VirtualBox on top of VMware: VBoxManage: error: VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX)

[rajeshramt]

I have created a ubuntu16 server on my vmware server and trying to install minicube in it. But I'm getting the following error

minikube start
😄 minikube v1.3.1 on Ubuntu 16.04
⚠️ Please don't run minikube as root or with 'sudo' privileges. It isn't necessary with virtualbox driver.
💡 Tip: Use 'minikube start -p ' to create a new cluster, or 'minikube delete' to delete this one.
🔄 Starting existing virtualbox VM for "minikube" ...
E0817 11:44:55.825972 2146 start.go:723] StartHost: start: Unable to start the VM: /usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm minikube --type headless failed:
VBoxManage: error: VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole

Details: 00:00:00.183069 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_VMX_NO_VMX, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))

💣 Unable to start VM
❌ Error: [VBOX_VERR_VMX_NO_VMX] start: Unable to start the VM: /usr/bin/VBoxManage startvm minikube --type headless failed:
VBoxManage: error: VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole

Details: 00:00:00.183069 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_VMX_NO_VMX, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))
💡 Suggestion: Please check your BIOS, and ensure that you are running without HyperV or other nested virtualization that may interfere
⁉️ Related issues:
▪ #1994

😿 If the above advice does not help, please let us know:
👉 https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/new/choose

[afbjorklund]

If you really want to run a VM in a VM (nested virtualization), changes are you need to do some more VMware configuration first. Otherwise you could create two VMs: one for Ubuntu, one for minikube ?

[tstromberg]

For nested VM configurations, consider using the none driver:

https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/reference/drivers/none/

There isn't much else we can do otherwise to make VMware compatible with VirtualBox: https://superuser.com/questions/1147113/running-virtual-box-vm-inside-vmware-vm-windows-server-2008

[tstromberg]

FWIW, I'm also disappointed that minikube (gopsutil) didn't detect that it was running within a VMware VM here: otherwise we could have had it automatically suggest the none driver.

[tstromberg]

One possibility: improve the solution message to mention the none driver, if run on Linux.

[rajeshramt]

thanks guys.... let me check your suggestions, I'll let you know the status soon :)