Can't boot VM (napp-it) after upgrading ESXI from 6.0 u3 to 6.7 u3

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helsyeah

Active Member
Aug 22, 2015
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I'm in the process of upgrading my ESX hosts from 6.0 u3 up to 6.7 u3.

I did one host (X10SRH) that is running a NAPP-IT vm (from OVA) that has a IBM HBA passed through and had no issues.

I then did my other host (SM X10SRL + E2630 V4) with my main NAPP-IT VM that has a DELL HBA passed through and now that VM won't boot.

It gives an error about virtual nested paging not being compatible with PCI Passthrough.

I took some stabs to try to debug:

  • I've ensured that "Expose Hardware Assisted Virtualization to the Guest" is unchecked along with adding vhv.enabled = "FALSE" to the vmx file.
  • I've also tried enabling "Expose Hardware Assisted Virtualization to the Guest" and adding vhv.allowPassthru = "TRUE" without luck.

I can revert back to ESXI 6.0 and rebuild the napp-it VM I guess, but i'm looking for more options!
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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What happens if you try to deploy a new ova template and add the pass-through device then in a second step.
 

helsyeah

Active Member
Aug 22, 2015
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Great question! I assume that doesn't make changes to the zpools by doing that (I'd like to not lose them!)?
 

helsyeah

Active Member
Aug 22, 2015
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I imported the latest napp-it ESXI 6.7 OVA, reserve the memory and added the DELL HBA to the VM (after removing it from the old VM) and I get the same error:

Code:
The virtual machine cannot be powered on because virtual nested paging is not compatible with PCI passthru. To power on the VM either disable VHV or remove the passthru device(s). If you wish to try this experimentally you can add vhv.allowPassthru=TRUE to your virtual machines config settings.
New VM CPU settings:

VMCPUSETTINGS.PNG
 

helsyeah

Active Member
Aug 22, 2015
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It turns out I can't add ANY PCI devices to the napp-it vms. I tested adding to another CentOS vm on vm hardware version 7 and that worked. I then tested a Windows VM on version 10 hardware and that also does NOT work.

It seems like I have an odd host configuration that is causing the issue.

EDIT: I backed up the Centos VM and upgraded the VM hardware to 11 (ESX 6.0) and now that VM fails to boot with a PCI device added as passthrough...

EDIT2: I performed a clean install of ESXI 6.7 u3, re-added on of the VMs at hardware version 11 and passthrough worked. There appears to be something busted with the 6.0 confiugration that was upgraded. I'll be doing a compare between the clean configuration and the old one to see if anything stands out.
 
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