Is it possible to start virtual machine within the virtual machine?

[nance965]

System: machine Windows 7 x64 + VMWare Workstation 11.1.0 build-2496824. Guest machine OS - windows 7
1) I install Vbox to guest machine (windows 7) successfully (no errors)
2) I created virtual machine in Vbox
3) press start:

f=2&sid=d24571e40549db0bbc97b814af00c342
Windows Guests
The virtual machine 'Google Nexus One - 2.3.7 - API 10 - 480x800' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1). More details may be available in 'C:\Users\s5r77jh85f2d\AppData\Local\Genymobile\Genymotion\deployed\Google Nexus One - 2.3.7 - API 10 - 480x800\Logs\VBoxHardening.log'.
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
MachineWrap
Interface:
IMachine {b2547866-a0a1-4391-8b86-6952d82efaa0}

Is it possible to start virtual machine within other virtual machine?

[scottgus1]

It is possible; it's called nested virtualization. With Virtualbox as host, then Virtualbox in the guest for the next guest, you can run one-cpu 32-bit guests that don't need VT-x (so no Windows 8.1 or 10). Speed may and probably will be rather slower than a normal host-guest arrangement. But doing so is not supported, so if something goes wrong we won't know what to do to fix it. What happens with VMware as the first layer is anyone's guess here.

The error mentioning the hardening log is for the Windows security checks, though. Something in that VMware guest's set of DLLs is tripping up Virtualbox security. The log may tell you what to look for, or try to post it as a zipped attachment here, and we may be able to point in the right direction. (But no promises, since it's not supported...)

[ghr]

Strictly speaking (?): this is the difference between virtualization and emulation. Typically you cant run a virtualizer inside a virtualizer but you CAN run an emulator ... The difference is: a virtualizer accesses hardware directly (...) and an emulator mimicks hardware fully in software... See (a.o.) the thread ¨Virtualization inside a virtualizer, discussions" (Board index ‹ General ‹ Using VirtualBox)