Networknet archive Blog

Dell PowerEdge: check and enable Intel VT

Originally published Last updated 9 comments

Last year, I installed three Dell PowerEdge 1950 servers as VMware Server virtualization hosts. A couple of times, while creating and migrating VMs, I received a warning that the processors were not VT-capable or that the option was not enabled.

Enabling the option required a reboot, entering the BIOS with F2 and changing the Intel VT Virtualization Technology CPU setting. Each month, I planned a maintenance window to install missing security updates. I did not want to wait until that reboot to configure the options manually in the BIOS, so I created two scripts to check the processor specifications and enable VT.

The following scripts require Dell OpenManage software.

Check the processor settings

Code3 lines
1
2
3

@echo off
REM Ivan Versluis / www.networknet.nl / Dell PowerEdge Intel VT check
omreport chassis biossetup & omreport chassis processors

image

Enable VT

Code5 lines
1
2
3
4
5

@echo off
REM Ivan Versluis / www.networknet.nl / Dell PowerEdge Intel VT enable
omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=cpuvt setting=enabled
omconfig chassis biossetup attribute=dbs setting=enable
pause

image

For more information, see this document. I ran the enable CMD script on my servers and waited for the scheduled reboot. After the reboot, the new settings were applied and VMware Server no longer displayed the warning.

9 comments

Comments from the original WordPress site, kept read-only.

  1. Chris

    Thank you so much for informaton on how to enable virtualization via OMCONFIG. I have several PE1950's and was worried how I would turn it on at our datacenter halfway across town in a punch to allow VMWware 2.0 to support a 64 bit host.

  2. Levi Aasf

    Hi,
    It seems that there is no source code, code example for it.
    I am tring to verify if the VT flag is disable / enable (on windows).
    Code eample for this issue will be very halpful.
    10X

  3. Rob

    On my search, yours was one of the pages that mentioned how to fix this setting. I have now enabled "CPU Virtualization Technology". Thanks.

    It seems to me that the BIOS is not storing the VT setting on your systems. I checked my "PowerEdge 1950 III" and the setting was still on after a reboot, followed by a shutdown.

    Does a later BIOS update fix this issue? What BIOS version do you have on those Dell 1950's? My BIOS version is 2.5.0

  4. Asaf

    Hi there how do you get to the console to enter the command?
    in this case I have DELL PE-2850.

  5. James

    Asaf, the 8 series Dells do not support intel VT so cannot support 64-bit guests.

    You will need to find different hardware.

  7. Mark Mathers

    Please note that the document you reference indicates that the dbs should be disabled. In your example you are enabling it.

  8. satish

    i hope this command will work on windows server only where as i want check this informtion in bios whether the VT is enabled or not , some of the bios will not have this option ,for that we need to update the bios software , provided by Mother board comapany, VT is compulsary for installing esx servers
    Thanks
    Satish.P

  9. techxe

    Here is an easier way to check for VT or 64bit capability.

    http://www.techxe.com/2010/10/27/how-to-check-features-of-cpu/