Determining if Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD Virtualization is enabled in the BIOS without rebooting

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When troubleshooting vMotion, Enhanced VMotion Capability (EVC), or 64bit virtual machine performance, you may need to determine if the Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) are enabled in the BIOS.

 

This article provides a method to determine if Intel VT or AMD-V are enabled in the BIOS without rebooting.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable

Resolution

To determine if Intel VT or AMD-V are enabled in the BIOS:

1. Log in to the ESX host as the root user. For more information, see Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677) for ESXi or Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807) for ESX.
2. Run this command:
   
   esxcfg-info|grep "\----\HV Support"
   
   The output of the HV Support command indicates the type of Hyper-visor support available. These are the descriptions for the possible values:
   
   0 - VT/AMD-V indicates that support is not available for this hardware.
   1 - VT/AMD-V indicates that VT or AMD-V might be available but it is not supported for this hardware.
   2 - VT/AMD-V indicates that VT or AMD-V is available but is currently not enabled in the BIOS.
   3 - VT/AMD-V indicates that VT or AMD-V is enabled in the BIOS and can be used.

For more information, see Ensuring Virtualization Technology is enabled on your VMware host (1003944).

Additional Information

The AMD "Barcelona" CPU or newer is required for AMD-V support. For more information, see the Hardware Technique: VT-x and AMD-V section in the Software and Hardware Techniques for x86 Virtualization document.

Ensuring Virtualization Technology is enabled on your VMware host
在不重新引导的情况下确定 BIOS 中是否已启用 Intel 虚拟化技术或 AMD 虚拟化
再起動せずに BIOS で Intel Virtualization Technology あるいは AMD Virtualization が有効化されているかどうかを判断する