As part of my homelab environment, I am leveraging AMD Ryzen 5 CPUs for the processors. There are a myriad of reasons I went with AMD over Intel (discussion over vBeers at this point), but I have been really happy to this point.
As part of setting up my lab servers, I put everything together and tried to install vSphere 7.0! Come to find out that the virtualization capabilities were not enabled.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.BIOS here I come!!!
I am using a Gigabyte X570UD motherboard in each of the hosts. So, I’ll be running through the BIOS on that platform.
The virtualization functions for AMD Ryzen are provided by the SVM Mode. By enabling SVM Mode, additional CPU capabilities that allow ESXi to do its magic are available. You can check out the gallery below to walk through how to enable on the Gigabyte X570UD motherboard. If you don’t have this specific motherboard, look for the SVM mode in the BIOS.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
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And… with that… I was back in business!
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Ryzen processors are not the traditional processor selection for virtualization environments… but, they are gaining ground. Ryzen seems to be targeted towards desktop processing and gaming needs… which they do well at. But, the clock speed, core availability, and price are really compelling for homelabbers, such as myself. It doesn’t surprise me if Gigabyte didn’t enable the features by default as this is not the targeted usecase… but, I am happy SVM mode is a couple of BIOS menus away!
