Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:49:32 Z

The series of issues with the Hyper-V hypervisor and its disdain for AMD CPUs is really starting to try my patience. I rebuilt my Windows Server 2003/Virtual Server 2005 R2 lab environment to Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. Hyper-V failed to start.

Researched the issue. My processor was an AMD dual core F2 stepped processor. Ordered an F3 processor.

Recieved, installed processor. At this point i have a windows server 2008 64-bit RTM installation with Hyper-V beta installed. The same errors are occuring indicating that Hyper-V fails to start and that it cannot find SVM functionality.

Virtualization is specifically enabled in the BIOS. XD shows as availible in cpuz and CrystalCPUID however I cannot locate a BIOS option to specifically enable it on the server.

This is a VERY annoying issue because besides its direct effect on what I want to do, we will probably run into this in a number of lab environments, particularly with SMB customers. To make things a little more fun, right now you cant exactly install and run VMWare Server 1.x either because VMWare does not yet code-sign thier kernel modules and 64-bit 2008 will not let you load unsigned modules in kernel mode.

Exact hyper-V error message:

Error ID 51: Hyper-V launch failed; virtualization not supported or enabled on processor 0x0 (check BIOS settings).

Error ID 42: Hyper-V launch failed; Either SVM not present or not enabled in BIOS

Hardware:

AMD Athlon X2 6400+ (F3 stepping with AMD-V and XD support)

Abit KN9 Ultra Motherboard

4GB A-Data DDR2 667

Software:

Windows Server 2008 RTM (MSDN)

Hyper-V Beta (Cant install RC0 on the host unless the hypervisor is running)

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:13:48 Z

Is DEP enabled under BCDEdit?

Cheers,

Ben

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:22:11 Z

BCDEdit /enum shows a value of "OptOut" for the nx attribute from the Windows Boot Loader data.

Should I force it AlwaysOn?

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:24:30 Z

Yes.

Cheers,

Ben

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:29:32 Z

Used bcdedit /set {current} nx AlwaysOn verified with a bcdedit /enum

Rebooted.

Same errors on restart. EventID 42 and EventID 51.

Image of detailed CPU data at http://www.wanderson.org/ServerAMDIssues.gif

I have also recorded a short video where i loop through the whole process from noting the error, examining the BIOS, looking at the feature output in a CPU check application, and then verify that the hypervisor still does not start on reboot. Let me know if you want that posted as it is rather large and will take a few minutes to put on the web.

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:20:28 Z

Video of the error being recieved, the BIOS check, CPU utility outputs, etc.

http://www.wanderson.org/HyperV-AMDIssues.MOV

(Yes, I know it is quicktime. That is what Kodak cameras record and attempting to convert degraded the video to the point that error messages were unreadable.)

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:31:27 Z

what is the difference between F2 and F3 Amd core vor virtualization?

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:03:44 Z

F2 CPU's have a hardware problem and require BIOS support to workaround the issue... This is fixed in F3 CPU's.

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:21:43 Z

can you say more about the F2 Bios fix needed ?

(an information we can forward to motherboard manufacturer)

Why F2 with unfixed bios run with Visual server 2005 (using AMD-V) and not HyperV ?

With an F2 processor, and Asrock ALiveNF7G-HD720p R5.0 HyperV run well

Hypervisor Issues with AMD CPUs

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:29:25 Z

What is the result of "AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility -"

from

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/AMD-V_Hyper-V_Compatibility_Check_Utility.zip