Unable to allocate CPU value beyond 128 on a virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 6.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
While assigning CPU values beyond 128 drop-down value does not show value beyond 128 even though the hosts have more than 128 logical processors.

Environment

VMware vSphere 6.7.x

VMware vSphere 7.x

VMware vSphere 8.x

Resolution

To obtain values beyond 128 when assigning CPU on a VM, we need to choose a combination of the following options. If any of the options below are not met, we may not see values exceeding 128.

• HW version 15 and above.

• Boot option EFI.

• OS should be a minimum of Windows 2016 or RHEL 8.

Once we select these options, we can see CPU values beyond 128 in the drop-down.