I spent all yesterday afternoon trying to answer the question can you run a virtual machine inside a virtual machine?
To answer this question I downloaded Vmware Player and the open source Virtualbox and started ‘playing’. After a couple of hours I came up with the following.
1. Running a virtual machine (either Linux or Windows) using Vmware Player inside Vmware Player is a non starter as Vmware do not support this. I tried and got internal monitor errors everytime and then a system crash.
2. Next I tried to run a VMware Player virtual machine inside Linux Mint 11 which was hosted on Virtualbox. Nope it didn’t like this either as the virtual machine started, got passed the BIOS and then nothing. Had the same issue with Windows 7.
3. Time to keep going so next I tried to run a Virtualbox virtual machine inside Virtualbox. Virtualbox spat out the dummy once you got passed the BIOS. The screen would freeze up and then nothing. Again I had the same results on both Windows 7 and Linux Mint 11. I had heard that if you run different versions of Virtualbox you might get it to work so I tried that too. Again Virtualbox was not playing.
4. Finally I tried running a Virtualbox virtual machine inside VMWare Player. This configuration got as far as loading the kernel and then hung. Further research indicated that you can load a different kernel which ‘might’ work. I didn’t try this.
So to answer the question, no you can’t run a virtual machine inside a virtual machine (as long as you are using either Vmware Player or Virtualbox). I have not tried the other virtual software options on the market yet.
But now I will ask another question. Even if you could why would you want to?
About the Author
Hi I’m Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows, Mac and Linux based IT Support to small businesses in Stirling, Alloa and Falkirk.
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Yes, you can run VirtualMachine inside VirtualMachine, but you have to have first one use VT/x and second one (the one inside) to NOT use VT/x – you need to switch it to use emulation instead of Virtualization.
VirtualBox inside VirtualBox is possible, I’ve done it, but it requires some tweaking for the machine configuration file inside VirtualMachine.
I found running a Windows 7 SP1 32 bit VM under VirtualBox in an Azure VM Server (2016) worked very well once patched. The Windows 7 was SP1 but ran poorly and froze often. I couldn’t even get it to even patch itself. When I installed IE 11 it seemed to patch enough to run perfectly. – Very reliable.
I set this up because I needed to sftp files off a Jumpbox I could only reach while VPNed to, and the VPN cut off all other network (so if I did it to the Server I’d lose RDP and control).
‘Why would you want to?’
To test Linux-based VM ware (QEMU) on my Windows 7 laptop. ;) Belated thanks for the post. Saved me some time.
To answer your rhetorical question, “why would you want to?” The answer, for me, is that I run Linux as my host OS, with Windows in a guest for debugging windows-specific issues on my project. I just started using Vagrant to automate provisioning of a VM for my project. I want to test it on Windows to make sure my Vagrant config will work for my fellow developers using their OS of choice.
Just wanted to let you know, I actually was able to install Fedora 14 on VirtualBox, inside a Windows XP Virtual Machine with VMWare Workstation. I have not tried VirtualBox inside another VirtualBox though. But, I was able to to VB inside VMw.
It?s going to be ending of mine day, except before finish I am reading this wonderful piece of writing to improve my know-how.