Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) Requirements

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We will discuss the vMotion runtime error The target host does not support the virtual machine’s current hardware requirements. This issue occurs when we are trying to migrate or move any virtual machine from one cluster to another cluster at the same datacenter and vCenter Server.

The exact error message is similar to:

The Target Host Does Not Support The Virtual Machine’s Current Hardware Requirements in vSphere console.

To resolve CPU incompatibilities, use a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled. See KB article 1003212.
MOVBE is unsupported.
FMA3 is unsupported.
CPUID faulting is not supported.
Supervisor Mode Execution Protection (SMEP) is unsupported.
RDRAND is unsupported.
Instructions to read and write FS and GS base registers at any privilege level are unsupported.
Half-precision conversion instructions (F16C) are unsupported.
Fast string operations (Enhanced REP MOVSB/STOSB) are unsupported.

How to resolve CPU incompatibilities, use a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled

What does it means?

EVC stands for Enhanced vMotion Compatibility. This is a vCenter cluster feature that simplifies vMotion compatibility issues across CPU generations. It means if your hosts have different CPU families, EVC enabled cluster prompt you an option to choose one of many options that are a predefined baseline across the cluster. This feature ensures CPU compatibility across the hosts for vMotion.

For more details on it refer to VMware KB article Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support(1003212). They have described all the possible baseline CPU family for AMD and Intel processors that are widely used on ESXi hypervisor.

If this is the issue, By setting the CPU baseline across the hosts, It will resolve your vMotion error.

Another option is before migrating VMs from the source cluster, shut it down, or powered it off. Then try to migrate it to the destination cluster. This time it will not show any such errors.

You can ignore other errors apart from CPU incompatibility error, if the above steps does not fix your problem. Please connect with VMware or higher level of support.

How To Enable EVC in a Cluster?

EVC Requirements for Hosts

You should power off all the VMs in the cluster to avoid any conflict.
Only ESXi version 5.5 or later is supported.
The host must be connected to the vCenter Server.
Single CPU vendor likes AMD or Intel.
Configure the network adapter for vMotion to all hosts.

To enable EVC mode across the cluster, follow below steps:

Select a cluster in the vSphere inventory.
Power off all the virtual machines on the hosts with feature sets greater than the EVC mode.
Click the Configure tab, select VMware EVC, and click Edit.
Enable EVC for the CPU vendor and feature set appropriate for the hosts in the cluster, and click OK.
Power on the virtual machines in the cluster to apply the EVC.

If you want also can check EVC Modes for Virtual Machines by following below steps:

Select a cluster or a host in the inventory.
Look for the Virtual Machines tab in the cluster/host.
If the EVC Mode column does not appear, right-click any column title, select Show/Hide Columns, and select EVC Mode.
The EVC modes of all running or suspended virtual machines appear in the EVC Mode column.
Powered off virtual machines and virtual machines that are not in EVC clusters show N/A as the EVC mode.

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