Hypervisor will not start on DC7900 - Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

[Aaron Penman]

I am setting up a test lab to demonstrate Live Migration using Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on two DC7900 desktops.

I have been unable to successfully get the hypervisor to start - the error is essentially reporting that the CPU does not have VT extensions enabled

I have done the following on the workstations:
1. Hardware DEP enabled in BIOS
2. VT extensions enabled in BIOS
3. Updated the BIOS to the latest (Hyper-V fix applied late June)
4. Removed the USB keyboard + mouse
5. Turned off 'Multiprocessor' in BIOS
6. Tried all 4 combinations of DEP/VT settings enabled/disabled in BIOS
7. Completely powered down the motherboard after each change

My research so far has not been able to find any known issues

Any help appreciated

[Diego Castelli]

strange issue, really.

I have Hyper-V w/SP1 working on a DC7900 no problems..

i know you're trying to install the R2, but should be the same hardware side.

i suggest you to try to install first version of Hyper-V: if it works this is a software problem.

if it doesn't you can try to update CPU microcodes, if available.

[Aaron Penman]

Thanks for your reply. Hyper-V Server (R1) and Windows Server 2008 x64 RTM with Hyper-V role work fine on the DC7900 so looks like its a problem with R2.

I have also tried Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role and this doesn't work either.

Have checked Windows Catalog and the DC7900 hasn't been tested as far as I can tell (probably because its a desktop).

However the CPU is does seem to have all the prerequisties for Hyper-V - this is the Intel E7500 2.933GHz Core 2 Duo CPU.

Any other comments or suggestions appreciated

[Rune J. Winje]

Just know a couple of items that could be of interest.

1) After enabling VT in Bios it is necessary to power the server off and on (hard reboot) - just doing a restart (warm reboot) may not work.
Ref Vmware's http://kb.vmware.com/kb/3282933

2) Also the cpuid referenced may help - the ISO file found here
http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html

Burn a CD from the cpuid.iso and boot from that. Alternatively if your server has ILO capabilities you could set it to boot directly from the ISO image.

Look for a line like this
->Supports 64-bit VMware : Yes/No

I know you asked about Hyper-V but believe the requirements to be basically the same.

There are also a couple of versions of the E7500 CPU
CPU part numbers:
Part AT80571PH0773M does not support Virtualization technology
Part AT80571PH0773ML supports Virtualization technology




Cheers,
Rune

[Aaron Penman]

Thankyou you are exactly right - the E7500 in these particular DC7900s does not have VT - the option I was enabling in BIOS was VTd not VTx, and I was mistakenly think 'Virtualisation Directed I/O' (VTd) meant VTx

Mystery solved