Enabling nested virtualization for VM instances

This document describes how to enable support for nested virtualization on Compute Engine VM instances. It also covers the basic steps of starting and configuring a nested VM.

Nested virtualization adds support for Intel VT-x processor virtualization instructions to Compute Engine VMs. Using nested virtualization, you start a VM instance as normal on Compute Engine and then install a KVM-compatible hypervisor on the VM instance so you can run another VM instance on top of that hypervisor. You can use nested virtualization on any Linux VM instance running on a Haswell or newer platform. For other constraints, see the sub-section, restrictions for nested virtualization.

Nested virtualization is ideally suited for VM-based applications and workloads where converting or importing your VM images to Compute Engine is not feasible. For example, you can use nested virtualization to build a disaster recovery solution for an on-premises workload running on KVM-based virtual machines, that can seamlessly failover to VMs running on Compute Engine without the extra time or orchestration needed to convert your KVM-based VM to a native Compute Engine image. Another workload that could be well-suited for nested virtualization is a software-validation framework that needs to test and validate new versions of a software package on numerous versions of different KVM-compatible OSes. Running nested VMs removes the need to convert and manage a large library of Compute Engine images.

Before you begin

• If you want to use the command-line examples in this guide:
  1. Install or update to the latest version of the gcloud command-line tool.
  2. Set a default region and zone.
• If you want to use the API examples in this guide, set up API access.
• Read about Nested virtualization.

How nested virtualization works

Compute Engine VMs run on top of physical hardware (the host server), which is referred to as the L0 environment. Within the host server, a pre-installed hypervisor enables a single server to host multiple Compute Engine VMs, which are referred to as L1 or native VMs on Compute Engine. When you use nested virtualization, you install another hypervisor on top of the L1 guest OS and create nested VMs, referred to as L2 VMs, using the L1 hypervisor. L1 or native Compute Engine VMs that are running a guest hypervisor and nested VMs can also be referred to as host VMs.

Nested Virtualization Diagram

Restrictions

• Nested virtualization can only be enabled for L1 VMs running on Haswell processors or later. If the default processor for a zone is Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge, you can use minimum CPU selection to choose Haswell or later for a particular instance. Review the Regions and Zones page to determine which zones support Haswell or later processors.

• E2 and N2D machine types do not support nested virtualization; all other machine types support nested virtualization.

• Nested virtualization is supported only for KVM-based hypervisors running on Linux instances. Hyper-V, ESX, and Xen hypervisors are not supported.

• Windows VMs do not support nested virtualization; that is, host VMs must run a Linux OS. However, nested VMs can run certain Windows OSes (described below).

Tested KVM versions

Google runs basic nested virtualization boot and integration tests using the following host VM and nested VM combinations:

• Debian 9 with kernel version 4.9 hosting the following nested VMs:
  • CentOS 6.5 with kernel version 2.6
  • Debian 9 with kernel version 4.9
  • RHEL 5.11 with kernel version 2.6
  • SLES 12 SP3 with kernel version 4.4
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with kernel version 4.15
  • Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition
• SLES 12 SP3 with kernel version 4.4 hosting the following nested VMs:
  • SLES 12 SP3 with kernel version 4.4
• Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with kernel version 4.15 hosting the following nested VMs:
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with kernel version 4.15

If you are having trouble running nested VMs on distributions and kernel/KVM versions not listed here, reproduce your issue using one of the above environments as the guest operating system on the host Compute Engine instance before reporting the issue.

Performance

Even with hardware-assisted nested virtualization, there will be a performance penalty for the nested VMs themselves and any applications or workloads running inside them. While you can't predict the exact performance degradation for a given application or workload, expect at least a 10% penalty for CPU-bound workloads and possibly much more for I/O bound workloads.

Enabling nested virtualization on an instance

There are two steps required to used nested virtualization:

1. Nested virtualization is allowed on the project, folder, or organization level. This is the default setting, so unless someone in your organization has disabled nested virtualization, you do not need to do anything to enable nested virtualization.

   Note: If your project does not belong to an organization, then nested virtualization is allowed by default and cannot be changed.

2. The VM instances for which you want to use nested virtualization must use a custom image with a special license key. This is covered in the steps that follow.

To enable nested virtualization on a VM instance, create a custom image with a special license key that enables VMX in the L1 or host VM instance and then use that image on an instance that meets the restrictions for nested virtualization. The license key does not incur additional charges.

