Ensuring vMotion Compatibility

Earlier in this chapter, the section “Examining vMotion Requirements” discussed some of the prerequisites needed to perform a vMotion operation, including CPU requirements. Specifically, the CPUs must be from the same vendor, must be in the same family, and must share a common set of CPU instruction sets and features.

When source and target hosts with CPU differences exist in the same cluster, a vMotion operation between the two will fail. This is referred to as a vMotion boundary. In early, pre-vSphere versions, there was no fix for this issue—it was something that architects planned for and administrators simply had to endure.

However, in later versions and continuing into vSphere 6.7, vSphere supports hardware extensions from both Intel and AMD to help mitigate these CPU differences. In fact, vSphere provides a few ways to address the issue, either in part or in whole.

Using Per-Virtual-Machine CPU Masking

With vCenter Server, you...