Nested vmware workstation on KVM host

[mortennielsen]

I am trying to run an instance of vmware workstation on top of KVM.

First problem related to "incompatible hypervisor", which I fixed by adding "vmx.allowNested=True" in the .vmx file

This is apparently something I need to put in all my .vmx files.

Question 1: can I set some default value to allow nesting?

Second problem:

When I start a 64 bit virtual machine, I get

"Binary translation is incompatible with long mode on this platform. Long mode will be disabled in this virtual environment and applications requiring long mode will not function properly as a result. See http://vmware.com/info?id=152 for more details."

If I click ok to that I get

"This virtual machine is configured for 64-bit guest operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible.

This host supports Intel VT-x, but the Intel VT-x implementation is incompatible with VMware Workstation.

For more detailed information, see http://vmware.com/info?id=152."

I have tested with KVM on the same virtual machine, and it has no problem running the same type of virtual machine. My test machine a new machine with the debian 8 installer in the "CD" drive,

Question 2:

How can I make this work?

Do you have any hints, links, references, examples or such that might help me?

Versions

- host is debian 8

- virtual machine is also debian 8

- vmware workstation pro 12.5

[wila]

Hi,

As you are using KVM as your outer hypervisor, this is more of a KVM question as a Workstation one.

You can have nested x64 guests in a VMware workstation setup on the host that has a guest running VMware Workstation itself, that actually works quite well.

You can also run guests that have KVM as hypervisor, although admittedly I have not tested that with nested x64 guests (or at least can't remember that I did).

From your error it seems that KVM is capable of presenting a virtual VT-x implementation to its guest, but it does not support everything that is needed for VMware Workstation to be able to run x64 guests when running under KVM.

So the question is if you have control over the VT-x features as presented by KVM.

BTW, there's a special forum for nested virtualisation. (Nested Virtualization ) I'll move this thread over to there as you'll likely find better replies down there.

edit: moved from Workstation Pro to Nested Virtualization

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Wil