1. Create a boot disk from a public image or from a custom image with an operating system. Alternatively, you can skip this step and apply the license to an existing disk from one of your VM instances.

   gcloud

   Use the gcloud command-line tool to create the disk from the boot disk image of your choice. For this example, create a disk named disk1 from the debian-9 image family:

   gcloud compute disks create disk1 --image-project debian-cloud --image-family debian-9 --zone us-central1-b

   API

   Create a disk named disk1 from the debian-9 image family:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/us-central1-b/disks
   
   {
    "name": "disk1",
    "sourceImage": "/projects/debian-cloud/global/images/family/debian-9"
   }

   where: [PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.

2. Using the boot disk that you created or a boot disk from an existing instance, create a custom image with the special license key required for virtualization.

   gcloud

   If you are creating an image using the gcloud command-line tool, provide the following license URL using the --licenses flag:

         --licenses https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/vm-options/global/licenses/enable-vmx

   For example, the following command creates an image named nested-vm-image from an example disk named disk1code>:

   gcloud compute images create nested-vm-image \
     --source-disk disk1 --source-disk-zone us-central1-b \
     --licenses "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/vm-options/global/licenses/enable-vmx"

   API

   In the API, include the licenses property in your API request:

   POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/global/images
   
   {
      "licenses": ["projects/vm-options/global/licenses/enable-vmx"],
      "name": "nested-vm-image",
      "sourceDisk": "zones/us-central1-b/disks/disk1"
   }

   where [PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.

3. After you create the image with the necessary license, you can delete the source disk if you no longer need it.
4. Create a VM instance using the new custom image with the license. You must create the instance in a zone that supports the Haswell CPU Platform or newer. For example:

   gcloud compute instances create example-nested-vm --zone us-central1-b \
                 --min-cpu-platform "Intel Haswell" \
                 --image nested-vm-image

5. Confirm that nested virtualization is enabled in the VM.
   1. Connect to the VM instance. For example:

      gcloud compute ssh example-nested-vm

   2. Check that nested virtualization is enabled by running the following command. A nonzero response confirms that nested virtualization is enabled.

      grep -cw vmx /proc/cpuinfo

Starting a nested VM

You can start a nested VM in many different ways. This section provides an example of starting a nested VM using qemu-system-x86_64 on an L1 VM running Debian. If you are having trouble running nested VMs using methods other than this documented process, reproduce your issue using this process before reporting the issue as a bug.

1. Connect to the VM instance. For example:

   gcloud compute ssh example-nested-vm
   

2. Update the VM instance and install some necessary packages:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install qemu-kvm -y
   

3. Download an OS image:

   wget https://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/amd64/debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2
   

4. Run screen:

   screen
   

5. Press Enter at the screen welcome prompt.

6. Start the nested VM. When prompted, login in with user: root, password: root.

   sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2 -m 512 -curses
   

7. Test that your VM has external access:

   user@nested-vm:~$ wget google.com && cat index.html

8. When you have finished, detach from the screen session with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+D.

Starting a private bridge between the host and nested VMs

To enable connections between the host and nested VM, you can create a private bridge. This sample procedure is intended for an L1 VM running Debian.

Note: VPC networks have a default maximum transmission unit (MTU) of 1460 bytes. However, the network MTU can be set to 1500 bytes. See Maximum transmission unit for background on network MTUs.

1. Connect to the VM instance. For example:

   gcloud compute ssh example-nested-vm
   

2. Update the VM instance and install some necessary packages:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install uml-utilities qemu-kvm bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients -y
   

3. Start the default network that comes with the libvirt package:

   sudo virsh net-start default
   

4. Check that you now have the virbr0 bridge:

   sudo ifconfig -a
   
    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 42:01:0a:80:00:02
              inet addr:10.128.0.2  Bcast:10.128.0.2  Mask:255.255.255.255
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1460  Metric:1
              RX packets:14799 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:9294 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:97352041 (92.8 MiB)  TX bytes:1483175 (1.4 MiB)
   
    lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
              inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
              inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
              UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
              RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
   
    virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 5a:fa:7e:d2:8b:0d
              inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
              UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

5. Create a tap interface to go from the host VM to the nested VM:

   sudo tunctl -t tap0
   sudo ifconfig tap0 up
   

6. Bond the tap interface to the bridge VM:

   sudo brctl addif virbr0 tap0
   

7. Double check that the bridge network is properly set up:

   sudo brctl show
   
   bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
   virbr0          8000.5254005085fe       yes              tap0

8. Download an OS image:

   wget https://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/amd64/debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2
   

9. Run screen:

   screen
   

10. Press Enter at the screen welcome prompt.

11. Start your nested VM:

    sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2 -m 512 -net nic -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -curses
    

