VM-in-a-VM with VMware Workstation
For the longest time, figuring out a way to simulate a VMware ESX environment within VMware Workstation was one of the holy grails of virtualization. I can honestly say that after much work by VMware, processor manufacturers, and some enterprising people on the VMware newsgroups, we've finally figured out how to do it!
In order to do this, you'll need to use a computer that supports processor-based virtualization extentions like the Intel VT or the AMD-V extensions. But, barring that and a whole lot of onboard RAM, you're ready to go.
In my Windows Insider magazine column for Redmond Magazine...
...I talk about the process to set this up. Specific to creating the ESX virtual machine, you'll need to do the following:
- Create a new custom virtual machine. Set its hardware compatibility to "Workstation 5" and check the box marked "ESX Server Compatible."
- Select the Red Hat Linux operating system, then provide the machine a name and location.
- Give the virtual machine two virtual processors and around 1024MB of RAM. The quantity of RAM assigned to the virtual machine will depend on the RAM available in the host system.
- Select the bridged network option and choose an LSI Logic SCSI adapter for the virtual machine.
- Create a new virtual SCSI disk. Make sure it's large enough to host the ESX software and any other hosted virtual machines. It's usually a good idea to create these disks as pre-allocated to ensure the best performance.
- Once you've created the virtual machine, remove it from the VMware Workstation interface and the favorites list, and close down that Workstation instance. This ensures that the system isn't using the virtual machine's files we need to edit next.
- Open the new virtual machine's .VMX file in a text editor and make sure the following lines are present for each connected Ethernet adapter. If there are multiple cards configured for the ESX instance, there will be one copy of each of these lines for each adapter:
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
You'll need to add the following lines in the .VMX file for Intel-based CPUs:
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = TRUE
monitor_control.vt32 = TRUE
If the processor is AMD-based, replace the line monitor_control.vt32 = TRUE with monitor_control.enable_svm = TRUE.
Reconnect the virtual machine with the Workstation interface, make sure the ESX media is in the CD drive and connected into the virtual machine, and boot the virtual machine.
There's more to the whole process. Check that out at:
http://redmondmag.com/columns/article.asp?editorialsid=2314
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