[vbox-dev] Nested virtualization problem

[Geoff Nordli]

>-----Original Message-----
>From Klaus Espenlaub
>Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 6:09 AM
>
>On 13.10.2010 21:35, Geoff Nordli wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Ruben Van den Bossche
>>> Sent: Monday, October 11, 2010 1:59 AM
>>>
>>>   Dear VBox developers,
>>>
>>> We are currently extending work performed by Olivier Berghmans
>>> regarding nested virtualization (running a virtual machine inside
>>> another virtual
>> machine).
>>
>> Being able to do nested virtualization would be an amazing feature in
>> VirtualBox!!!!
>
>Not sure if you're aware that such "amazing" statements tend to discredit
the
>message you're trying to bring across. There are so many features
VirtualBox
>could have, and for some reason this word is only used in a context where
there
>is most likely near zero customer demand for something which requires weeks
of
>work for the most skilled engineers.
>

You are right, putting on the business hat you have to prioritize your
resources to tackle the items most likely to drive demand for your
customers.  

If someone told me I could sponsor an engineer for two weeks and I would get
hardware level virtualization inside virtualbox, which would allow me to run
ESXi, Hyper-V, and XEN, I would do it in a second.   

We will probably see more demand for this type of feature in future as more
applications are designed to leverage the hardware virtualization available
to them.  

>
>What I know is that one can run VirtualBox (in software virtualization
>mode) in a VirtualBox VM in hardware virtualization mode. The same should
work
>for other virtualizers, although I personally haven't tried.
>
>Klaus
>

Yes, you can run a type 2 hypervisor inside of virtualbox, but I would need
to run a type 1 hypervisor which needs the hardware assisted virtualization
to run.   

BTW, this isn't a feature that I was expecting to see, but since someone
posted it, I am throwing my support behind it.  

Geoff