Question

you may not power on a virtual machine within a virtual machine

Asked by: tupac1979

I have installed on my host machine vmware server 1.0.9 and I have virtual machine loaded with windows 2003 server that has vmware player installed. When I attempt to power on the virtual machine in vmware player I get the error message "you may not power on a virtual machine within a virtual machine" I would appreciate help thanks.

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Asked On
2009-10-26 at 13:44:55ID24845146
Topic

VMware

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
22

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Answers

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-26 at 13:50:34ID: 25666740

Yes you cannot run vmware player in a virtual windows. I wonder how it did install in the 1st place.

You should move your "appliance" you want to run in vmware player to the physical system and run the "appliance" in vmware server.

 

by: kmlmustangPosted on 2009-10-26 at 14:35:06ID: 25667166

If you hardware can support it you can install ESXi on your VMware Server!

 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-10-27 at 05:49:14ID: 25671765

When I uninstalled vmware player inside the virtual machine and attempted to install vmware server the error message came up with "I may not install vmware server on a virtual machine". Is there a free version of ESX or another solution for this?

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 05:59:38ID: 25671856

why do you want to install a vmware player in a virtual machine?


 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:01:06ID: 25671867

You should run the virtual machine you intended to run in vmware player run under vmware server on the physical host

 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-10-27 at 06:09:29ID: 25671953

Tolomir,
Thanks but I have a host machine - window xp - vmware server 1.0.9
virtual machine inside the windows xp with Windows 2003 server - vmware player
virtual machine inside the Windows 2003 server - sun solaris OS

I have tried to uninstall the vmware player on the windows 2003 server virtual machine and when I try to install vmware server 1.0.9 to run my sun solaris OS. I get an error message stating "I cannot install vmware server in a virtual machine"

Is there another solution to this??

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:23:40ID: 25672087

Why don't you run sun solaris directly on the windows xp host?


 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:24:36ID: 25672095

you can run as many virtual machines on vmware server as you got ram and cpu resources. There is no need to stack virtual machines.

 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-10-27 at 06:26:59ID: 25672116

Tolomir,
Thanks I really cant say why I would like to run the Sun OS inside my windows 2003 server virtual machine. But I just need to run a virtual machine inside my windows 2003 server virtual machine is that possible?

Thanks

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:30:44ID: 25672154

Not with vmware!

It might be possible to use some virtualbox within vmware but don't ask for performance.

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Tolomir

 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-10-27 at 06:48:00ID: 25672341

ok not sure how I will convert my vm machine to a virtualbox but we will see thanks

 

by: kmlmustangPosted on 2009-10-27 at 06:58:15ID: 25672458

Why not just install VMware Server on your XP host and then just run the Windows Server 2003 box side by side with you Sun Solaris box. I have done that before and it works fine. Performance in your case will be a huge problem and that is why VMware generally prevents you from running it this way. Good luck and enjoy.

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 07:20:43ID: 25672702

Hello kmlmustang,

I've suggested this before, just read the whole question + answers.

Thank you,
Tolomir

 

by: kmlmustangPosted on 2009-10-27 at 07:24:31ID: 25672745

oh my, someone is a little touchy, eh?

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 07:35:46ID: 25672844

Not really just referring to the online help:

Read previous posts before commenting:
It is important to read the entire thread so that you know the current situation. That will keep you from posting a duplicate answer or one that has already been shown not to work. If you basically agree with another comment but have something more to add, remember to give credit for the original suggestion -- mention that Expert by name -- in your post.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hs=30&hi=416

--

Btw. welcome on board.


 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-10-27 at 07:41:05ID: 25672907

ok thanks I see where you are going but I dont understand how the virtual machine in vm ware player was working and when I ran the P2V in windows 2003 and now the vm ware player knows thats its host is a virtual machine. I was hoping for a setting in the vmx file or something I could change for it not check that.

 

by: kmlmustangPosted on 2009-10-27 at 07:47:49ID: 25672985

It actually looks at the underlying hardware that you are trying to install it on and all the VMware software does that. This is why you install VMtools.

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-27 at 07:48:59ID: 25672996

all vmware machines have a very special hardware setup, it's quite easy for vmware player to identify it's running on a virtual host.

This is what I did find

http://www.ende-der-vernunft.org/2008/03/22/howto-convert-from-vmware-to-virtualbox/

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-10-28 at 14:23:20ID: 25688489

hi,

give this a try please I found it accidentally:

Edit the .vmx file using Notepad.
Add the following line:

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = TRUE.

Save the file and close.
Now try again. The message "you may not power on a virtual machine within a virtual machine" should be gone.

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-11-10 at 07:04:01ID: 25786041

Thank you. Have you tried the setting I suggested for the vmx file?

With that setting it's possible to run a virtual machine in a virtual machine...

You have to modify the vmx file of the outer virtual machine containing vmware player

 

by: tupac1979Posted on 2009-11-10 at 07:07:13ID: 25786067

Tolomir,
Actually the solution was that the virtual machine we had to run inside a virtual machine the software was updated so we no longer need to run that virtual machine inside another virtual machine. We have a standard host > virtual machine setup now. I will certaintly keep this solution because I am sure we will need it in the future. Thanks

 

by: TolomirPosted on 2009-11-10 at 07:36:58ID: 25786370

great, thank you for the feedback.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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