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VMware ESXi 8 has dropped the compatibility with a lot of old CPU models, as describiled in Broadcom’s article 318697 (CPU Support Deprecation and Discontinuation In vSphere Releases).

The result if the following error message if you try to install ESXi 8 on a server with an unsupported CPU:

Note that VMware KB 82794 is the same Broadcoam’s article as before.

The discontinued list of CPU in VMware vSphere 8 is very huge and include both Intel and AMD models.

VMware vSphere 8.0x Intel CPU Support Discontinued List:

VCG CPU Series NameCPU InfoRaw CPUIDsCode Name
Intel Xeon E3-1200 Series6.2A0x000206A0Intel Xeon E3 (Sandy Bridge)
Intel Xeon E3-1100 Series6.2A0x000206A0Intel Xeon E3 (Sandy Bridge)
Intel Xeon E5-1600 Series6.2D0x000206D0SandyBridge-EP WS
Intel Xeon E5-2600 Series6.2D0x000206D0SandyBridge-EP 2S
Intel Xeon E5-1400 Series6.2D0x000206D0SandyBridge-EN
Intel Xeon E5-4600 Series6.2D0x000206D0SandyBridge-EP 4S
Intel Xeon E5-2400 Series6.2D0x000206D0SandyBridge-EN
Intel i7-3600-QE6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT
Intel Xeon E3-1200-v2 Series6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT
Intel i7-3500-LE/UE6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT
Intel i3-3200 Series6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT
Intel Pentium B925C    6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT- Gladden
Intel Xeon E3-1100-C-v2 Series6.3A0x000306A0IvyBridge-DT- Gladden
Intel Xeon E5-1600-v2 Series6.3E0x000306E0IvyBridge EP
Intel Xeon E5-2600-v2 Series6.3E0x000306E0IvyBridge EP
Intel Xeon E5-2400-v2 Series6.3E0x000306E0IvyBridge-EN
Intel Xeon E5-1400-v2 Series6.3E0x000306E0IvyBridge-EN
Intel Xeon E5-4600-v2 Series6.3E0x000306E0IvyBridge-EP 4S
Intel Xeon E7-8800/4800/2800-v26.3E0x000306E0   IvyBridge-EX
Intel i7-4700-EQ Series6.3C0x000306C0Haswell-DT
Intel Xeon E3-1200-v3 Series6.3C0x000306C0Haswell-DT
Intel i5-4500-TE Series6.3C0x000306C0Haswell-DT
Intel i3-4300 Series6.3C0x000306C0Haswell-DT
Intel Xeon E5-1600-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Haswell-EP
Intel Xeon E5-2600-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Haswell-EP
Intel Xeon E5-1400-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Haswell-EN
Intel Xeon E5-2400-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Haswell-EN
Intel Xeon E5-4600-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Haswell-EP
Intel Xeon E7-8800/4800-v3 Series6.3F0x000306F0Intel Haswell-EX
Intel Xeon E3-1200-v4 Series6.470x00040670Broadwell-DT
Intel Core i7-5700EQ6.470x00040670Broadwell-H
Intel Atom C2700 Series6.4D0x000406D0Intel Avoton 8c
Intel Atom C2300 Series6.4D0x000406D0Intel Avoton 2c
Intel Atom C2500 Series6.4D0x000406D0Intel Avoton 4c

VMware vSphere 8.0x AMD CPU Support Discontinued List:

VCG CPU Series NameCPU InfoRaw CPUIDsCode Name
AMD Opteron 6200 Series15.010x00600F10Interlagos BullDozer G34
AMD Opteron 4200 Series15.010x00600F10Valencia BullDozer C32
AMD Opteron 3200 Series15.010x00600F10Zurich AM3
AMD Opteron 4300 Series15.020x00600F20Piledriver-C32 (seoul)
AMD Opteron 3300 Series15.020x00600F20Piledriver-AM3 (Dehli)
AMD Opteron 6300 Series15.020x00600F20PileDriver-G34 (Abu Dhabi)
AMD Opteron X2250 Series15.300x00630F00Steamroller-Berlin
AMD Opteron X1250 Series15.300x00630F00Steamroller-Berlin
AMD Opteron X1100 Series16.000x00700F00Kyoto
AMD Opteron X2100 Series16.000x00700F00Kyoto

And the list does not includes all the desktop/laptop CPU models.

If your purpose is to install ESXi 8 in a lab environment, how can you skip the CPU check step?

To bypass this error in the boot, do as follows:

  • Reboot into boot media again
  • After the ESXi boot menu when the “Loading ESXi Installer” is starting click SHIFT+O within 5 seconds to add boot options.
  • Type “ allowLegacyCPU=true” behind the line. Like this:
<ENTER: Apply options and boot>
> runweasel cdromBoot allowLegacyCPU=true
  • Click ENTER and continue installation as normal.

Note that you may still have issues.

 ESXi 8.0 Update 2 requires CPU processors that support XSAVE instruction or you will not be able to upgrade and means you will hardware with a minimum of an Intel Sandy Bridge or AMD Bulldozer processor or later.

For an interactive installation of ESXi, the additional acknowledgment is not an issue but for an automated installation of ESXi using Kickstart, this can be a problem since you are still required to manually hit enter before the installation actually begins.

There a workaround for this and is describe in this William Lam’s article:

Yes and there are actually a couple of options that can be passed into ESXi Kickstart script depending on which pre-check messages you would like ignored for automated installations.

  • –ignoreprereqwarnings – Will ignore warning messages
  • –ignoreprereqerrors – Will ignore error messages
  • –forceunsupportedinstall – Will ignore error/warning messages for deprecated CPUs

Also remember that next vSphere version (9.0) will drop other CPU familes:

Intel Skylake CPUs: Intel has transitioned the Skylake generation of processors into their ESU (End of Servicing Update) / EOSL (End of Servicing Lifetime) phase. This includes the server class Xeon- Scalable Processors (SP) series, by December 31, 2023. As a result, VMware is planning to discontinue support of the Intel Skylake family processors in the future vSphere major release after 8.0.x.  

VCG CPU Series Name    CPU InfoRaw CPUIDsCode NamevSphere 8.0.x lineFuture Major
vSphere Release
Xeon D-1500 Series6.560x00050660Broadwell-DEDeprecatedDiscontinued
Xeon E3-1200-V5 Series;
Xeon E3-1500-V5 Series
6.5E.30x000506E3Skylake SDeprecatedDiscontinued
Xeon E5-2600-V4 Series;
Xeon E5-1600-V4 Series
6.4F0x000406F0Broadwell-EPDeprecatedDiscontinued
Xeon E5-4600-V4 Series6.4F0x000406F0Broadwell-EPDeprecatedDiscontinued
Xeon E7-8800/4800-V4 Series   6.4F0x000406F0Broadwell-EPDeprecatedDiscontinued
Xeon E3-1200-v6 Series6.9E.90x000906E9Kabylake-SDeprecated*Discontinued
Intel Xeon Platinum 8100,
Gold 6100/5100, Silver 4100,
Bronze 3100 (Skylake-SP) Series
6.55.40x00050654Skylake-SPDeprecated*Discontinued
Xeon D-2100 Series6.55.40x00050654Skylake-DDeprecated*Discontinued
Xeon W-2100 Series6.55.40x00050654Skylake-WDeprecated*Discontinued


Note:
 *Deprecated notice was only implemented in 8.0.U2 due to Intel’s recent announcement for Skylake EOS/EOL in Dec 2022.

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