A VM inside a VM inside a VM - Nested Virtualized Explained!

A Virtual Machine (VM) is a great way to run a virtual PC (including its OS like Windows or Linux) as a application on your host PC. But did you know you can also run another VM inside the first one? A nested VM. In fact you can run another VM insides the first VM, inside the second VM!
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[@middleclasspoor]

I remember many years ago trying to create a VM inside another VM created with Virtualbox (if I recall correctly) and receiving a pop-up message saying "You just had to try it didn't you!" - needless to say it didn't work! I still get a kick out of that every time I recall it.....

[@BillAnt]

I remember back in the 90's there were a couple of similar products turning a single PC into multi PC's using KVM's. It was lame compared to modern VM's. heh

[@gameplaysandtrackdays-gt5535]

EX VMware host and virtual machine specialist here! Would be happy to expand more on what Gary has explained here as to how nested Virtualization can literally allow you to run labs/prod websites(on a small scale though) provided you have the appropriate amount of CPU/vCPU cores and memory!

[@esstx]

this thought arose in the middle of the night, now I can sleep. thx u

[@DavidAspden]

Now, this is fun. And I used to think having a KVM and using remote desktops was a rat's nest, this is next level.

[@iamstartower]

problem is having windows as the hypervisor... all security is compromised...

[@r0galik]

What security? It's only him using this computer. Most security issues don't really matter in this scenario.

[@hyperprotagonist]

How deep does the rabbit hole go? Virtually deep.

[@amoldhamale3202]

As long as there is space on the host's RAM to accommodate a new nested VM

[@gordonramsay8351]

What if i have infinite ram​@@amoldhamale3202

[@amoldhamale3202]

@@gordonramsay8351 Then you can have infinite VMs

[@amoldhamale3202]

@@gordonramsay8351 Then infinite VMs should be feasible in memory but they will function infinitely slower because finite CPU cores won't be able to schedule all of them in time.

[@gordonramsay8351]

@@amoldhamale3202 I'll just download more CPU cores like I did with my ram. Thanks for the help!

[@tonysheerness2427]

Howto run in circles and disappear up your own back side. Well that is what would happen with me I would lose track of what machine I am in. Very interesting and very powerful.

[@MickHealey]

Fascinating Gary - I enjoyed that.

[@shaun2938]

Did you notice any speed impact going from one level to the next?

[@jurgenpfeifer5554]

Would be nice to have more insight into the current status and the planning on nested virtualization under MacOS on Apple Silicon.

[@captaindunsell8568]

Glad to see that 60 year old tech is now used in all techs… oh yea … 60 year old IBM mainframe tech… still being used today…

[@simplestuffmatters]

As you went down the list of use cases for nested virtualisation, I couldn’t ‘help but wonder if all these could be met by just running VMs side-by-side. The only one motivation that struck a cord was application dependency on virtualisation features (other than a VM manager).
So for the most part I am with the fellow viewer who asked „Why?“

[@GaryExplains]

If you don't have or see a use case then obviously you shouldn't do it.

[@clementroyc]

Inception

[@JohnVella1968]

Can I make a little suggestion, in case you do any more virtual computer videos? Rather than opening Notepad and typing "This is a virtual desktop" you could try setting the desktop wallpaper with something like the windows version logo and some words, such as, I don't know, what about "This is a virtual desktop"!
Or even just a solid colour for each OS?

[@DK-ox7ze]

Please do a video on how cloud providers architect their infra. And also popular services like serverless, edge, ec2, etc.

[@Nilos94]

Virtual Machine 3: The Virtual Machinening😄

[@bertnijhof5413]

I run Virtualbox since 2009 and I use nested Virtualization to keep an eye on Boxes and VirtManager. Ii is really slow on my Ryzen 3 2200G.

[@Vyomesh-ir5hq]

Inception level 😂

[@nicnewdigate]

Reminds me of that movie, inception….

[@thomaslechner1622]

If you do this with Linux systems instead Windows, you need not worry about licensing rigths as a bonus.

[@r0galik]

What if you connected from a vm to your own computer via virtual desktop?

[@janjansen6263]

Nested virtualisation is great but only if you you run it without a desktop environment, gpu offload is still missing, I’m using libvirt/kvm on my laptop and running a promox on my server

[@philosoaper]

back in the early 2000s I managed to boot 23 operating systems from 1 disk by stacking and nesting bootloaders...basically every windows version there was along with some OS/2 and BeOS and a pile of linux and unixes...utterly pointless but a "fun" challenge... that's what this video feels like

[@muddyexport5639]

Thanks Prof!

[@GaryExplains]

You are welcome!

[@insu_na]

And remember, kids: You can only virtualize Windows on Linux, which is why game publishers are making their games unplayable on Linux. 🙄
Good video! I use nested VMs all the time for testing cluster setups, it can be a load of fun.

[@funkijote]

A VM inside a VM inside a VM? An abomination! The gods will punish you for your hubris.

[@foss_sound]

Interesting fact: the VM's are 2 hours ahead! :)

[@Quarky_]

I've been trying unsuccessfully to get something like this going for a while. I want to get WSL on a Windows guest, that's running on a Linux host. I'm not really sure what's missing, does it require specific hardware features, or maybe the hypervisor needs to support it? I tried this with virtmanager

[@doseofdopamine2031]

is it possible to install virtual box inside windows 11 vm installed via utm?

[@realsifocopypaste]

we dont needd vm inside vm inside vm inside vm :D it is so heavy in computer resources
we can use docker full os gnu linux inside docker full os gnu linux inside docker full os gnu linuxt inside docker full os gnu linux inisde docker full os gnu linux that run above the gnu gnu linux os natively :) it so light in computer recourcess ,except maybe it need a lot of storage device :) no need vt-x amd-vt either :)

[@P8860]

Interesting. I always hear about docker but don't really know how devs use it for

[@LewisCowles]

Show this on ARM next

[@-someone-.]

I managed to get to a third, but it’s so slow, still useable if you like watching paint dry... mind you, my cpu , gpu, and mobo is 12 yrs old, only 12gb total ram, if I had something newer I bet I’d get to a 5th nested

[@marcusk7855]

Inception.

[@rodfer5406]

Why?

[@GaryExplains]

I thought I had a whole section in the video about why. 🤷‍♂️

[@skraaa9981]

im watching you insde a vm thats inside a vm

[@themenon]

First one here!

[@midnightwatchman1]

why would you want to do this, this is just plain confusing and a waste of time. suppose you restart and maintain one of the one the hosted VM

[@GaryExplains]

I get the feeling you didn't watch the video 🤦‍♂️