During the installation of ESXi 6.0, the following error message is reported: Hardware Virtualization is not a feature of the CPU, or is not enabled in the BIOS. Which condition would generate this…

ESXi 6.0 mandates LAHF/SAHF (Load AH from Flags/Store AH into Flags) support in 64-bit mode as part of its core hardware virtualization requirements. When this CPU feature is absent or not enabled, the ESXi installer cannot confirm the required virtualization capability and reports the hardware virtualization error, halting installation. This check is explicitly listed among the mandatory CPU prerequisites in VMware's ESXi 6.0 hardware compatibility documentation.

NX/XD (No Execute/Execute Disable) being disabled produces its own distinct error about the NX/XD bit, not the hardware virtualization message.

SSE3 is not a BIOS-configurable virtualization prerequisite for ESXi 6.0 and its absence does not generate the hardware virtualization error.

Hyperthreading is not a required ESXi feature; disabling it in the BIOS does not produce the hardware virtualization error.