A few weeks ago I blogged about SVVP validation of VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2. Just last week, though, I learned that Microsoft’s validation may be quite limited. According to this article, the validation is handled per CPU architecture, per memory configuration. So, apparently VMware ESX is validated on an AMD system with 4GB of RAM, but that’s about it.
Does anyone have any information to back this up? Or any information on additional CPU architectures and memory configurations that are currently being tested for validation?
Tags: ESX, Microsoft, Virtualization, VMware
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 11:09 pm
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Chad Sakac
It would explain recent dialog about pooling servers to accelerate more SVVP testing. Let me dig a bit more.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 3:39 am
Duncan
that’s weird indeed. I will ask within the organization what’s up with this.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 4:53 am
Stu Fox
From what I understand VMware have validated on ESX 3.5 Update 2 on AMD processors, for x86 guests only. I assume that they will expand this at some point, but that’s a VMware decision.
Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft NZ, but this is my personal understanding only. The definitive answer should come from VMware.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 11:11 am
Aaron Sweemer
I just checked and as of September 3rd, the supported version is for ESX 3.5u2 on AMD servers in general, and there is no mention of any sort of memory limitation. So I believe the 4GB stipulation is incorrect.
I also confirmed that the next version to be validated will be ESX 3.5u2 on Intel servers. And support will go forward from 3.5u2 on both Intel and AMD.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 11:59 am
slowe
Thanks to everyone who commented. The Microsoft web site does indeed list the memory configuration as 4GB, although whether this is a valid limitation or not is unknown. Browsing a couple of the other vendors listed there show only a single memory configuration (for example, all the Citrix XenServer 5 validations show 30GB of memory), so I’m not sure how this plays out. It does list “Maximum memory,” so maybe it’s just an issue of running through the tests with more RAM.
Also, Stu’s comment seems to be accurate as well, based on the information available. Other vendors have both x64 guests as well as x86 guests, whereas VMware only has x86 (32-bit) guests listed.
BTW, the Microsoft web site to which I am referring is here:
http://windowsservercatalog.com/results.aspx?&bCatID=1521&cpID=0&avc=0&ava=0&avq=0&OR=1&PGS=25&ready=0
Thanks!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Aaron
At an SVVP session at VMworld, VMware indicated that more validations were in the works and that AMD x86 was just the first.
The memory indicates the size of the VM tested by the vendor. If a customer runs a Windows VM configured larger than that, it is NOT supported since it has not been tested and verified by the vendor. Citrix tested larger VMs.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Chad Sakac
Ok, confirmed scoop (and VMware and Microsoft should be posting clarifications shortly).
The SVVP matrix has these axis:
- Hypervisor versoin (i.e. ESX 3.5u2, ESXi 3.5u2, Xen5, Hyper-V)
- Processor type (AMD/Intel)
- 32-bit/64-bit Microsoft Guest OSes
It’s not like the VMware HCL, or Windows Server Hardware Catalog with further hardware qualifications. In fact, it is dependent on those (for example, if you are talking about SVVP support for ESX 3.5u2, it not only needs to fit the SVVP matrix, but also the VMware HCL matrix.
The reason that AMD popped up first was that was the first system VMware put through, and it had that given memory config.
Expect more formal communications shortly.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Chad Sakac
Scott - FYI - I did a more detailed blog post here:
http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/09/svvp—how-does.html
Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Kenon Owens
Chad got it right, I blogged on it here, as well, but what he says is what I got when VMware sent some guidance to their sales team about this which I was asked to post here as clarification:
http://dantedog29.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-deal-with-svvp.html
Basically, we initially tested and certified up to 4 GB VMs (not ESX Servers, but the Virtual Machines) running the x86 version of Windows Server 2008 and below on Opteron Processors. We will have more, just check point 5 in their response.