How do I know what size Azure VM supports nested virtualization?

David 41

I guess I am looking for documentation that doesn't seem to exist.

I need to spin up a VM on which I will be running a docker application.
This requires nested virtualization.
The VM size I picked does not appear to support it.

All I can find it some old docs saying that it is enabled on an older Size.
How do I find the availability for the current set of available sizes?

Accepted answer

Devaraj G 2,096 Reputation points

2022-04-15T04:19:29.733+00:00

Hi David,

Dv3 and Ev3 VM sizes supports the nested virtualisation.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-the-new-dv3-and-ev3-vm-sizes/

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/blog/nested-virtualization-in-azure/

Also you can looks for machine type in azure docs to find if the nested virtualisation is supported.

Ex:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/dcv3-series
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Benjamin Guinebertière 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-01-08T11:53:40.9933333+00:00

Please also be aware that the default security type of "Trusted launch virtual machines" may be incompatible with nested virtualization; while creating the VM, you may want to double check and have to revert to "Standard". cf https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1405242/how-to-enable-nested-virtualization-on-d4s-v3 and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/trusted-launch#unsupported-features
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5 additional answers

Tin Tse 25 Reputation points

2023-01-21T03:45:08.9433333+00:00

Perhaps adding a filter options in azure portal when creating a VM? I don't want to spend time searching for this post to find what type of vm supports nested virtualization every time I create a new VM.
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Andriy Bilous 11,621 Reputation points MVP

2022-04-15T04:30:26.273+00:00
Hello @David

Azure supports nested virtualization only on new sizes that introduce Hyper-Threading Technology running on the Intel processors
Here is a list of Azure VM Sizes that support Nested Virtualization:

D_v3

Ds_v3

Dv4

Dsv4

Ddv4

Ddsv4

E_v3

Es_v3

Ev4

Esv4

Edv4

Edsv4

F2s_v2 – F72s_v2

FX4 – FX48

M

The VM sizes mentioned above, are the current ones that support nested virtualization. List could be updated in future, please see documentation

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/nested-virtualization-in-azure/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-the-new-dv3-and-ev3-vm-sizes/
https://www.markou.me/2020/05/which-azure-vm-sizes-support-nested-virtualization/
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Scott McArthur 5 Reputation points

2023-06-02T21:39:41.1033333+00:00

this is not working at all using any size i have literally tried them all
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Gaddyel Enriquez 0 Reputation points

2023-06-13T22:25:28.2566667+00:00

Same here, I tried with multiple sizes but none is working
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Anju K Prabhakaran 5 Reputation points

2023-06-16T08:49:54.17+00:00

Below Article can help

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/troubleshoot-vm-by-use-nested-virtualization
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Benjamin Guinebertière 0 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-01-08T11:51:18.6133333+00:00

I read that the article is about the following, which looks quite different. It leverages nested virtualization, but it's not specifically about nested virtualization:

This article shows how to create a nested virtualization environment in Microsoft Azure, so you can mount the disk of the faulty VM on the Hyper-V host (Rescue VM) for troubleshooting purposes.

Silvia Tamburini 5 Reputation points

2024-03-07T10:22:44.34+00:00

Just posting here the useful part of that article for anyone searching this problem:

Change the security type to Standard. By default, the security type is Trusted launch virtual machines that doesn't support nested virtualization. If you set the security type to Trusted launch virtual machines, and attempt to add server roles on the Rescue VM, you'll encounter the following error message:

Hyper-V cannot be installed because virtualization support is not enabled in the BIOS.

Chris Swinney 5 Reputation points

2024-05-18T21:49:49.08+00:00

@Silvia Tamburini this is very important and should be in the docs relating to the creation of a VM to host nested Virtualisation
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How do I know what size Azure VM supports nested virtualization?

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