VMware Communities
NandishNM
Contributor
Contributor

VM inside a VM?

Hi,

Can we setup a Vitrtual Machine inside a Virtual Machine?

Tags (3)
Reply
0 Kudos
18 Replies
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

I've heard of people setting up ESXi environments within VMware Workstation VM's. You best have a seriously powerful system before you go and try that though. Personally, I don't see much point to going that route, except maybe to demo ESXi with your laptop at a customer location. If you're looking to set up a virtual environment, there are better ways to do it.

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

I often use Workstation inside a Workstation or ESX VM ... pretty useful for me ...

read jmattson s document on running VMs inside VMs

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8970




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

Having a Workstation VM installed within a Workstation VM makes about as much sense to me as building a house inside your living room...

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
NandishNM
Contributor
Contributor

My requirement is something like this

We have a VM with W2K3 as OS running on ESX base server, now we need to configure a windows 7 VM inside that.

Reply
0 Kudos
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

Why??? Why make a Windows 7 VM within a Win 2003 Server installation that's on an ESX host? It's going to be far more resource efficient to just make a Windows 7 VM on the ESX host. Especially if you're running ESX/ESXi 4.

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
NandishNM
Contributor
Contributor

Actually i have 4 VMs running on the base ESX and all the space is allocated to them, now we need to install windows 7 for testing some application which would only be a test bed.

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

While it's certainly possible to run nestled VM's and it's a great way to preform proof of concept in some cases nonetheless I don't consider it piratical if the Host VM is a Production VM and if you just need to do some testing on Windows 7 it may be more practical to do it on another physical computer under VMware Player. It certainly will be faster in all respects to deal with and run much better as a standalone VM vs a nestled VM. I think overall you'd spend less time in the total process doing it in this manner vs nestled.

Reply
0 Kudos
PaulSvirin
Expert
Expert

Why not... but this is OK fur studying purposes when you do not have sufficient amount of hardware.

You can run ESX or ESXi in Workstation, maybe - for 2.0.2 - in Server.

But this is not an idea for industrial usage.

---

iSCSI SAN software

--- iSCSI SAN software http://www.starwindsoftware.com
Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Having a Workstation VM installed within a Workstation VM makes about as much sense to me as building a house inside your living room...

One reason I do that is for example development of LiveCDs with VMware Workstation.

Being able to test those LiveCDs or USB-sticks inside a VM is great - it safes a lot of time ...




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

Just running a VM under Workstation is like building a house inside your living room.

Running a VM inside a VM under Workstation is like building a house inside the house that's inside your living room.

Though many people seem to find the former to be quite useful, there are only a few people interested in the latter. Maybe it's because the houses keep getting smaller.

Reply
0 Kudos
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

Using VM's built within the Workstation product for testing is the way I do things too. BUT, I won't install VM Workstation within a VM that's already esisting under VMware Workstation on my host system. I've used the Workstation product for years to test things like software deployment tasks without having to risk an end user's system (or my own). I've also used it to test things like PXE/WinPE booting for imaging to ensure the process is running correctly on the source server.

Still, I won't run any production servers within a VM that's on the Workstation product. I'll use ESXi for that. Right tools for the job. I also won't build another ESXi host within a VM that's already on my ESXi host. If I need additional ESXi hosts, I'll allocate additional hardware resources to do the job.

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

I found that virtual hardware to test things is so much cheaper then real hardware Smiley Wink

Sure you are right - from performance point of view it makes no sense to run a VM inside a VM.

It only makes sense when you have to test the VM-platforms itself - like running ESX in ESX to test vMotion setups or like in my case LiveCDs with Workstation




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

I performed a POC/POT on some pretty aged hardware before... It was enough to run ESXi and show how things would function and what it could do. It was with the 3.5 release, so if ESXi 4 was installed on it, even more could be done. Without thin provisioning, the host ran out of storage space pretty fast.

For things like LiveCD OS's, that can be done under the first virtualization layer. Why put another virtual layer between it yet again?

Maybe I'm spoiled but even my 2-1/2 year old workstation has more than enough power to do what I ask of it for the VMware Workstation product. It will be even better after I install the processor upgrades (planned for this weekend)... Going from a pair of E5160's to E5345 Xeon's... More cores, more speed, newer version, etc...

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

For things like LiveCD OS's, that can be done under the first virtualization layer.

I totally agree with this and I've been building/testing Live OS CD's for many years under Workstation and have never had a need to test using nestled VM's.

Why put another virtual layer between it yet again?

I wold like to know why he doesn't do it just under a normal VM and why he needs to do it under a nestled VM as doing it that way doesn't make sense without a reasonable explanation.

Reply
0 Kudos
golddiggie
Champion
Champion

Glad to see I'm not alone in my thinking/thought process... I prefer to follow the KISS methodology as often as possible... You know Keep It Simple S***head... :smileyshocked:

VCP4

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

about the LiveCDs ...

I make LiveCDs that have VMware Workstation or VMplayer installed.

To test functionality of this LiveCDs I must test if they are really able to start a VM.

So I then have a VM in a VM.

At thetimes of Workstation 4.5 and 5 I always had to test those CDs on real metal.

Since version 6 I cando those tests in a VM.

That has made things much easier Smiley Wink




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

That makes sense and is a practical use, thanks for the explanation.

Reply
0 Kudos
VaemonGuy
Contributor
Contributor

i do that for test reason.

not a lot of people have the luck to run server level hardware equitments. but they need to test ESX/ESXi. that workstation is the answer. but ESX4 has better compatability in PC hardware. i have just successfully installed my ESX on two Asus P5B-E boxes. and they run like a charm. that was when i moved my ESX out of workstation VM.

thanks.

the best virtualzation blog in chinese http://vaemon.com 虛擬先生

Reply
0 Kudos