VM Advanced Options

When provisioning or reconfiguring HVM virtual machines, the Advanced Options section provides controls for firmware, boot behavior, security, graphics, and virtualization settings. These options are found on the CONFIGURE tab during provisioning or through the Actions > Reconfigure menu on an existing VM.

Note

Most Advanced Options are available at both provisioning and Actions > Reconfigure. A few remain provision-only or reconfigure-only; see the availability table. Changing chipset, firmware, boot, TPM, nested virtualization, graphics, QEMU arguments, or identity options on an existing VM is a cold reconfigure. You do not need to power the VM off first; HPE Morpheus Software powers it off if the change requires a restart, regenerates the configuration, and starts it again.

Changing Advanced Options on an existing VM

  1. Navigate to Provisioning > Instances (or the HVM cluster VM detail page).

  2. Open Actions > Reconfigure.

  3. Expand Advanced Options and change Hardware Compatibility, UEFI, Secure Boot, BIOS Host Mode, Network Boot, TPM, QEMU Arguments, Nested Virtualization, Disable Emulated Graphics, Asset Tag, or the other reconfigure-capable fields in the table below.

  4. Apply the reconfigure. If the change cannot be applied while the VM is running, HPE Morpheus Software powers the VM off, regenerates the definition, and starts it.

Hardware / Chipset

Firmware & Boot

Option

Default

Description

UEFI

Off

Enables UEFI firmware instead of legacy BIOS. Required for Secure Boot and recommended for modern operating systems. Toggling UEFI on an existing VM is a cold reconfigure; confirm the guest disk can boot the new firmware before applying. The VM is powered off automatically if it is running.

Secure Boot

Off

Enables UEFI Secure Boot, which verifies the integrity of the boot chain. Requires UEFI. Enabling Secure Boot without UEFI is rejected. You can enable both in the same reconfigure.

BIOS Host Mode

Off

Passes the physical host’s SMBIOS/DMI data directly into the guest VM instead of using emulated values. When disabled (default), the guest sees the virtualized identity (manufacturer “Morpheus”, product “MVM”, and a generated serial number). When enabled, the guest sees the actual physical server’s SMBIOS data (manufacturer, product name, serial number, BIOS version, etc.) as if it were running directly on the hardware. This is required for software that validates hardware identity through SMBIOS, such as certain enterprise licenses tied to physical serial numbers or hardware-aware monitoring agents.

Network Boot

Off

Enables PXE/network boot for the VM. When enabled, the primary network interface is boot order 1; the root disk and any attached ISO devices follow it in boot order. The selected VM network must reach the DHCP/PXE services used by your environment.

Boot to BIOS/UEFI

Enabled (9.1.0 and later)

Enabled by default for VMs provisioned on 9.1.0 and later. VMs provisioned on earlier versions remain disabled until this option is enabled. When enabled, the VM boots directly into the BIOS/UEFI firmware setup menu on every restart until this option is disabled. Useful for troubleshooting boot issues or changing firmware settings. Reconfigure only.

Boot Delay (seconds)

3

The number of seconds the boot menu waits before auto-selecting the default boot entry. Valid range is 1-30 seconds. Only visible when Boot to BIOS/UEFI is enabled. Available under Provisioning > Advanced Options and Reconfigure > Advanced Options.

Security

Option

Default

Description

TPM

Off

Enables an emulated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) device for the VM using software TPM (swtpm). Required for Windows 11 and other operating systems that mandate TPM 2.0. TPM state is stored on shared storage and is automatically recovered during VM failover.

QEMU & Virtualization

Warning

Use QEMU Arguments with caution. Invalid arguments can prevent the VM from starting. Consult KVM/QEMU documentation for valid options.

CPU Model (Cluster-Level Setting)

The CPU Model determines how the host’s CPU is presented to guest VMs. This is a cluster-level setting configured when creating or editing the cluster, and applies to all VMs in the cluster.

