I have been trying to set up a lab environment running a couple of ESXi 6.7 hosts under QEMU/KVM. I've spent many hours going through this forum and other sources of info but am stuck on getting a stable/usable environment with a couple of Windows Server VMs.
KVM Host -
- Host CPUs - 2x Xeon E5620 (Verified the CPUs support VT-x with EPT)
- Centos 7.5 - fully updated
- QEMU emulator version 2.12.0 (qemu-kvm-ev-2.12.0-18.el7_6.1.1)
- cat /sys/module/kvm_intel/parameters/nested - Y
- cat /sys/module/kvm_intel/parameters/ept - Y
- cat /sys/module/kvm/parameters/ignore_msrs - Y
ESXi VM created -
virt-install --name esxi67 --ram 8192 --disk path=/virtstore-raid10-hdd/esxi67.qcow2,size=80,bus=sata --cpu host-passthrough --vcpus=8 --os-type linux --os-variant=virtio26 --network bridge=br1,model=e1000 --graphics spice,listen=0.0.0.0,password=password --video qxl --cdrom /var/lib/libvirt/isos/esxi-67.iso --features kvm_hidden=on --machine q35
ESXi host boots and runs and seems stable.
ESXi Nested Host -
- Version - 6.7.0 (Build 8169922)
- Added the following to /etc/vmware/config
- hv.assumeEnabled = "TRUE"
- vmx.allowNested = "TRUE"
- I have two VMs created - one with Server 2012R2 and one with Server 2008R2 - generic settings - 4 CPUs / 4GB RAM
- Added "vmx.allowNested = "TRUE" to both through WebUI
- Both machines will boot - sort of - the Server 2012 install hangs at the boot splash for hours at times - once they boot, they are sort of functional but freeze up constantly
- If I try to enable "
I have spent hours reading forums and trying different combinations of settings but cannot get a stable/usable environment.
Does anyone have any ideas or insights of what I am missing? I think the main issue is that I cannot enable Hardware Virtualization on the nested VMs, but everything should be set up correctly for the Nested VMs to see VT-x/EPT as available on their CPUs.
Sincerely,
Dave Redmore
