“The target host does not support the virtual machine’s current hardware requirements” error vMotioning a VM

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

Migration of virtual machines between ESXi hosts with different CPU Models, fails with this error:

The target host does not support the virtual machine’s current hardware requirements. To resolve CPU incompatibilities, use a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled. See KB article 1003212.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.5.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 8.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Cause

The The target host does not support the virtual machine’s current hardware requirements error can occur in non-EVC enabled cluster for:

vMotion requires the same family of CPU among the ESXi hosts which ensures the same CPU feature set to be presented to all virtual machines.
Any vSphere cluster can have hosts belonging to either Intel or AMD.
EVC cannot be enabled on a cluster with mixed processors from both Intel and AMD. For vMotion to work, it needs compatibility in terms of host processors in the cluster.
vMotion will fail if the source ESXi host CPU features are not supported on the destination ESXi host.

Note: vMotion requires the source and destination ESXi hosts to present the same CPU generation feature set.

Resolution

To resolve this issue enable Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) on the cluster:

EVC solves this by creating a baseline set to the least advanced processor configuration supported by all ESXi hosts in the cluster.
EVC will mask all the new generation features by presenting only the Lowest Common CPU Features configured on the cluster.
With an EVC baseline configured, all powered on VMs in the cluster will only use the processor features of the baseline.
For ESXi hosts with processors of different generations, you will need to create an EVC baseline. This allows the advanced processors to expose CPU features that match the baseline and will mask the CPU features which are not supported by the baseline. This way we have a common abstraction of processor generations in the cluster.

Configure EVC mode on the Cluster:

Identify all the CPU models/generation on each ESXi host in the cluster.

For example, the below host has a CPU Model of Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2.

Go to VMware Compatibility Guide, select the CPU Series, the CPU model and Product Release Version, then click CPU/EVC Matrix.
Determine the Lowest Common CPU feature compatible on all ESXi hosts in the cluster.

For example, as shown in the above figure, the CPU Model Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 supports the following EVC baselines:

Intel® Westmere (oldest generation)
Intel® Nehalem
Intel® Penryn
Intel® Merom
Intel® Ivy-Bridge
Intel® Sandy-Bridge
Intel® Haswell (newer generation)

In the vCenter Server inventory, select the cluster.
Power off all the virtual machines on the hosts with feature sets greater (newer) than the EVC mode.

Click the Configure tab, select VMware EVC, and click Edit.

Enable EVC for the CPU vendor and feature set appropriate for the hosts in the cluster, and click OK.

Power on the virtual machines in the cluster to apply the EVC.

Note: If a new ESXi host is added to the EVC enabled cluster, the ESXi host’s CPU features will reflect the configured baseline features. The ESXi host should be added while in maintenance mode.

For more information, see CPU Compatibility and EVC

If a processor can support EVC level XN, it can also support levels XN-1 to X0.

For example, a processor that supports the Intel "Sandy Bridge" Generation EVC Baseline has an EVC level of L4 (see Table 1.1). Therefore, it can also support EVC levels L3, L2, L1, and L0. However, it cannot support EVC level L5, which corresponds to the Intel "Ivy Bridge" Generation.

