Enable Nested Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V on VMware vSphere 5.5

Actually the topic itself is almost redundant but I couldn’t find a single post with results that actually work without going through comments by various readers, so after thorough testing I came with the hereunder results and it should work 100% guaranteed =).

First:

I’d recommend visiting this page “Running Nested VMs” as its a consolidation of the knowledge and risks you need to deal with.

Second:

1. Create a new virtual machine on vSphere 5.5 and make sure you select the latest hardware version / or use a template but also make sure you have upgraded the hardware version of that template, no need to go through CPU options or anything, not changing the GuestID, just keep everything at defaults.
2. Remove the virtual machine from inventory.
3. SSH to a host where the VMFS volume where the virtual machine resides can is accessible.
4. Use the vi editor to edit the virtualmachine_name.vmx
5. Add these three entries to the virtual machine configuration file:
   1. vhv.enable = “TRUE”
   2. hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE”
   3. mce.enable = “TRUE”
6. Save the vmx file and add the virtual machine back to inventory.
7. Complete the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation or let sysprep finish on the template.
8. You should now be capable of adding the Hyper-V role and run 32bit/64bit virtual machines without any issues.

Hopefully this will be of aid  and sorry if this topic is redundant somehow.

(Abdullah)^2