Mode

Description

Host Passthrough (default)

Exposes the exact host CPU model and all its features directly to the guest. Provides maximum performance and access to all CPU instructions (AES-NI, AVX-512, etc.). VMs see the real CPU model name.

Host Model

Uses a CPU model that closely matches the host but is defined by the hypervisor’s CPU compatibility library. Provides good performance while allowing limited heterogeneity between cluster hosts.

Named Model

Specifies an exact CPU model name (e.g., Skylake-Server, EPYC). The guest sees only features defined by that model, regardless of what the host actually supports. Maximum portability.

CPU Compatibility and Migration

The default is Host Passthrough. For a VM without nested virtualization, HPE Morpheus Software marks this CPU definition as migratable. This flag does not establish that every pair of different physical CPU models is compatible; validate live migration between every host model admitted to the cluster.

A Named Model is emitted with exact model matching. Select a model that every source and destination host supports. The product implementation does not automatically select a universal “lowest” CPU model, so do not infer a model from processor age or marketing generation alone.

When nested virtualization is enabled with Host Passthrough, HPE Morpheus Software marks the CPU non-migratable so VMX/SVM features remain exposed. Treat that VM as ineligible for live migration.

See VM Migration & Failover for the mixed-host preflight checks.

ISO and Network Installation

For an interactive ISO installation, add an ISO Virtual Image as described in Virtual Images, provision the HVM VM from that image, and complete the guest installer from the console. After installation, eject the installation media and restart the VM so it boots from its installed disk.

For PXE/network installation, enable Network Boot and select a primary VM network that can reach the environment’s DHCP and PXE services. The primary NIC is placed first in the boot order. After installation, disable Network Boot through Actions > Reconfigure; the root disk then returns to boot order 1.

Important

VM network boot consumes an existing PXE service from a virtual NIC. It is not the HPE Morpheus Software bare-metal discovery and provisioning workflow documented under Boot.

Drivers & Graphics

Option

Default

Description

Attach VirtIO Drivers

Off

Attaches a VirtIO drivers ISO to the VM as a secondary CD-ROM device. Enable this when provisioning Windows guests from an ISO to install VirtIO storage and network drivers during OS setup. See Guest Operating System Notes for the installation procedure. Provision only.

Disable Emulated Graphics

Off

Disables the emulated video/graphics adapter. Use this for headless VMs that do not require console access, such as dedicated appliances or GPU-passthrough workloads where the physical GPU provides the display.

Memory

Option

Default

Description

Huge Pages

Off

Enables huge pages (2 MB) memory backing for the VM. Huge pages reduce TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer) misses and improve memory access performance for memory-intensive workloads such as databases and HPC applications. The host must have sufficient free huge pages allocated. Provision only.

vNUMA Mode

Off

Controls virtual NUMA topology for the VM. See VM Compute Configuration for detailed documentation on vNUMA modes (Off, Auto, Manual).

Identity

Option

Default

Description

Asset Tag

(VM name)

Sets the SMBIOS asset tag visible to the guest operating system. If left blank, the VM name is used. This value can be read inside the guest using tools such as dmidecode and is useful for inventory tracking and automation scripts that need to identify the VM.

Option Availability Summary

Option

Provision

Reconfigure

Hardware Compatibility

Yes

Yes

UEFI

Yes

Yes

Secure Boot

Yes

Yes

BIOS Host Mode

Yes

Yes

Network Boot

Yes

Yes

Boot to BIOS/UEFI

No

Yes

Boot Delay (seconds)

Yes

Yes

TPM

Yes

Yes

QEMU Arguments

Yes

Yes

Nested Virtualization

Yes

Yes

Attach VirtIO Drivers

Yes

No

Disable Emulated Graphics

Yes

Yes

Huge Pages

Yes

No

vNUMA Mode

Yes

Yes

Asset Tag

Yes

Yes