Table 1.1: Description of Intel EVC Baselines

EVC Level	EVC Baseline	Description
L0	Intel "Merom" Gen. (Intel Xeon Core™ 2)	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Merom" Generation (Intel Xeon Core™ 2) processors to all hosts in the cluster.
L1	Intel "Penryn" Gen. (formerly Intel Xeon 45nm Core™ 2)	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Penryn" Generation (Intel Xeon 45nm Core™ 2) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Merom" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4.1.
L2	Intel "Nehalem" Gen. (formerly Intel Xeon Core™ i7)	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Nehalem" Generation (Intel Xeon Core™ i7) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Penryn" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4.2 and POPCOUNT.
L3	Intel "Westmere" Gen. (formerly Intel Xeon 32nm Core™ i7)	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Westmere" Generation (Intel Xeon 32nm Core™ i7) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Nehalem" Generation mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including AES and PCLMULQDQ. Note: Intel i3/i5 Xeon Clarkdale Series processors that do not support AESNI and PCLMULQDQ cannot be admitted to EVC modes higher than the Intel "Nehalem" Generation mode. Note: Intel Atom™ C2300-C2700 processors support the Intel "Westmere" Gen. EVC baseline although their architecture is different from the architecture of the Intel "Westmere" Generation processors.
L4	Intel "Sandy Bridge" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Sandy Bridge" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Westmere" Generation mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including AVX and XSAVE. Note: Intel "Sandy Bridge" processors that do not support AESNI and PCLMULQDQ cannot be admitted to EVC modes higher than the Intel "Nehalem" Generation mode.
L5	Intel "Ivy Bridge" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Ivy Bridge" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Sandy Bridge" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including RDRAND, ENFSTRG, FSGSBASE, SMEP, and F16C. Note: Some Intel "Ivy Bridge" processors do not provide the full "Ivy Bridge" feature set. Such processors cannot be admitted to EVC modes higher than the Intel "Nehalem" Generation mode.
L6	Intel "Haswell" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of Intel "Haswell" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Ivy Bridge" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including ABMX2,AVX2, MOVBE, FMA, PERMD, RORX/MULX, INVPCID, VMFUNC.
L7	Intel "Broadwell" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of Intel "Broadwell" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® "Haswell" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including Transactional Synchronization Extensions, Supervisor Mode Access Prevention, Multi-Precision Add-Carry Instruction Extensions, PREFETCHW and RDSEED
L8	Intel "Skylake" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of Intel "Skylake" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® "Broadwell" Generation EVC mode,this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including Advanced Vector Extensions 512, Persistent Memory Support Instructions, Protection Key Rights, Save Processor Extended States with Compaction, and Save Processor Extended States Supervisor
L9	Intel "Cascade Lake" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of Intel® "Cascade Lake" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® "Skylake" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including VNNI and XGETBV with ECX = 1.
L10	Intel "Ice Lake" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of Intel® "Ice Lake" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel "Cascade Lake" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SHA extensions, Vectorized AES, User Mode Instruction Prevention, Read Processor ID, Fast Short REP MOV, WBNOINVD, Galois Field New Instructions, and AVX512 Integer Fused Multiply Add, Vectorized Bit Manipulation, and Bit Algorithms Instructions
L11	Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of Intel® "Sapphire Rapids" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the Intel® "Ice Lake" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features, including Control-Flow Enforcement Technology, Advanced Matrix Extensions, Supervisor Protection Keys, AVX-VNNI, AVX512 FP16, AVX512 BF16, CLDEMOTE, SERIALIZE, WBNOINVD, and MOVDIRI instructions.

Table 1.2: Description of AMD EVC Baselines

EVC Level	EVC Baseline	Description
A0	AMD Opteron™ Generation 1	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 1 (Rev. E) processors to all hosts in the cluster.
A1	AMD Opteron™ Generation 2	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 2 (Rev. F) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 1 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including CPMXCHG16B and RDTSCP.
A3	AMD Opteron™ Generation 3	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (Greyhound) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 2 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSE4A, MisAlignSSE, POPCOUNT and ABM (LZCNT). Note: Due to 3DNow!™ support being removed from AMD processors after mid 2010, use AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (no 3DNow!™) when possible to avoid compatibility issues with future processor generations.
A2, B0	AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (no 3DNow!™)	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (Greyhound) processors with 3DNow!™ support removed, to all hosts in the cluster. This mode allows you to prepare clusters containing AMD hosts to accept AMD processors without 3DNow!™ support.
B1	AMD Opteron™ Generation 4	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ Generation 4 (Bulldozer) processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 3 (no 3DNow!™) EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including SSSE3, SSE4.1, AES, AVX, XSAVE, XOP, and FMA4.
B2	AMD Opteron™ "Piledriver" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ "Piledriver" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ Generation 4 EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including FMA, TBM, BMI1, and F16C.
B3	AMD Opteron™ "Steamroller" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of AMD Opteron™ "Steamroller" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ "Piledriver" EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including XSAVEOPT RDFSBASE, RDGSBASE, WRFSBASE, WRGSBAS and FSGSBASE.
B4	AMD "Zen" Generation	Applies baseline feature set of AMD "Zen" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD Opteron™ "Steamroller" EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including RDRAND, SMEP, AVX2, BMI2, MOVBE, ADX, RDSEED, SMAP, CLFLUSHOPT, XSAVES, XSAVEC, SHA, and CLZERO.
B5	AMD "Zen 2" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of AMD "Zen 2" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD "Zen" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including CLWB, UMIP, RDPID, XGETBV with ECX = 1, WBNOINVD, and GMET.
B6	AMD "Zen 3" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of AMD "Zen 3" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD "Zen 2" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features, including always serializing LFENCE, INVPCID, PSFD, SSBD, PCID, PKU, VAES, VPCLMULQDQ, and shadow stacks.
B7	AMD 'Zen4" Generation	Applies the baseline feature set of AMD "Zen 4" Generation processors to all hosts in the cluster. Compared to the AMD "Zen 3" Generation EVC mode, this EVC mode exposes additional CPU features including Fast Short CMPSB and STOSB, Automatic IBRS, AVX512BF16, AVX512BITALG, AVX512BW, AVX512CD, AVX512DQ, AVX512F, AVX512IFMA, AVX512VBMI, AVX512VBMI2, AVX512VL, AVX512VNNI, AVX512VPOPCNTDQ, GFNI, IBRS, and Upper Address Ignore.

Workaround:
To work around the The target host does not support the virtual machine’s current hardware requirements error when EVC cannot be enabled, perform a powered-off cold migration of the virtual machine.

Additional Information

VMware Skyline Health Diagnostics for vSphere - FAQ

For further EVC troubleshooting see: