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santisaez
Asked: 2010-11-06 04:10:50 +0800 CST

Enable Intel-VT inside of VMware Workstation

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I'm testing Nova Compute from OpenStack project inside of a VMware Workstation v7 virtual machine, and I get this error:

libvirtError: internal error no supported architecture for os type 'hvm'

This is because the VM can't run hardware accelerated Xen VMs (hvm), that is, guest CPU doest not have Intel-VT or AMD-V support. According to VMware, "Running Nested VMs", I can enable this support adding those parameters to ".vmx" file:

guestOS = "vmkernel"
monitor_control.vt32 = "TRUE"
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = "TRUE"

But, it doesn't work, running 'grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo' inside the VM does not report Intel-VT support, also running "kvm-ok" from "cpu-checker" package I get:

# kvm-ok
INFO: Your CPU does not support KVM extensions
KVM acceleration can NOT be used

Can I configure VMware Workstation to run KVM acceleration or Xen HVM? thanks!

virtualization xen kvm-virtualization vmware-workstation libvirt

3 Answers

  1. VMware Workstation 7 doesn't support nested hvm. You should try VMware Workstation 8 or 9.

    Edit the virtual machine and modify the processor options. In the Virtualization engine , check "Virtualize Intel-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI"。

    If you are using VMware Workstation 8, you should also modify the .vmx file of the vm, add a new line : vhv.enable = "TRUE" You can refer to this. http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/bestpractices/nested

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  2. Have you actually read that article you linked to? Its first line is "It is only possible to run nested VMs when the outer VM uses hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) and the inner VM uses classic software virtualization" - yet you're looking for hardware virtualisation support inside the VM!

    As it happens this document is out of date and ESXi 4.x does let you do this.

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  3. You need to have Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in your host's BIOS. It's usually under processor or advanced options.

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