VMware Workstation – Error – ” Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled”

KB ID 0000540 

Problem

Seen on VMware Workstation, when attempting to virtualise a product that IS a virtualisation hypervisor (ESX for example).

Error: Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is disabled for this ESX VM. You will only be able to run 32-bit nested VMs.

At first I (wrongly) assumed that I needed to enable something in the BIOS on my laptop, and searched though every page to enable some virtualization setting that was turned off. But that’s NOT what it’s telling you. what it is telling you is you are trying to virtualize a virtualization product, so all the clever VT settings from your physical machines CPU will be shown to VMware workstation. But that presents a Virtual CPU to the OS you are installing as a guest (In the case above ESX) and THAT virtual CPU does NOT have Intel- VT-x/EPT enabled.

So a “Nested VM” – is a Guest VM, running Inside a Guest Hypervisor, that’s been virtualized.

Solution

Note: I’m using VMware workstation 8.

1. Right click the VM in question and select “Settings”.

2. Hardware Tab > Processors > Tick the option to enable VT-x/EPT or V/RVI > OK.

3. Restart the guest machine.

Note: You can also do this be editing the machines .vmx file with a text editor and adding the following lines;

[box]

monitor.virtual_mmu = "hardware"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

vhv.enable = "TRUE"

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "true"

[/box]

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Windows 8 Wont Run in VMware Workstation

KB ID 0000506 

Problem

When attempting to power on a VM built with the Windows 8 (Developer preview) you will see the following:

Error:
*** VMware Workstation internal monitor error ***
vcpu-0:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore/vmm/intr/apic.c:1903
Please report this problem by selecting menu item Help > VMware on the Web > Request Support
, or by going to the Web page”{URL removed”}.
Please provide us with the log file (C:Users{username}Documents
Virtual MachinesVMvmware.log) and the core file(s)
(C:Users{username}DocumentsVirtual MachinesVMvmware-core.gz, C:Users{username}
DocumentsVirtual MachinesVMvmware64-core.gz, C:Users{username}DocumentsVirtual Machines
VMvmware-vmx-9120.dmp).
If the problem is repeatable, please select ‘Run with debugging information’ in the Options panel
of Virtual Machine Settings. Then reproduce the incident and file it according to the instructions.
To collect data to submit to VMware support, select Help > About and click “Collect Support Data”.
You can also run the “vm-support” script in the Workstation folder directly.
We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement.
We appreciate your feedback,
— the VMware Workstation team.

Solution

1. After some fiddling, it seems the problem is related to Workstation version 7, (See below):

2. Once swift upgrade to Workstation version 8 and the problem is gone.

Note: If this is not a path you want to go down you can also run Windows 8 in Virtual Box

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Windows 8 (Server and Client) Black Screen (Post VMware Tools Install)

KB ID 0000587 

Problem

I’ve seen this on both the Windows 8 (Consumer Preview), and the Windows Server 8 (Beta), whilst running them in VMware Workstation 8. They install fine, but if you install the VMware tools all you get is a black screen.

This is because the SVGA Driver than VMware Tools installs Windows 8 does NOT Like.

Note: This does not hppen on ESXi 5.

Solution

I knew this was going to happen, so I took a snapshot before I installed VMware tools, Then I had the luxury of reverting back. If you are reading this you probably didn’t! If that IS the case, then press F8 as the Virtual Machine starts to boot to launch Automatic Repair (be quick on the keys).

Installing VMware Tools in Windows 8

1. To stop this happening, when you install VMware tools select > Custom > Remove the SVGA Driver > Next > Finish > Yes (to reboot).

2. You will notice that the display driver that is uses, is the “Microsoft Basic Display Adaptor”.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Windows 8 -“Windows cannot read the <ProductKey> setting from the unattend answer file.”

Windows 8 Wont Run in VMware Workstation

Running Windows Server 8 in VMware ESXi

Running Windows Server 8 in VMware ESXi

KB ID 0000590 

Problem

The very fist time I tried this was on ESXi 4.1, if you try and install Windows 8 Server on that platform, you will see the following.

Your computer ran into a problem and needs to restart. If you’d like to know more, you can search online later for this code: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED It’s collecting error info and will restart in: x seconds

Note: You will also see this in VMware player, and VMware workstation 7.

Solution

Some internet searching told me that as far as VMware was concerned, I needed to be running VMware Workstation version 8, so I installed Workstation 8 and, accepting the fact I got the same install error that the windows 8 consumer preview gives you, (the fix is the same). It works flawlessly (unless you install the VMware tools).

Running Windows “8” Server in ESXi

I knew that the developer preview worked on ESXi 5, And VMware Workstation 8 uses VMware hardware version 8. So I guessed that it would run under ESXi 5. I set the machine type to “Windows 7 x64”, and it installed it, to my surprise it ran straight away.

And Installing VMware tools went smoothly as well.

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Windows 8 (Server and Client) Black Screen (Post VMware Tools Install)

Windows 8 -“Windows cannot read the <ProductKey> setting from the unattend answer file.