12. When prompted, login in with user: root, password: root.

13. On the nested VM, run ifconfig to confirm that the VM has an address in the virbr0 space, such as 192.168.122.89:

    user@nested-vm:~$ ifconfig

14. Start a placeholder web server on port 8000:

    user@nested-vm:~$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

15. Detach from the screen session with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+D.

16. Test that your host VM can ping the nested VM:

    curl 192.168.122.89:8000
    

    The nested VM should return something similar to:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html>
    <title>Directory listing for /</title>
    <body>
    <h2>Directory listing for /</h2>
    <hr>
    <ol>
    <li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a>
    <li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a>
    <li><a href=".profile">.profile</a>
    </ol>
    <hr>
    </body>
    </html>
    

Configuring a nested VM to be accessible from outside the host VM

You can set up an instance with multiple network interfaces or set up an instance using an alias IP so that VMs outside the host VM can ping the nested VM.

The following sample procedure sets up your host and nested VM so that the nested VM is accessible from other VMs on the same network using alias IPs. This procedure uses an imaginary subnet called subnet1 that was previously created. You can replace subnet1 with the name of your own subnet, or create a new subnet called subnet1.

Finally, note that this procedure is intended for an L1 VM running Debian.

1. Create a VM with nested virtualization enabled but make sure to include an alias IP range and support for HTTP/HTTPS traffic. For example:

   gcloud compute instances create example-nested-vm --image nested-vm-image \
       --tags http-server,https-server --can-ip-forward \
       --min-cpu-platform "Intel Haswell" \
       --network-interface subnet=subnet1,aliases=/30
   

2. Connect to the VM instance. For example:

   gcloud compute ssh example-nested-vm
   

3. Update the VM instance and install some necessary packages:

   sudo apt update && sudo apt install uml-utilities qemu-kvm bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients -y
   

4. Start the default network that comes with the libvirt package:

   sudo virsh net-start default
   

5. Check that you now have the virbr0 bridge:

   sudo ifconfig -a
    
    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 42:01:0a:80:00:02
              inet addr:10.128.0.2  Bcast:10.128.0.2  Mask:255.255.255.255
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1460  Metric:1
              RX packets:14799 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:9294 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:97352041 (92.8 MiB)  TX bytes:1483175 (1.4 MiB)
   
   
   lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
              inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
              inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
              UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
              RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
   
   virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 5a:fa:7e:d2:8b:0d
              inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
              UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

6. Create a tun interface to go from the host VM to the nested VM:

   sudo tunctl -t tap0
   sudo ifconfig tap0 up
   

7. Bond the tun interface to the bridge VM:

   sudo brctl addif virbr0 tap0
   

8. Double check that the bridge network is properly set up:

   sudo brctl show
   
   bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
   virbr0          8000.5254005085fe       yes              tap0

9. Download an OS image:

   wget https://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/amd64/debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2
   

10. Run screen:

    screen
    

11. Hit enter at the screen welcome prompt.

12. Start your nested VM:

    sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2 -m 512 -net nic -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -curses
    

13. When prompted, login in with user: root, password: root.

14. On the nested VM, run ifconfig to confirm that the VM has an address in the virbr0 space, such as 192.168.122.89:

    user@nested-vm:~$ ifconfig

15. Start a placeholder web server on port 8000:

    user@nested-vm:~$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

16. Detach from the screen session with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+D.

17. Test that your host VM can ping the nested VM:

    curl 192.168.122.89:8000
    

    The nested VM should return something similar to:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html>
    <title>Directory listing for /</title>
    <body>
    <h2>Directory listing for /</h2>
    <hr>
    <ol>
    <li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a>
    <li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a>
    <li><a href=".profile">.profile</a>
    </ol>
    <hr>
    </body>
    </html>
    

18. On your host VM, set up iptables to allow forwarding from your host VM to your nested VM. For the L2 guest image used in these instructions (debian_squeeze_amd64_standard.qcow2), it is necessary to first flush the IP tables:

    sudo iptables -F
    

    Next, determine the VM's alias IP:

    ip route show table local
    

    The VM should return something similar to output below. In this example, there are two IP addresses associated with the VM's ethernet device, eth0. The first, 10.128.0.2, is the VM's primary IP address, returned by sudo ifconfig -a. The second, 10.128.0.13, is the VM's alias IP address.

