I'm trying to virtualize an old UNIXWare box, which I've finally managed to get running on a physical Windows Server machine using VirtualBox. My next step is to migrate this to the cloud, so I set up an Azure Virtual Machine configured as Standard D2as v4. I installed VirtualBox and transferred my VDI files from my physical setup to Azure. However, when I try to launch the machine, I get an error stating 'AMD-V is not available' along with a message about ensuring the 'Windows Hypervisor Platform' feature is enabled. I had Hyper-V installed, but since it didn't seem to help, I removed it. My physical machine runs on an Intel processor, while the Azure VM uses a virtual AMD processor with Windows 11 Pro. Has anyone dealt with this issue and can provide guidance on how to get VirtualBox working properly in this environment?
2 Answers
Make sure you’re using one of the supported Azure instance types for nested virtualization. I've seen Dv3 and Ev3 types recommended for this setup. It took us a while to figure this out as documentation can be sparse. We initially used a standard D2 size but had to switch to the v4 to get the necessary features.
You should look into enabling nested virtualization. VirtualBox requires certain functions that mimic physical hardware, and enabling nested virtualization on your Azure VM might help resolve that AMD-V error. It’s essential for running hypervisors within a virtualized environment.
Thanks for the tip! We also upgraded to v4, hoping it would cover everything from v3, but it's frustrating not finding much detailed guidance on this specific issue.