VMware/ESX/CPUID/README
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SOURCE: http://www.vmware.com/download/shared_utilities.html VMware CPUID README Overview: The cpuid.iso image can be used to create a bootable CD that aids in processor and feature identification. Specifically, this tool will help in determining hardware support for 64-bit guests and CPU features for VMotion compatibility. The following steps outline its usage: 1. Burn a CD from the image 2. How to run the program: After the bootable CD image has been copied to a CD-R or CD-RW, insert the CD directly into the chassis, and reboot the machine. The boot order in the BIOS may need to be configured so the machine boots from CDROM in the disk drive. 3. How to interpret the output: The tool will display Family/Model/Stepping information for the CPUs detected, and hexadecimal values for the CPU registers that identify specific CPU features. The hexadecimal register values are then interpreted to indicate whether the CPUs support features like 64-bit, SSE3, and nX/xD. Sample output is as follows: Reporting CPUID for 2 logical CPUs... All CPUs are identical Family: 0f Model: 04 Stepping: 1 ID1ECX ID1EDX ID81ECX ID81EDX 0x0000641d 0xbfebfbff 0000000000 0x20100000 Vendor : Intel Processor Cores : 1 Brand String : " Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 2.80GHz" SSE Support : SSE1, SSE2, SSE3 Supports NX / XD : Yes Supports CMPXCHG16B : Yes Hyperthreading : Yes Supports 64-bit Longmode : Yes Supports 64-bit VMware : No a. 64-bit Support: On Intel systems, the last line will indicate "Yes" when the CPUs support EM64T and Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). It's also worth noting that Intel CPUs may be VT capable, but have the functionality disabled by the BIOS. The CPU Identification utility will report "No (BIOS feature may enable)" for those cases, and a configuration change through the BIOS will be required to enable it. On AMD systems the last line will indicate "Yes" on any 64-bit enabled Opteron (Rev E or later). AMD's version of hardware virtualization support (referred to as SVM, Pacifica or AMD-V) is not required. b. SSE Support: The "SSE Support" line will indicate all generations of SSE multimedia instructions supported by the CPUs. The KB articles listed in the References section outline how SSE support affect CPU compatibility for VMotion. c. NX / XD Support: The "Supports NX / XD" line will indicate "Yes" when the CPUs support AMD's No eXecute (NX) or Intel's eXecute Disable (XD) technology. Both variants serve the same security purpose: to mark memory pages as data only to prevent malicious software exploits & buffer overflow attacks. All of the following guest OS types can use it when available: Windows Server 2003 (SP1), Windows* XP (SP2), Windows Vista, RHEL4, RHEL 3 (Update 3), SUSE 10, SUSE Linux 9.2, Solaris 10, Linux kernels 2.6.6 or later (or 2.4 kernels with a patch). Strict separation of NX/XD mismatched hosts, however, is not required. In order to provide more flexibility in dealing with CPU features that affect VMotion compatibility, and in order to provide a mechanism to restore VMotion compatibility back to older versions of VirtualCenter and ESX Server when desired, VirtualCenter will allow customization at the per-VM & per-Host levels: * Per-VM compatibility masks for individual VMs to take advantage of advanced CPU features OR to hide advanced CPU features to maintain VMotion compatibility. * Per-Host settings to set configurations for ALL the VMs of a particular guest OS type at once. d. CMPXCHG16B This line indicates that 16-byte compare exchange (CMPXCHG16B) instructions are supported by the CPUs. e. 3DNow! Prefetch: On AMD systems, the "Supports 3DNow! Prefetch" line will indicate that the PREFETCH instructions are supported by the CPUs. f. RDTSCP: On AMD systems, the "Supports RDTSCP" line will indicate that the RDTSCP instruction is supported by the CPUs. g. FFXSR: On AMD systems, the "Supports FFXSR" line will indicate that the optimized versions of FXSAVE and FXRSTOR instructions are supported by the CPUs. h. Mixed stepping processors support: On some platforms with Intel mixed stepping processors, a message will indicate that it is supporpted on some ESX versions. Here is a sample output: Reporting CPUID for 8 logical CPUs... All CPUs are not identical Detected mixed processor revisions on the system. This configuration is supported on ESX 2.5.5, 3.0.2 Update 1 and above. References: VMware Knowledge Base articles: http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1991. http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1992. http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1993. Copyright © 1998-2008 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,944,699, 6,961,806, 6,961,941, 7,069,413, 7,082,598, 7,089,377, 7,111,086, 7,111,145, 7,117,481, 7,149,843, 7,155,558, 7,222,221, 7,260,815, 7,260,820, 7,269,683, 7,275,136, 7,277,998, 7,277,999, 7,278,030, 7,281,102, and 7,290,253; patents pending. VMware, the VMware “boxes” logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.