VMWare-PerVM-EVC-without-vCenter.md

Enable Per-VM EVC on ESXi 6.7 without vCenter

This was done to solve a chicken and egg problem of enabling EVC on a VCSA without using vCenter.

Process

1. Upgrade the hardware version of your VCSA to a minimum of version 6.7 (v14).
   • Guide: Upgrade VMware’s VM Hardware Version on Next Server Reboot
   • Steps:
     • In VCSA; Right-click on VM
     • Select Compatibility>Schedule VM compatibility upgrade
     • Set Version to 6.7 (v14)
     • Reboot VCSA
2. Enable SSH on your ESXi host containing the VCSA
3. Shut down VCSA
4. Navigate to your datastore directory for the VCSA
5. Create a backup of your VCSA .vmx
6. Append the following lines to the .vmx for Westmere Compatibility

   featMask.vm.cpuid.Intel = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.FAMILY = "Val:6"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.MODEL = "Val:0x25"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.STEPPING = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.NUMLEVELS = "Val:0xb"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.NUM_EXT_LEVELS = "Val:0x80000008"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.CMPXCHG16B = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.DS = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.LAHF64 = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.LM = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.MWAIT = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.NX = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SS = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SSE3 = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SSSE3 = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SSE41 = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.IBPB = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.IBRS = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.STIBP = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SSBD = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.FCMD = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.POPCNT = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.RDTSCP = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.SSE42 = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.VMX = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.hv.capable = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.AES = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.cpuid.PCLMULQDQ = "Val:1"
   featMask.vm.vt.realmode = "Val:1"
   featureCompat.vm.completeMasks = "TRUE"