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List:       freebsd-current
Subject:    Re: Superpages and VMware ESXi 3.5u4 crashes
From:       Peter Kieser <peter () wingless ! org>
Date:       2009-09-29 16:40:09
Message-ID: 4AC23869.2050601 () wingless ! org
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On 9/24/2009 11:01 PM, Alan Cox wrote:
> Peter Kieser wrote:
>> On 9/24/2009 10:23 PM, Alan Cox wrote:
>>> I would agree that this seems like a bug in ESX. Nonetheless, I'm
>>> curious to know something about our your system. What type of processor
>>> are you using, and in particular is ESX using hardware supported nested
>>> paging?
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Alan
>>>
>>
>> I'm using an AMD Phenom 9950. How would I tell if ESXi is using
>> hardware supported nested paging? Is this something I can tell in
>> FreeBSD?
>
> Ok. Your processor does support nested paging, although you may have to
> explicitly enable it in your BIOS. FreeBSD can't tell whether you're
> using nested paging. Support for nested paging is implemented in the
> hypervisor and is invisible to the guess, so only ESX can tell you if
> it's being used. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with ESX to tell
> you how to determine this.
>
> If you're not currently using nested paging, it's plausible that turning
> it on could make this problem go away. Likewise, if you are currently
> using nested paging, turning it off may help. If nothing else, this
> could help narrow down where the problem lies.
>
> Alan

I do not have the option in my BIOS to enable nested pages. However 
upgrading to ESXi 4.0 made the problem go away. Seems like a pretty 
large bug in VMware. Unfortunately I'm using "unsupported" hardware so 
VMware is unwilling to even look into the bug.

-Peter
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