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Retrieving and translating CPUID features for a vSphere VM

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Whether you are using the classic Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) on a vSphere Cluster or the new Per-VM EVC capability, the usable (user-level) CPU features from an ESXi host are then presented down into a Virtual Machine for consumption.

If you wanted to see what which CPU features are exposed for a particular VM or even custom CPU compatibility mask which hides certain CPU features, you can do so by using the vSphere API and accessing either the FeatureRequirement or FeatureMask properties, depending if Per-VM EVC is configured or not. The results from the vSphere API is a list of CPUID strings that may or may not be easy to translate to the friendly CPU processor feature name.

While doing some testing, I noticed that for VMs configured with Per-VM EVC, rather than listing out the CPUID strings, it actually lists the friendly CPU processor feature name.


I was not able to find any CPUID translator using the EvcManager API, but the vSphere UI must be getting this information somehow, right? After a bit of poking around in my vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), I realized how this translation was occurring ...

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VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 running on Intel NUC

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Interested in trying out the latest release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.0? Don't have some beefy hardware to meet all the requirements, not to worry! Did you know you can actually deploy a VCF Management Domain using just a single Intel NUC or simliar small form factor system? This is exactly how I kicked the tires with the latest VCF 5.0 release 😎


Disclaimer: This is not officially supported by VMware, please use at your own risk.

Requirements:

  • VMware Cloud Builder 5.0 OVA (Build 21822418)
  • VCF 5.0 Licenses
  • Intel NUC configured with
    • 64GB of memory or more
    • Dual onboard networking ("Tall" NUC like Intel NUC 11 Pro, which is what I used) OR add additional NICs with these Thunderbolt 3 Networking options (no USB NIC)
    • 2 x SSD that are empty for use for vSAN bootstrap (500GB+ for capacity)
  • ESXi 8.0 Update 1a installed on the Intel NUC using USB device
  • Ability to deploy and run the VMware Cloud Builder (CB) Appliance in a separate environment (ESXi/Fusion/Workstation)

Note: While my experiment used an Intel NUC, any system that meets the basic requirements above should also work.

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Workaround for VMware Cloud Builder 10GbE pre-check in VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0

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VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 5.0 is now generally available for customers to upgrade and I had a chance to play with it in my homelab before it was released.

One change that I had noticed in the new version of the VMware Cloud Builder for VCF 5.0 compared to VCF 4.5 is the introduction of a new 10GbE pre-check to ensure that your physical ESXi hosts met the minimum networking requirement. For a production deployment, this pre-check makes a ton of sense but for a homelab/development environment where you may not have 10GbE connectivity, this is certainly not ideal, especially as this was possible with VCF 4.5.

With VCF 5.0, this new pre-check is considered an error and will prevent you from continuing the VCF deployment as you can see from the error message below.


Fortunately, I was able to find an easy workaround to the issue that would still allow users to deploy the latest VCF 5.0 without 10GbE networking! 😀

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