Is nested KVM virtualization in RHEL supported by Red Hat?
Environment
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8, 9, 10
- Intel or AMD x86_64 system with VT-x/SVM hardware virtualization support, or
- IBM POWER9, or
- IBM Z system
- Nested KVM virtualization
- Microsoft Hyper-V or Azure virtualization
- Amazon AWS
- VMWare
Issue
- Is nested KVM virtualization in RHEL supported by Red Hat?
- Can a KVM guest run other virtual machines?
Resolution
As of RHEL 8.4, a nested KVM is in Tech Preview and requires:
- The physical (Level 0 or L0) host running RHEL 8.2 or later (see Creating Nested Virtual Machines) more information, or Hyper-V (Azure Virtualization).
- The nested hypervisor (Level 1 or L1) running RHEL 8.2 or later, or RHEL 7.
- The guest (Level 2 or L2) may run any supported guest operating system (RHEL6+, Win10+, Win Server 2016+)
Technology Previews
Unsupported
- Migrating L2 VMs
- L2 guests as hypervisors running L3 guests
- Other hypervisors as L0 (eg: VMware, Xen, Amazon AWS, and Oracle VM)
References
- RHEL 8 Configuring and managing virtualization - 19. Creating Nested Virtual Machines
- RHEL 9 Configuring and managing virtualization - 22. Creating Nested Virtual Machines
- RHEL 8.4 Release Notes - Technology Previews - Virtualization
- RHEL 9.0 Release Notes - Technology Previews - Virtualization
- RHEL 10.0 Release Notes - Technology Previews - Virtualization
SBR
Product(s)
Components
Category
This solution is part of Red Hat’s fast-track publication program, providing a huge library of solutions that Red Hat engineers have created while supporting our customers. To give you the knowledge you need the instant it becomes available, these articles may be presented in a raw and unedited form.