Enable Virtualization for Windows 10 Pro running inside VirtualBox

Question

My ultimate goal is to run docker for windows inside a Windows 10 Pro (evaluation).

To do that,

1. Downloaded Windows 10 Pro evaluation image from Microsft website,
2. Mounted it with virtual box
3. Installed docker for windows

The installation failed, since it required "virtualization" to be enabled, as described in https://github.com/docker/for-win/issues/74

I have already configured "hardware virtualization" settings for the VM, as you can see below... But still it is not enabled in guest windows OS

Any clues on how to enable it?

Solution 1

The problem is with VirtualBox. It doesn't support nested virtualization (yet), and Docker for windows use Hyper-V. However, if you create a VM running Widows 10 anniversary edition inside VMware player. Docker for Windows will work. During the installation it will activate Hyper-V and after a reboot, everything will work.

Solution 2

You could do it using Docker for Windows Beta. https://beta.docker.com/

By default it uses Hyper-V instead of Virtualbox for its hypervisor.

Comments

[Ramhound]

"But still it is not enabled in guest windows OS " - This is because your attempting to run Docker within a Virtual Box VM. You will have to use Hyper-V or VMware or some other virtualization software if you want to run Docker from within a VM. Virtual Box can't do nested virtualization.

[Frank Thomas]

Note that your image is showing virtual box's settings for the Host, not the guests. its saying "virtuabox will use VT-x/AMD-V exposed by the host". it is NOT stating that it will expose those capabilities to the guests.

[guilhermecgs]

Not sure.... Docker for Windows needs Hyper-V AND Virtualization enabled... (Virtualization != VirtualBox)

[Ramhound]

@guilhermecgs - "Virtualization" in that context is VT-X. Docket requires Hyper-V and (Hardware virtualization) i.e. VT-x

[Ramhound]

Seems counterintuitive to disable nested virtualization in order to use hardware virtualization within a VM.