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epretorious2
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Installing ESXi 7U3 on VirtualBox 6.1.38

Hello, All!

I'm having difficulty creating an ESXi 7U3 vm inside of VirtualBox 6.1.38:

  1. When I provision a single vCPU for the guest: The ESXi installer complains "No network adapters were detected...". (See attached screenshot)

    I've found others who have experienced the "No network adapters were detected..." error. And I've followed the recommended solution here. i.e., select Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM) as the Adapter Type and Allow All for the Promiscuous ModeBut this did not work for me.
    .
  2. When I provision more than one vCPU for the guest: The installation process halts with a PSoD and complains "AP 1 is incompatible with BSP; cannot start... No variable MTRRs; assuming ESX is running in a vm." (See attached screenshot)

    I've found others who have experienced the "AP 1 is incompatible with BSP; cannot start..." PSoD. But not found a workaround for virtualizing ESXi on a desktop system with a desktop CPU (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U).

Is there something that I've overlooked? Is there a workaround for creating an ESXi vm inside of VirtualBox on a desktop system?

TIA,
Eric P.
Reno, Nevada

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epretorious2
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For reference: Screenshots of the settings...

HTH,
Eric P.
Reno, Nevada

epretorious2
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I do not believe that nested virtualization is possible using VirtualBox on an Intel desktop CPU (e.g., Intel Core i7-8550U)!

On Stackoverflow, I found a thread from a few years ago ("Virtualbox enable nested vtx/amd-v greyed out") with links to two separate forum posts that address this subject:

First: Nested VT-x/AMD-V not working 
Second:  Nested virtualization/AMD-V in the guest: Success stories (and failures)

Both are a few years old. But both seem pretty definitive - Though it is still possible to enable nested VT-x/AMD-V on my Intel Core i7-8550U using this workaround (See attached screenshot):

$ VBoxManage modifyvm <VirtualMachineName> --nested-hw-virt on

 But that doesn't mean that it works - It just means that it's "enabled".

YMMV,
Eric P.
Reno, Nevada

epretorious2
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Thoughts? Suggestions?

Eric P.
Reno, Nevada