest operating systems have these hardware requirements:
- For AMD Opteron-based systems, the processors must be Opteron Rev E or later.
- For Intel Xeon-based systems, the processors must include support for Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). Many servers that include CPUs with VT support might have VT disabled by default, so you must enable VT manually. If your CPUs support VT, but you do not see this option in the BIOS, contact your vendor to request a BIOS version that lets you enable VT support.
To determine whether your server has 64-bit VMware support, you can download the CPU Identification Utility from http://www.vmware.com/.
Note: For more information, see the ESXi and vCenter Server Installation Guide.