VMWARE Workstation nested inside PVE Windows host

Manuel74

Active Member
Apr 24, 2019
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Hi everybody,

I'm trying to run VMWARE Workstation 15 (but tried also VMWare Player 12) inside a Windows 10 64 bit host on PVE 5.2 server.

What I've done until now:

Enabled Nested Virtualization as stated in Proxmox wiki
I was able to install VMWARE Workstation but then got the following error:

VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation

Was able to override this error removing hypervisor support from VM configuration

args: -hypervisor

So the CPU inside Windows 10 64 bit VM is seen as follow:

Coreinfo.exe -v

Coreinfo v3.31 - Dump information on system CPU and memory topology
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz
Intel64 Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
Microcode signature: 00000001
HYPERVISOR - Hypervisor is present
VMX * Supports Intel hardware-assisted virtualization
EPT * Supports Intel extended page tables (SLAT)


VMWARE Virtual Machine start, but got this error from VMWARE Workstation:

Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported on this platform.


I've also tried a different /etc/modprobe.d/kvm-intel.conf configuration with this option:
options kvm ignore_msrs=1

options kvm_intel nested=y ept=y

But with no luck, VMWARE continue to said that Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported

Current VM configuration:

bootdisk: ide0
cores: 4
cpu: host
args: -cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor
ide0: local-lvm:vm-130-disk-1,cache=writeback,size=200G
memory: 32764
name: W10-Server
net0: e1000=9A:42:9C:56:DC:FC,bridge=vmbr0
numa: 0
onboot: 1
ostype: win10
scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci
smbios1: uuid=eb2bf59f-9ddf-494e-ac4f-485920434b09
sockets: 1
usb0: host=1-10
virtio2: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-HGST_HDN726060ALE614_NCGTRA3S,size=5860522584K
virtio4: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST10000NM0086-2AA101_ZA28XEGM,size=9314G
virtio5: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_750GB_S1DMNEAD803320D,size=732574584K​


Do you have any idea on how to make it work ?

thanks
Manuel
 
Hi everybody,

I'm trying to run VMWARE Workstation 15 (but tried also VMWare Player 12) inside a Windows 10 64 bit host on PVE 5.2 server.

What I've done until now:

Enabled Nested Virtualization as stated in Proxmox wiki
I was able to install VMWARE Workstation but then got the following error:

VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation

Was able to override this error removing hypervisor support from VM configuration

args: -hypervisor
Hello,

Have You tried disable Hyper-V via Programms?

I think the problem is that in Args there is -hypervisor
 
Hello,

Have You tried disable Hyper-V via Programms?

I think the problem is that in Args there is -hypervisor

Yes, I've tried to disable HyperV in all the way:
- the Hyper-V is not present in windows feature
- launched the command : bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
- Credential guard is disabled
- "Windows Defender Security Center" > "Device Security" > "Core isolation" "Memory integrity" is disabled

The only way in which VMWARE allow me to start a VM is with the Args -Hypervisor ...

regards
Emanuele
 
Are you suggesting me to use Hyper-V for nested virtualization inside Windows, instead of VMWARE ?
I want to point out, that you need to also activate nesting on the virtual Windows VM too.
 
I want to point out, that you need to also activate nesting on the virtual Windows VM too.

But if I enable HyperV in Windows VM to support Nested Virtualization, then VMWARE Workstation won't start since it will give the error:
"VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation."
 
But if I enable HyperV in Windows VM to support Nested Virtualization, then VMWARE Workstation won't start since it will give the error:
"VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation."

Hello Manuel74,

did you figure out where was problem in your case? I have the same problem now...

Thank you,
Michal
 
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We have the same problem:
Proxmox VE 6.2 on an Intel Server
Windows Server 2019 VM on Proxmox
VMware Workstation 15 Pro (15.5.6)
VMware VMs does not start, error: VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation.
We tried various suggested solutions, nothing worked so far.
 
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Any updates? :)

Facing the same isse with VMware Workstation Pro 16 inside a Windows 10 guest VM running in ProxMox Virtual Environment 6.3-2

I have tryd running Hyper V VMs and VirtualBox VMs inside the sam Windows guest VM. This works perfectly.

But it seems like VMware Workstation does not appreciate ProxMox guest VMs

1613482693245.png
 
I have had success using the following settings in the arg line, with workstation 15 and proxmox 6.2-4. I haven't tested performance yet

-cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor

Full conf file (less networking):
bios: seabios cores: 8 args: -cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor cpu: host hostpci0: 02:00,pcie=1 machine: q35 memory: 40000 name: Win10Serve numa: 0 ostype: win10 sata0: SAS1:vm-500-disk-0,size=500G scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci sockets: 2 unused0: SAS1:vm-500-disk-3 unused1: local-lvm:vm-500-disk-0
 
Last edited:
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args: -cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor

Worked perfectly for me, thanks - got latest version of VMPlayer working on a W10 VM.

pve 6.4-13
 
I have had success using the following settings in the arg line, with workstation 15 and proxmox 6.2-4. I haven't tested performance yet

-cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor

Full conf file (less networking):
bios: seabios cores: 8 args: -cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,hv_spinlocks=0x1fff,hv_vapic,hv_time,hv_reset,hv_vpindex,hv_runtime,hv_relaxed,hv_synic,hv_stimer,-hypervisor cpu: host hostpci0: 02:00,pcie=1 machine: q35 memory: 40000 name: Win10Serve numa: 0 ostype: win10 sata0: SAS1:vm-500-disk-0,size=500G scsihw: virtio-scsi-pci sockets: 2 unused0: SAS1:vm-500-disk-3 unused1: local-lvm:vm-500-disk-0
I"m a big ole n00b with this.. Where exactly do I go to pass arguements so I can run VMWorkstation and get rid of the HyperV Warning?
 
I got it to work with Uefi and a virtio network adapter. Hyper-V optimizations don't work. Here is What i've configured

Code:
agent: 1
bios: ovmf
boot: order=ide1;ide0;net0
cores: 4
cpu: host,flags=+vmx
args: -cpu host,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi
efidisk0: local-lvm:vm-113-disk-0,efitype=4m,pre-enrolled-keys=1,size=4M
ide0: none,media=cdrom
ide1: local-lvm:vm-113-disk-1,size=150G
machine: pc-q35-9.0
memory: 16384
name: <Your Name>
net0: virtio=BC:24:11:21:AF:35,bridge=vmbr0
numa: 0
ostype: win10
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
sockets: 1

In Windows I you have to Disable Hyper-V Platform using Powershell as Admin:

Code:
# Run as Administrator
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All

It's not Perfect and i'm still tweeking some settings but its the first stable configuration i got running.
(This is all testet with Windows 10 LTSC 2021)