Nesting Hyper-V with VMware ESXi 5.5

This weeks posting focuses on the setup of my home virtual lab.  I recently setup my home lab consisting of the following specs:

• Supermicro X7DAL
• 2 - Quad Core Intel Xeon E5440 @ 2.83 GHz (8 vCPUs)
• 2 - NICs
• 24 GB of RAM
• 2 - 1 TB Hard drives
• Evaluation version of ESXi 5.5

Most of my experience has been with VMWare so I choose this as my base system.  Now I wanted to learn more about Hyper-V and have read it could be nested within ESXi.  The following will guide you through configuring a ESXi 5.5 system to allow for nested Hyper-V usage.

In some places there are multiple ways to accomplish the same process through the vSphere client, CLI, or using a tool like WinSCP.  The end result is to modify the config files so how ever you feel comfortable.  I will be utilizing WinSCP to access the files and modify using a Windows text editor.  You can download WinSCP here: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

1. To start we need to ensure SSH access is enabled.  I configured mine through vSphere client but you could do this through local access also.
• Launch vSphere and connect to ESXi system
• Ensure your system is select in left navigation box
• Click "Configuration" tab in right navigation box
• Under software click "Security Profile"
• Click "Properties" for "Services"
• Select "SSH" and click "Options"
• Select desired startup policy
• I choose to automatically start
• Click Okay until back at main vSphere page
2. Now we need to modify our ESXi config file.  This file is located at /etc/vmware/config.
• Launch WinSCP
• Connect to your ESXi server through a SFTP connection
• Navigate to root level and then to /etc/vmware/
• Select config and Edit
• Add the following
• vhv.allow = “TRUE”
• Save and close the editor
3. Next we need to create the Hyper-V system profile, we will not be installing yet.
• Go and create a new VM with specs you desire
• I configured mine with following:
• VM Hardware version 8
• 4 vCPUs
• 12 GB of RAM
• 2 NICs
• 40 GB Thin Hard drive
• 100 GB Thin Hard drive
4. Now we need to edit the VM Profile
• In WinSCP navigate to VM location
• /vmfs/volumes/[DateStore]/[VM Name]
• Select [VM].vmx file and Edit
• Add the following lines:
• monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"
• hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE"
• Save and close the editor
5. Before we install our OS we still need make some changes to our VM settings
• Within vSphere access your VM's settings
• Select "Options"
• Enable CPU/MMU Virtualization for our VM
• Under Advanced Select "CPU/MMU Virtualization"
• Select "Use Intel VT-x/AMD-V for instruction set virtualization and Intel EPT/AMD RVI for MMU virtualization"
• Expose CPUID to guest
• Under Advanced Select "CPUID Mask"
• Select "Expose the NX/XD flag to guest"
• Click "Advanced"
• Locate line ecx and modify to following:
• ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --H- ----
• Okay back to main vSphere window
6. Finally we can install our Hyper-V OS
• Proceed to install as normal and enjoy creating Hyper-V VMs within ESXi environment.

Following resources we used:

• Veam blog: Nesting Hyper-V with VMware Workstation 8 and ESXi 5
• http://www.veeam.com/blog/nesting-hyper-v-with-vmware-workstation-8-and-esxi-5.html
• WinSCP
• http://winscp.net/eng/index.php