DaDesktop Nested Virtualization Compatibility

Getting nested virtualisation running smoothly can be a bit of a balancing act at the best of times. Below, we’ve laid out which virtualisation tools work—or work best—in each environment within DaDesktop.

Reach out to us if you’ve got any questions. Keep in mind, some tools aren’t available across all operating systems, for instance Virt Manager.

You can also find more details on using Virt Manager to spin up multiple sandboxed servers and/or desktops.
 

		Intel CPU		AMD CPU
		KVM	LXC	KVM	LXC
Virt-Manager	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	Linux	√	√	√	√
VirtualBox	Windows	√	N/A	X④	N/A
	Linux	√	√②③	X④	√②③
VMware Workstation	Windows	√①	N/A	√	N/A
	Linux	√①	X	√	X

 

Test environment:

Intel CPU Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2673 v3 @ 2.40GHz

AMD CPU Model: AMD EPYC 7502P 32-Core Processor

Window: Windows 10

Linux: Ubuntu 20.04

Virtualbox: 6.1.18

VMware Workstation: 16 Pro, v16.1.1

Comments:

①: Intel VT-X and AMD virtualisation acceleration inside the guest isn’t supported. You’ll need to uncheck the “Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI” option under hardware-processors.

②: The VirtualBox version on the guest must match the VirtualBox DKMS version on the host.

③: Running VirtualBox within LXC clashes with active KVM virtual machines, so you’ll have to stop all KVM instances on the host first.

④: We encountered a soft lockup systemd-udevd error, which caused sluggishness and getting stuck.