If EVC setup fails in a cluster containing both AMD and Intel hosts, what is the likely cause?

The correct answer identifies that hosts were not separated by processor type before enabling EVC as the likely cause of EVC setup failure in a cluster with both AMD and Intel hosts.

EVC, or Enhanced vMotion Compatibility, is a feature that allows virtual machines to migrate across hosts in a cluster while ensuring compatibility at the CPU feature level. This requirement means that all hosts within the EVC cluster should ideally use the same processor family or be configured to mask their advanced features in a consistent manner.

When a cluster contains a mixture of AMD and Intel hosts, enabling EVC can result in failure because the distinct architectural differences between AMD and Intel processors can lead to incompatibility issues. If the hosts are not correctly organized by their processor families prior to enabling EVC, the system is unable to establish a baseline of compatible CPU features, leading to failures in setting up EVC.

The consideration of other factors, such as DRS scheduling, passthrough devices, and HA settings, while relevant for cluster configurations, do not directly impact the compatibility considerations that EVC requires between processors of differing architectures.