DaDesktop Nested Virtualisation Compatibility

Getting nested virtualisation to run smoothly can often be a challenge. Here we outline which virtualisation tools are suitable—and which perform best—within the different DaDesktop environments.

Do get in touch with any questions. Note that certain tools are not offered on every operating system, such as Virt Manager.

Additional guidance on using Virt Manager to spin up multiple sandboxed servers and/or desktops can be found here.
 

		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 used:

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

Observations:

①: Intel VT-X and AMD virtualisation acceleration within the guest is unsupported. You must uncheck the “Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI” option in the processor settings.

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

③: Using VirtualBox inside an LXC container conflicts with KVM virtual machines; therefore, all KVM instances on the host must be stopped first.

④: A soft lockup related to systemd-udevd was observed, causing slowdowns and freezes.