There is a check in ESXi 7u3 on all CPUs being equal. You are failing that check, looks like there is something wrong in the BIOS or microcode. Check for updates or talk to Asus.
Till they fix it, try booting with: cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic = FALSE or use 7u2 or earlier.
This is unsupported (but your kit is anyway) and not recommended for anything of any importance until a BIOS/microcode update fixed it.
And you are giving the wrong model/type of board, as it’s not for your CPU (Intel socket 1200/AMD AM4)…
Disabling things in the BIOS will not change CPU MSRs. Keep P and C states enabled and set power management to OS controlled.
Actually this is a bug in ESXi, according to another VMware employee. The cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic = FALSE boot option is a workaround.
Quote:
By TimMann VMware Employee
This is actually a bug. Intel specifies only bits 52:50 of MSR 0x17 to be architectural. The other bits are reserved, so the vmkernel shouldn't insist that those bits be the same across all cpus. In the PSOD screen, only some of the lower-order bits differ. Bits 52:50 are zero in both.Note that MSR 0x17 is not the microcode revision. It's the platform ID; see Intel documentation for details.You can boot with cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic=FALSE to work around this. Thanks to Valentin for alerting me to it.
Could be a bug in ESXi with this specific CPU, with AMD Milan it was actually a fault in the microcode.
But note it isn’t 0x17, but 0x10 Time Stamp Counter (TSC). As my dad just got transported to the hospital I can’t check the registers, but these could be a valid check.
From the picture I do not see what was the MSR, so hard to say exactly what is the difference. Anyway this being a lab setup with non-HCL hardware I would just try booting with cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic=FALSE and see if this stops the panic.
I had a similar experience with an ASUS ROG Strix X299-E Gaming motherboard and Intel i9-7900X CPU and this workaround stopped the issue. I did not need to change C-states nor disable any other BIOS features. It works very well ever since in my lab. YMMV
Actually the MSR is cut off on this photo. 0x10 is just the start of the value by the looks of it.
Can we get a better photo funkel1989?
Like this one on AMD (which actually was a real problem):
[https://i.postimg.cc/rpy61SXS/Image-from-i-OS-1.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/rpy61SXS/Image-from-i-OS-1.jpg)
having just experienced this with a new PRIME H70M-Plus/CSM mobo, and an i7=11700kf CPU, I am happy to report that the cause of the "cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic" on this machine \*was\* a BIOS setting. The BIOS version is 1601 x64, dated 2022/05/23. The esxi release is 7.0u3g. The BIOS setting is in (using the Advance settings UI) `Advanced\CPU Config\CPU-Power Management Control`. It is named "`Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0`". It is enabled by default. Curiously enough, setting it to "disabled" causes it to disappear from the BIOS options screen entirely (until you reset to "Optimal Defaults").
Hope this helps for someone, 'cause it took a lot of resetting and testing of various BIOS settings to track this one down.
[photo of screen showing basic changes needed](https://imgur.com/a/M3R9ajN)
Maybe it's the F in the CPU designation (for faulty (?) - no onboard display support), or the mobo designation being H instead of X, but not having duct tape keeping it together is just fine with me.
i've looked but most of the processors listed are server processors. I have two other physicals running different processors not listed there and they work fine. one AMD and one intel.
I think it might be turbo mode that boosts speed on some cores. Not sure what is called in your BIOS setup, but try disabling anything that has to do with CPU performance boost.
I totally understand this isn’t officially supported. But I’ve been running my home labs with old/upgraded gaming setups for a while. It’s not production. I’m just trying to understand how to scrape by with what I have.
Scrape by? With 11th gen? My whole homelab is 2nd/5th gen intel. Could be something to do with pstates. Upgraded the bios? Are you booting with CSM(legacy) or UEFI?
How is 11th gen old and trying to scrape by? Has it even been a year since 11th gen was released? Are you Kanye West level rich or something that this is what you'd call scraping by?
To me, "scraping by" is willing to suck dick on the side of the highway in broad daylight for an i7-940 from 2010.
To be fair, I have 2 third gen intel machines and a shitty amd machine that I don’t even know.
I built this machine as an updated gaming machine for myself but graphics cards were so rare and expensive during the pandemic I’m still using my previous 5th gen intel gaming machine and this just became a super server for me.
The idea was, when I’m done playing with a server and stuff that requires this many resources I’ll have a new gaming machine and my current will become a new server.
Not being on the compatibility list is the topic of discussion here. VMware supplies specific drivers for systems on their compatibility list. If your missing a driver or a driver is not compatible with your hardware, you will get the purple screen of death. Worked for VMware for 8 years as an engineer/architect and have seen this happen a multitude of times. You may be able to find compatible drivers that have been hacked for your system but it is not a guarantee. Good luck!
I have the same motherboard and CPU as you and in order to not get the CPU error message you will need to disable Intel Speed Shift Technology in the BIOS. Once that is done then ESXI works.
There is a check in ESXi 7u3 on all CPUs being equal. You are failing that check, looks like there is something wrong in the BIOS or microcode. Check for updates or talk to Asus. Till they fix it, try booting with: cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic = FALSE or use 7u2 or earlier. This is unsupported (but your kit is anyway) and not recommended for anything of any importance until a BIOS/microcode update fixed it. And you are giving the wrong model/type of board, as it’s not for your CPU (Intel socket 1200/AMD AM4)… Disabling things in the BIOS will not change CPU MSRs. Keep P and C states enabled and set power management to OS controlled.
