An instance of CentOS 8 is not running on a Dell or HP Enterprise level server; however, is running on a VMware Workstation on a Windows 10 laptop presents the [Firmware Bug]: the BIOS has corrupted hw-PMU resources (MSR 38d is 3) message. Every article on the internet suggests live with the message it is harmless. While that maybe the case, there are other CentOS 8 servers running from the same VMware Workstation without this message so a solution must be possible .. and it is!

After a quick comparison of two .vmx files. One that is configured to present the message and the other that does not; there is a difference.  The following two lines must be remnants from an export from another source (a conversion from a ProxMox or VMware ESXi server) to this VMware Workstation.  Or more likely, I enabled these “features” in VMware Workstation.

vvtd.enable = "TRUE"
vpmc.enable = "TRUE"

Remove those two lines either by manually editing the .vmx file or via the GUI and reboot.  The message no longer presents itself. :)

The following meanings for the following values.

• “Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI”: vhv.enable = "TRUE"
• “Virtualize CPU performance counters”: vpmc.enable = "TRUE"
• “Virtualize IOMMU (IO memory manament unit): vvtd.enable = "TRUE"