Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Iv
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Joined: 1. Oct 2022, 16:47

Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform

Post by Iv »

Hi,
I've read other topics related to Virtual Box and Hyper-V, but couldn't find an answer to this:

I have VirtualBox 6.1.38 and Windows 10 21H2 with WSL 2 enabled (which requires Hyper-V).
I noticed that irrespective of whether Windows Hypervisor Platform is enabled or not, Virtual Box would show for a VM under Details->System->Acceleration: VT-X/AMD-V,Nested Paging,PAE/NX,KVM Paravirtualizaton, and will run with a green turtle icon with execution engine: native API.

The question is: does Virtual Box make any use of Windows Hypervisor Platform, when Hyper-V is enabled? The above scenario indicates that it doesn't. The question is then what it uses? My understanding is that Windows Hypervisor Platform is what is provided by Windows for other hypervisors to cooperate with Hyper-V.
fth0
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Re: Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform

Post by fth0 »

Iv wrote:I noticed that irrespective of whether Windows Hypervisor Platform is enabled or not, [...]
No, what you probably noticed is that the Windows Hypervisor Platform can be available without being explicitly configured to be available.
Iv wrote:The question is: does Virtual Box make any use of Windows Hypervisor Platform, when Hyper-V is enabled?
When VirtualBox runs a VM, it has no other choice than to use the Windows Hypervisor Platform when Hyper-V is (explicitly or implicitly) enabled.
scottgus1
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Re: Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform

Post by scottgus1 »

Iv wrote:I noticed ... Paravirtualizaton
I'll just add that Paravirtualization does not relate to host Hyper-V. Paravirtualization is a comm channel between virtualization-aware OS's and the hypervisor they're running under, whatever that hypervisor is, to allow the OS to run more efficiently. You see it set to KVM because you're running a Linux OS in the VM. It will read Hyper-V when running a modern Windows OS. Whatever it reads, host Hyper-V has nothing to do with Paravirtualization.
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