Enabling EPT for nested virtualization

Question

I recently bought a server with the following specs:

Supermicro X8DTL-3 (BIOS version 2.1b 11/16/2012) 2x Intel® Xeon® Processor X5660 6x 4GB (Non registered ECC) RAM

I've been trying to enable EPT so I can install x86_64 OSs in nested hypervisors. But All I see in the BIOS is "Intel (R) Virtualization Tech" which is already enabled.

The main OS is VMware ESXi 6.0, I'm able to install ESXi 6.0 as Virtual Machines, but I can't install x86_64 OS on those ESXi VMs.

I tried selecting EPT in the ESXi VMs configuration (CPU/MMU Virtualization), but still getting the alert when installing the OS that can't virtualize hardware.

At this point I am out of ideas and I'm starting to think that there is something wrong with the combination or hardware that I have chosen, but I am not sure.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It turns out that I was missing a check in the VM's configuration.

Using the host web client, check the box next to "Expose hardware-assisted virtualization to the guest operating system." This setting is not available under the traditional C# client.