LKBEN11580: How to find extended cpu information on a linux system.

Symptom

You need to know the CPU possibilities concerning virtualisation.

Cause

Virtualisation needs certain hardware features.

Solution

To find all the hardware features of the CPU you are using on a linux system, you can use the following command:

less /proc/cpuinfo

This command will show you all the information available for every CPU in the system.

Important for virtualisation are some flags.

For intel CPUs you will be looking for vmx. An AMD CPU need svm.

less /proc/cpuinfo|grep svm

or

less /proc/cpuinfo|grep vmx

If you also need encryption and decryption, the eas feature can be usefull.

An example output will look like this:  (per CPU found):

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 23
model           : 1
model name      : AMD Ryzen 7 1700X Eight-Core Processor
stepping        : 1
microcode       : 0x8001126
cpu MHz         : 2069.733
cache size      : 512 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 16
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 8
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl nonstop_tsc cpuid extd_apicid aperfmperf
pni pclmulqdq monitor ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw skinit wdt tce topoext perfctr_core perfctr_nb bpext perfct
r_llc mwaitx cpb hw_pstate sme ssbd sev vmmcall fsgsbase bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 rdseed adx smap clflushopt sha_ni xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves clzero irperf xsaveerptr arat npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save tsc_scale vmcb_clean flushbyasid
decodeassists pausefilter pfthreshold avic v_vmsave_vmload vgif overflow_recov succor smca
bugs            : sysret_ss_attrs null_seg spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass
bogomips        : 7535.66
TLB size        : 2560 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 43 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm hwpstate eff_freq_ro [13] [14]

 

Have fun.

Disclaimer:

About the Author

Author: Wim Peeters - Keskon GmbH & Co. KG

Wim Peeters is electronics engineer with an additional master in IT and over 30 years of experience, including time spent in support, development, consulting, training and database administration. Wim has worked with SQL Server since version 6.5. He has developed in C/C++, Java and C# on Windows and Linux. He writes knowledge base articles to solve IT problems and publishes them on the Lubby Knowledge Platform.

Latest update: 04/07/2022