VMware Nested Virtualization

The ESXi 6.x Virtual Appliance includes the following configuration:

• ESXi 6.0 Update 2
• GuestType: ESXi 5.x (backwards compat)
• vHW 10
• 2 vCPU
• 6GB vMEM
• 2 x vmxnet3 vNIC
• 1 x 2GB HDD (ESXi Installation)
• 1 x 4GB SSD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• 1 x 8GB SSD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• VHV added
• dvFilter Mac Learn VMX params added
• disk.enableUUID VMX param added
• VSAN traffic tagged on vmk0
• Disabled VSAN device monitoring for home labs

The ESXi 5.x Virtual Appliance includes the following configuration:

• ESXi 5.5 Update 3b
• GuestType: ESXi 5.x
• vHW 10
• 2 vCPU
• 6GB vMEM
• 2 x vmxnet3 vNIC
• 1 x 2GB HDD (ESXi Installation)
• 1 x 4GB SSD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• 1 x 8GB HDD (for use w/VSAN, empty by default)
• VHV added
• dvFilter Mac Learn VMX params added
• disk.enableUUID VMX param added
• VSAN traffic tagged on vmk0
• Disabled VSAN device monitoring for home labs
• ESXi Embedded Host Client

If you do not wish to use VSAN, there is an OVF property that allows you to specify whether or not a default VMFS datastore is created. You can increase the capacity of any of the disks after deployment (if you wish for the automatically VMFS creation, you will need to expand the disk prior to powering on the VM). Below are the different methods in which you can deploy the ESXi Virtual Appliance which includes vSphere, vCloud Air, Fusion, Workstation, Player & AppCatalyst. The idea is that you can easily setup Nested ESXi on any VMware based hypervisor and be up and running in just minutes!

Option 1 - Deploy to vSphere environment w/vCenter Server or vCloud Air

Download the OVA (or you can just paste the URL link) and import that into your vCenter Server using the vSphere Web Client. Make sure to accept the "Extra Configuration" when prompted and then fill out the 11 OVF properties which will allow you to customize the Nested ESXi VM to your environment. If you wish to increase the VMDK capacity and automatically have a VMFS datastore created for you automatically, be sure to expand the VMDK prior to powering on the VM. Once powered on, the customization process will start and in a few minutes you should have a fully functional Nested ESXi VM. Below are a couple of screenshots

Option 2 - Deploy to ESXi

Download the OVA and import it into ESXi using either the vSphere C# Client but do not power it on. Since ESXi does not support OVF properties, you will need to add the following guestinfo*. properties as shown in "Option 3" below by using the VM Advanced Settings UI.