Issue/Introduction

This article helps troubleshoot ZSphere initialization or host addition failures caused by virtualization not being enabled.

Symptoms

• Adding a host through the initialization wizard fails, or adding a host reports a virtualization-related error.
• Adding a host in a nested virtualization environment fails and requires CPU passthrough or nested virtualization to be enabled.

Environment

• Product: ZVF
• Version: 4.10.x
• Component: ZSphere
• Affected object: add host
• Scenario: For host and hardware issues, confirm the current version, deployment type, storage type, and operation timeline.

Possible causes

• Intel VT-x or VMX, AMD SVM, or VT-d or IOMMU is not enabled in the physical server BIOS.
• In a nested virtualization deployment, the outer virtual machine does not have CPU passthrough enabled or does not expose hardware virtualization capabilities.
• The kvm_intel or kvm_amd kernel module does not load normally.

Resolution

Perform the following checks in order, and record the affected object, occurrence time, complete error message, and current status.

1. Run lscpu or grep /proc/cpuinfo on the host to confirm that the vmx or svm flag is present.
2. Enter the BIOS, enable virtualization and VT-d or IOMMU, save the configuration, and cold-restart the server.
3. For a nested environment, enable CPU passthrough or nested virtualization on the outer virtualization platform.
4. Before adding the host again, confirm that the kvm_intel or kvm_amd module can load normally.

Remediation

1. On the physical server, enter the BIOS, enable CPU virtualization and VT-d or IOMMU, save the configuration, and cold-restart the server.
2. In a nested deployment, enable CPU passthrough or nested virtualization on the outer platform before adding the host again.

Verification

• The host recognizes the vmx or svm virtualization flag, and the kvm_intel or kvm_amd module loads normally.
• The host can be added successfully to the ZSphere cluster.