    local 10.128.0.2 dev eth0 proto kernel scope host src 10.128.0.2
    broadcast 10.128.0.2 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 10.128.0.2
    local 10.128.0.13/30 dev eth0 proto 66 scope host
    broadcast 127.0.0.0 dev lo proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1
    local 127.0.0.0/8 dev lo proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1
    local 127.0.0.1 dev lo proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1
    broadcast 127.255.255.255 dev lo proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1
    broadcast 192.168.122.0 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src
    192.168.122.1 linkdown
    local 192.168.122.1 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope host src 192.168.122.1
    broadcast 192.168.122.255 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src
    192.168.122.1 linkdown
    

    To forward traffic from the alias IP (10.128.0.13) to the nested VM (192.168.122.89):

    echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
    sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d 10.128.0.13 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.122.89
    sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.122.89 -j MASQUERADE
    sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT
    sudo iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -j ACCEPT
    sudo iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -j ACCEPT
    sudo iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT
    

    Note: See iptables not forwarding traffic for information about troubleshooting iptables.

19. Next, log into another VM that is on the same network as the hosted VM and make a curl request to the alias IP. For example:

    user@another-vm:~$ curl 10.128.0.13:8000

    The nested VM should return something similar to:

    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html>
    <title>Directory listing for /</title>
    <body>
    <h2>Directory listing for /</h2>
    <hr>
    <ol>
    <li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a>
    <li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a>
    <li><a href=".profile">.profile</a>
    </ol>
    <hr>
    </body>
    </html>
    

Managing nested virtualization on an organization

Note: Previously, we announced an anticipated change where nested virtualization would be disabled by default for organizations after January 31, 2020. Based on valuable feedback, we have decided to preserve the present behavior. No action is required as the behavior remains unchanged.

If you have the orgPolicy.policyAdmin role, you can control whether projects and folders within the organization can use nested virtualization by updating the organizational policy. To allow or prevent nested virtualization, update the Disable VM nested virtualization constraint.

Note: Projects without an organization have nested virtualization allowed by default and cannot be changed.

As a general best practice, you should explicitly set the value of the Disable VM nested virtualization organizational policy boolean constraint so that your projects, folders, or your entire organization do not rely on the default setting.

Console

1. Go to the Organization policies page in the Google Cloud Console.
   Go to the Organization policies page

2. From the drop-down menu at the top of the page, select the project, folder, or organization for which you want to edit organization policies. The Organization policies page displays a list of organization policy constraints that are available.

3. Select the Disable VM nested virtualization constraint from the list on the Organization policies page. The Policy details page that appears describes the constraint and provides information about how the constraint is currently applied.

4. Click Edit to customize the constraint.

5. On the Edit page, select Customize.

6. Under Enforcement, select an enforcement option:

   • To enable enforcement of this constraint, select On.

   • To disable enforcement of this constraint, select Off.

7. Click Save.

gcloud

Use the gcloud command-line tool to run either the enable-enforce or disable-enforce command to prevent or allow nested virtualization, respectively.

To allow nested virtualization

gcloud beta resource-manager org-policies disable-enforce \
    compute.disableNestedVirtualization \
    [--project=[PROJECT_ID] | --folder=[FOLDER_ID] | --organization=[ORGANIZATION_ID]]

To prevent nested virtualization

gcloud beta resource-manager org-policies enable-enforce \
    compute.disableNestedVirtualization \
    [--project=[PROJECT_ID] | --folder=[FOLDER_ID] | --organization=[ORGANIZATION_ID]]

Provide one of --project, --folder, or --organization where:

• [PROJECT_ID] is the project ID to enable nested virtualization.
• [FOLDER_ID] is the folder ID to enable nested virtualization.
• [ORGANIZATION_ID] is the organization ID to enable nested virtualization.

API

To enable or disable nested virtualization for a project, folder, or organization, make a POST request to the following URL:

https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/[RESOURCE]/[RESOURCE_ID]:setOrgPolicy

where

• [RESOURCE] is one of projects, folders, or organizations.
• [RESOURCE_ID] is the project ID, the folder ID, or the organization ID, based on the resource.

Provide the following in the request body, setting enforced to either true (prevents nested virtualization) or false (allows nested virtualization):

{"policy":
    {"booleanPolicy":
        {
            "enforced": false
        },
        "constraint": "constraints/compute.disableNestedVirtualization"
    }
  }

You can determine if your project, folder, or organization is blocked from using nested virtualization if the organization policy is set to enforced. For example, using the gcloud tool:

gcloud beta resource-manager org-policies describe \
    constraints/compute.disableNestedVirtualization --project=[PROJECT_ID] --effective

where [PROJECT_ID] is your project ID. If the response has an empty booleanPolicy: {}, then nested virtualization is allowed. Otherwise, the response will include enforced: true. For more information, see the documentation on boolean constraints.

What's next?

• Troubleshoot nested virtualization for VM instances