Host with Coffee Lake/Kaby Lake/Skylake client CPU cannot be added to cluster with Intel "Skylake" Generation EVC mode enabled
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Host with Coffee Lake/Kaby Lake/Skylake client CPU cannot be added to cluster with Intel "Skylake" Generation EVC mode enabled

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Article ID: 328084

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Updated On:

Products

VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Adding a host with Coffee Lake/Kaby Lake/Skylake client CPU (refer "Affected CPUs table") to the cluster with Intel "Skylake" Generation EVC mode enabled.

Affected CPUs:

CPU CodenameFamily/Model/Stepping
Skylake U/Y0x406e3 (6/4e/3)
Skylake H/S0x506e3 (6/5e/3)
Kaby Lake U/Y0x806e9 (6/8e/9)
Kaby Lake H/S/X0x906e9 (6/9e/9)
Coffee Lake U0x806ea (6/8e/a)
Coffee Lake S0x906eb (6/9e/b)
Coffee Lake H/S0x906ea (6/9e/a)

The vCenter server reports an error message similar to:
The host's CPU hardware does not support the cluster's current Enhanced vMotion Compatibility mode. The host CPU lacks features required by that mode.
Initiator:
Target:
Skylake
Error stack:
XSAVE of high 256 bits of ZMM registers ZMM0-ZMM15 is unsupported (ZMM_Hi256).
XSAVE of Protection Key Register User State (PKRU) is unsupported.
XSAVE of opmask registers k0-k7 is unsupported.
XSAVE of ZMM registers ZMM16-ZMM31 is unsupported (ZMM_Hi16).
Protection Keys For User-mode Pages (PKU) is not supported.
Cache line write back (CLWB) is unsupported.
AVX-512 Vector Length Extensions (AVX512VL) are unsupported.
Advanced Vector Extensions 512 Foundation (AVX512F) are unsupported.
Advanced Vector Extensions 512 Doubleword and Quadword (AVX512DQ) are unsupported.
Advanced Vector Extensions 512 Confict Detection (AVX512CD) are unsupported.
Advanced Vector Extensions 512 Byte and Word Instructions (AVX512BW) are unsupported.
See KB 1003212 for more information.
Host is of type: vendor intel family 0x6 model 0x9e
The target host does not support the virtual machine's current hardware requirements.


Cause

The Skylake EVC mode is based on the feature set of Skylake server CPUs (specifically Skylake-SP). Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake only exist as client parts, and are missing several features that are present in Skylake-SP.

Resolution

To work around this issue, use Intel "Broadwell" Generation EVC mode.