Nested Hypver-V on top of ESXi 5.5

[oudmaster]

Hi,

for testing purpose, I need to install Hyper-V on top of my testing ESXi 5.5 server.

However, I get this error:

my hardware server is Dell T410 X5650

is there a way to fix solve this ?

I am trying on Windows Server 2016 Datacenter.

[AmeenMunaff · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I think editing the VMX file and changing the CPU settings should help.

Run a Hyper-V server on an ESXi VM (nested virtualization)

Let me know if it works. Thank you!

[MikeStoica]

You need to edit the VMX file of the VM in order to have HyperV on ESXi. https://www.derekseaman.com/2014/06/nesting-hyper-v-2012-r2-esxi-5-5.html

On ESXi 6.5 it's easier to do that.

[oudmaster]

Thank you guys for your links, Hyper-V is installed now

systeminfo give me the following:

Hyper-V Requirements:      VM Monitor Mode Extensions: Yes

                                              Virtualization Enabled In Firmware: Yes

                                              Second Level Address Translation: Yes

                                              Data Execution Prevention Available: Yes

however when I start a VM, I get the following error:

Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service is started.

I am trying to find a solution in the internet for this issue, but if you know the solution, please help me.

thanks,

[MikeStoica]

You did all the VMX changes?

Also, did you enabled the CPU/MMU Virtualization on the HyperV virtual machine?

[oudmaster]

Yes I did the changes as per the links, and Hyper-V got installed on top of ESXi

but the latest error appears when I wanted to start a VM inside Hyper-V

[Dave_the_Wave]

You're going to get a lot of weird stuff happening when you nest like this.

It's like winrar splitting an .iso and then zipping that up for mega.

Just because it allows for it, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

If this is for a home lab, I would suggest that you go with a newer ESXi at least.

And if your hardware can't use anything above 5.5, all I can say is that 5.5 is really old. It would be like wondering why something isn't working in Xp.

[MikeStoica]

I suppose you did also try to restart the hyper-v host?

[bluefirestorm]

If you have not seen/read this document, Running Nested VMs , I recommend that you do. It was written by a VMware engineer. Too bad he no longer works for VMware so this document has not been updated and has become stale. But nevertheless, it provides a good understanding about nested virtualisation with VMware products.

From the same document,

Hyper-V R4 requires virtual hardware version 11 or greater.  Under older virtual hardware versions, Hyper-V R4 will fail with the following error:

Hypervisor launch failed; The hypervisor was unable to initialize successfully (phase 0x2), and was not started.  This initialization failure may be

As ESXi 5.5 can only support up to virtual hardware version 10, it looks like you are hitting into that brick wall.

So you could either use ESXi 6.0 instead of ESXi 5.5 or use an earlier version of Hyper-V (perhaps from Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2).

[oudmaster]

Thank you Guys for your response.

I will manage then to upgrade my ESXi to 6.5