NetWitness Precheck - Appliance upgrade fails when AVX OR VMX CPU flags are disabled in 12.4 and above

Issue

The Netwitness appliance upgrade fails when AVX or VMX CPU flags are disabled. These CPU flags are required by MongoDB.

Note : All NetWitness Hardware (Series 5 and Series 6) appliances support the AVX and VMX flags and the flags will be available by default.

Resolution

AVX or VMX flags are required for MongoDB to work correctly.

The following is how to check if the AVX or VMX CPU flags are enabled in your Netwitness appliance/virtual machine. Example Output:


 If these flags or not seen in your device, then it could mean that an unsupported CPUs is being used.

When using a virtual environment, check if it has any of the supported CPUs available as given in the Advanced Vector Extensions - Wikipedia link below. These supported CPUs come with the AVX or VMX flags enabled by default. For how to change CPU types within the virtual environment, consult the virtual environment administrator or its documentation.

The links below are provided as-is and for reference only. These sites are outside of NetWitness's control and the customer uses them at their own risk. 

Advanced Vector Extensions - Wikipedia: Supported CPUs
Production Notes — MongoDB Manual: MongoDB 5.0 requires the use of the AVX instruction set

Product Details

RSA Product Set: NetWitness Platform
RSA Product/Service Type: nw-upgarde-precheck tool
RSA Version/Condition: 12.4

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