Enable Nested Virtualization when using Apple's Hypervisor

I have checked with Apple regarding nested virtualization and they informed me that it is already supported & fully supported in VMWare Fusion. Can we enable this please? This is preventing me from using Docker directly within my WIndows 10 VM.

Apple Feedback ID:
FB8982317

 

I had my hoping for this to be a feature.. This means I cannot run WSL using Apple's Hypervisor with Parallels. Frankly, this disappoints me...

 

@Dmitry@Parallels Where can I go to get this feature on the radar? I'm disappointed this didn't make it into the PD17 release...

 

I'd like to see this happen as well. Fusion has that for 1 year...

 

@Maria@Parallels Would you have any input & direction for us to get this much needed feature some traction??

 

While it's not in 17.1.1 release note, it's now possilbe to enable nested virtualization with apple hypervisor. Just choose parallels hypervisor, check nested virtualization then switch back. Now boot your VM and you have nested virtualization.
But I suspect that it's not that we get apple hypervisor with nested virtualization but instead apple hypervisor isn't used anymore. Now I always get all the memory allocated (regardless of nested virtualization enabled or not) when starting a VM and it used to be a dynamic allocation with apple hypervisor...

 

@LunL Are you saying that with Apple M1 Processors there is now nested virtualization with version 17.1.1? I am not seeing that option. Or are you just referring to the Intel flavor of Apple Mac.

 

@LunL, that has always been the case that I could use Parallels hypervisor to use nested virtualization. However, When I tried the Apply Hypervisor option without worrying about the nested virtualization I was surprised at how relatively quiet my MacBook Pro was. When I use the Parallels hypervisor (with or without nested virt) my MacBook transforms into a Back to the Future hover boad - fans pushed to the MAX.

 

@LunL I tried your suggestion but switching to Parallels and back to Apple hypervisor, although showing a greyed out nested virtualization checkbox, doesn't quite work.
WSL2 stops working when I switch over Apple hypervisor, which is a shame since Apply hypervisor does support nested virtualization and its performance is so much better than parallels hypervisor. I'm hoping Parallels will have a workaround for enabling nested virtualisation in the meantime, at least until it comes as a feature in the (fingers crossed) next update.

 

To be clear, according to the Apple employee I was speaking with it does support it, VMWare's Fusion uses it and it does support nested virtualization. Parallels however isn't taking advantage of it - at least that's how I understood it and it's been what I've been wanting for YEARS.

 

Bump.

 

How can this be Parallels Desktop Pro be a Pro product when it's missing support for this and the main competitor has had it for over a year? Particularly since the Parallels official documentatoin says you should use Apple's hypervisor. And also since Apple is going to pull third party hypervisors and probably all system extensions eventually anyway, right? IIUC. So this feature _must_ be implemented anyway.

 

I'm very happy with it!我非常赞同!!!请求支持嵌套虚拟化!

 

Bump.
Will the next version of Parallels (supporting macOS Ventura) support nested virtualisation with the Apple hypervisor?

Anybody know when/if Apple will no longer support the Parallels hypervisor?

These would be a breaking change for me, and from the comments above it looks like VMWare already supports this.

 

Just had a chat with support who now say that Parallels 18 on Intel Mac will not support nested virtualisation, presumably because Ventura will not support the Parallels Hypervisor.
Anybody had an experiment with nested virtualisation on Parallels 18?

 

For info, I just installed a trial version of Parallels 18 on Monterey, and discovered that it still has the Parallels Hypervisor in addition to the Apple Hypervisor, but with a warning that it won't be supported in future versions of MacOS.

As expected, only the Parallels Hypervisor would allow nested virtualisation, and that option disappears with Ventura.

 

Bump. On Intel Macs under Ventura, has the option for Parallels Hypervisor now been removed?
Also, does the option for Nested Virtualisation now work under the Apple Hypervisor?

I would like a definitive answer as I will have to postpone upgrading to Ventura (to retain the ability to run WSL2 ) until I have an alternative solution.
Cheers.

 

I have a 2020 Intel Macbook Pro.
I'm using Parallels 17 on OSX Ventura. I need to test Linux VMs hosting a Docker based website.
There is no longer an option to enable Nested Virtualisation with either the Parallels Hypervisor or the Apple Hypervisor.
This used to work fine on my 2013 Macbook Pro running Catalina.

Without support for Nested Virtualisation there's no reason for me to continue using Parallels.

 

Ok, I upgraded my second Mac to Ventura and installed a trial of Parallels 18 on it. This DID allow me to enable Nested Virtualisation with the Parallels Hypervisor.

I then risked upgrading my main Mac to Ventura with Parallels 18 and can confirm that, for now at least, I am still able to enable Nested Virtualisation with the Parallels Hypervisor. I can successfully run WSL 2 inside of my Windows 11 VM.

Nested virtualisation is not an option with the Apple Hypervisor however. I have also run a docker container, but will have to check the base platform it was running on.