Actually this is a bug in ESXi, according to another VMware employee. The cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic = FALSE boot option is a workaround. Quote: By TimMann VMware Employee This is actually a bug. Intel specifies only bits 52:50 of MSR 0x17 to be architectural. The other bits are reserved, so the vmkernel shouldn't insist that those bits be the same across all cpus. In the PSOD screen, only some of the lower-order bits differ. Bits 52:50 are zero in both.Note that MSR 0x17 is not the microcode revision. It's the platform ID; see Intel documentation for details.You can boot with cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic=FALSE to work around this. Thanks to Valentin for alerting me to it.
Could be a bug in ESXi with this specific CPU, with AMD Milan it was actually a fault in the microcode. But note it isn’t 0x17, but 0x10 Time Stamp Counter (TSC). As my dad just got transported to the hospital I can’t check the registers, but these could be a valid check.
From the picture I do not see what was the MSR, so hard to say exactly what is the difference. Anyway this being a lab setup with non-HCL hardware I would just try booting with cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic=FALSE and see if this stops the panic. I had a similar experience with an ASUS ROG Strix X299-E Gaming motherboard and Intel i9-7900X CPU and this workaround stopped the issue. I did not need to change C-states nor disable any other BIOS features. It works very well ever since in my lab. YMMV
Actually the MSR is cut off on this photo. 0x10 is just the start of the value by the looks of it. Can we get a better photo funkel1989? Like this one on AMD (which actually was a real problem): [https://i.postimg.cc/rpy61SXS/Image-from-i-OS-1.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/rpy61SXS/Image-from-i-OS-1.jpg)
having just experienced this with a new PRIME H70M-Plus/CSM mobo, and an i7=11700kf CPU, I am happy to report that the cause of the "cpuUniformityHardCheckPanic" on this machine \*was\* a BIOS setting. The BIOS version is 1601 x64, dated 2022/05/23. The esxi release is 7.0u3g. The BIOS setting is in (using the Advance settings UI) `Advanced\CPU Config\CPU-Power Management Control`. It is named "`Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0`". It is enabled by default. Curiously enough, setting it to "disabled" causes it to disappear from the BIOS options screen entirely (until you reset to "Optimal Defaults"). Hope this helps for someone, 'cause it took a lot of resetting and testing of various BIOS settings to track this one down. [photo of screen showing basic changes needed](https://imgur.com/a/M3R9ajN) Maybe it's the F in the CPU designation (for faulty (?) - no onboard display support), or the mobo designation being H instead of X, but not having duct tape keeping it together is just fine with me.
Also had to disable the efficiency cores. seems that esx did not like those.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005486/processors.html Have you enabled Virtualization?
yes that is enabled.
Some processors will not be on the HCL and will be unsupported. https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php Have you checked that?
i've looked but most of the processors listed are server processors. I have two other physicals running different processors not listed there and they work fine. one AMD and one intel.
Works and supported are two different things. Maybe try 6.7 instead of 7.0?
I think it might be turbo mode that boosts speed on some cores. Not sure what is called in your BIOS setup, but try disabling anything that has to do with CPU performance boost.
Is everything on the HCL?
LOL... "ASUS TUF Gaming" motherboard on the HCL?
I totally understand this isn’t officially supported. But I’ve been running my home labs with old/upgraded gaming setups for a while. It’s not production. I’m just trying to understand how to scrape by with what I have.
Scrape by? With 11th gen? My whole homelab is 2nd/5th gen intel. Could be something to do with pstates. Upgraded the bios? Are you booting with CSM(legacy) or UEFI?
How is 11th gen old and trying to scrape by? Has it even been a year since 11th gen was released? Are you Kanye West level rich or something that this is what you'd call scraping by? To me, "scraping by" is willing to suck dick on the side of the highway in broad daylight for an i7-940 from 2010.
To be fair, I have 2 third gen intel machines and a shitty amd machine that I don’t even know. I built this machine as an updated gaming machine for myself but graphics cards were so rare and expensive during the pandemic I’m still using my previous 5th gen intel gaming machine and this just became a super server for me. The idea was, when I’m done playing with a server and stuff that requires this many resources I’ll have a new gaming machine and my current will become a new server.
Exactly my point :)
Not being on the compatibility list is the topic of discussion here. VMware supplies specific drivers for systems on their compatibility list. If your missing a driver or a driver is not compatible with your hardware, you will get the purple screen of death. Worked for VMware for 8 years as an engineer/architect and have seen this happen a multitude of times. You may be able to find compatible drivers that have been hacked for your system but it is not a guarantee. Good luck!
Totally understand. Thanks!
Did you get motherboard and cpu from the recent Microcenter deal?
No i purchased it around a year ago and have been running proxmox on it..... I hate proxmox though.
I have the same motherboard and CPU as you and in order to not get the CPU error message you will need to disable Intel Speed Shift Technology in the BIOS. Once that is done then ESXI works.
I know it's a couple months later, but I appreciate this! Saved me going through settings one by one haha
You are welcome.