Are KVM and nested virtualization supported on AWS ?

Question

hey, so my project is a hybrid workload orchestration solution for containers and VMs its my graduation project in university so i only need it for demonstration purposes  not for production.  i have no on prem anything i just want a quick demo for my thesis .i need to run the VMs to  be a kubevirt VM and Kubevirt needs KVM (kernel-based virtual machine) and nested virtualization. now I've been trying for 3 months first using ec2 instances , then eks clusters while making sure that the instance type is metal to support nested virtualization. i tried a lot of tutorials online and i even tied an AWS workshop on amazon eks hybrid nodes but still it didn't work so my question is , is KVM supported by AWS ? as I've seen online that aws doesn't really support nested virtualization or KVM , and if it truly does not then my kubevirt VM will never work. so is this true? and also is there any way for my VM to work?

re:Post Agent · Answer

You're correct that nested virtualization and KVM support on AWS can be challenging, especially for non-production use cases like your graduation project. Here's what you need to know:

1. Nested virtualization is not officially supported on most EC2 instances. It's only officially supported on "bare metal" instance types.

2. KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is not natively supported by AWS. AWS uses its own hypervisor technologies.

3. For your specific use case with KubeVirt and nested virtualization, you would indeed need a bare metal instance to have the best chance of success.

However, there are a few things to consider for your project:

1. Bare metal instances, while supporting nested virtualization, can be expensive and may not be ideal for a student project.

2. Some users have reported success in enabling KVM on certain compute-optimized instances (like c5a), but this is not officially supported and may not be reliable.

3. For demonstration purposes, you might consider alternatives that don't require nested virtualization. For example, you could use container technologies to simulate VM-like environments without actual VMs.

4. If you absolutely need KVM and nested virtualization for your demo, you might want to explore other cloud providers or consider setting up a local environment using something like VirtualBox or VMware Workstation on your personal computer.

5. Another option could be to use VMware Cloud on AWS or Amazon Elastic VMware Service, which provide VMware environments on AWS infrastructure. However, these solutions might be overkill for a student project.

Given the constraints and the purpose of your project, it might be worth discussing with your advisor about adjusting the project requirements or exploring alternative approaches that can demonstrate the core concepts of your hybrid workload orchestration solution without relying on nested virtualization in AWS.  
**Sources**  
[Nested virtualisation support on EC2 compute optimized instances | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUkOwmVhagQbOumNhdfc4YcA/nested-virtualisation-support-on-ec2-compute-optimized-instances)  
[VMWare virtual machine in AWS | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUpi7RpxNaTretMLDyQNwhZg/vmware-virtual-machine-in-aws)  
[How to enable KVM Hardware Virtualization on EC2 Dedicated host | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUz_Vm_uCvRwue5DRdOvyoog/how-to-enable-kvm-hardware-virtualization-on-ec2-dedicated-host)  
[Amazon EC2 instance types - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instance-types.html)  
[windows server 2022 - vmware workstation and hyper-v are not compatible | AWS re:Post](https://repost.aws/questions/QUkMrYlumJRx-QVU66lCXHhQ/windows-server-2022-vmware-workstation-and-hyper-v-are-not-compatible)

Are KVM and nested virtualization supported on AWS ?

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