ESXi 8.0 includes an enhanced virtual topology feature.

The virtual topology of a VM enables optimization within GOS for placement and load balancing. Selecting an accurate virtual topology that aligns with the underlying physical topology of the host where the VM is running is crucial for application performance.

ESXi 8.0 automatically selects optimal coresPerSocket for a VM and optimal virtual L3 size. It also includes a new virtual motherboard layout to expose NUMA for virtual devices and vNUMA topology when CPU hotplug is enabled.
Note: Enhanced virtual topology is only available on ESXi 8.0. VMs must have hardware version 20 or later to use this feature.

Procedure

  1. To manually configure VM topology, first browse to the VM.
  2. Select VM Options. Under CPU Topology you can adjust Cores per socket and NUMA nodes.
    In order to enable a hot-added CPU to a new NUMA node, add numa.allowHotadd under advanced configuration options. Then you can manually add a NUMA configuration.
    Note: By default, a VM with CPU hotplug enabled will enforce single NUMA node topology. Any hot-added CPUs go to the single NUMA node.
  3. Under Device Assignment you can also assign a device to a virtual NUMA node, or leave it unassigned.

Results

This newly configured topology is displayed as Manual in the existing VM topology section. Without manual configuration, this tab is displayed as assigned at power on.