Create nested VMs

Create nested VMs

Linux

Nested virtualization is allowed by default, so unless somebody modifies the constraint for nested virtualization, you do not need to make any changes before you create nested VMs in an organization, folder, or project. If your project doesn't belong to an organization, nested virtualization is allowed by default and you can't change the constraint. For information about how to modify the constraint that determines whether you can create nested VMs, see Manage the nested virtualization constraint.

This document describes how to create various types of level 2 (L2) virtual machine (VM) instances. Before creating a nested VM, you must create an L1 VM that has nested virtualization enabled. For a description of L1 and L2 VMs, see the Nested virtualization overview.

After creating an L1 VM that has nested virtualization enabled, you can do any of the following:

Create an L2 VM with external network access

Create an L2 VM with a private network bridge to the L1 VM

Create an L2 VM with network access from outside the L1 VM

Before you begin

Creating an L2 VM with external network access

Create an L2 VM with external network access by using the following procedure. This procedure uses qemu-system-x86_64 to start the L2 VM. If you are using another procedure to create an L2 VM and are experiencing trouble, reproduce the issue using this procedure before contacting Support.

Creating an L2 VM with a private network bridge to the L1 VM

Create an L2 VM with a private network bridge to the previously created L1 VM by using the following procedure. For information about changing the default maximum transmission unit (MTU) for your VPC network, see the maximum transmission unit overview.

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever inet6 ::1/128 scope host valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1460 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000 link/ether 42:01:0a:80:00:15 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff inet 10.128.0.21/32 brd 10.128.0.21 scope global eth0 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever inet6 fe80::4001:aff:fe80:15/64 scope link valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 3: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:8c:a6:a1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff inet 192.168.122.1/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global virbr0 valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever 4: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master virbr0 state DOWN group default qlen 1000 link/ether 52:54:00:8c:a6:a1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html> <title>Directory listing for /</title> <body> <h2>Directory listing for /</h2> <hr> <ol> <li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a> <li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a> <li><a href=".profile">.profile</a> </ol> <hr> </body> </html>

Creating an L2 VM with network access from outside the L1 VM

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions:

compute.instances.create permissions on the project, folder, or organization

You can set up an L2 VM with an alias IP so that VMs outside the L1 VM can access the L2 VM. Use the following procedure to create an L2 VM with network access by way of an alias IP from outside the previously created L1 VM. For information about creating alias IP addresses, see Configure alias IP ranges.

The following procedure assumes a previously created subnet called subnet1. If you already have a subnet with a different name, replace subnet1 with the name of your subnet, or create a new subnet named subnet1.

Create an L1 VM with nested virtualization enabled and include an alias IP range and support for HTTP/HTTPS traffic:

gcloud

gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME --enable-nested-virtualization \
    --tags http-server,https-server --can-ip-forward \
    --min-cpu-platform "Intel Haswell" \
    --network-interface subnet=subnet1,aliases=/30

Replace VM_NAME with the name for the L1 VM.

REST

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances

{
  ...
  "name": VM_NAME,
  "tags": {
    "items": [
      http-server,https-server
    ],
  },
  "canIpForward": true,
  "networkInterfaces": [
    {
      "subnetwork": "subnet1",
      "aliasIpRanges": [
        {
          "ipCidrRange": "/30"
        }
      ],
    }
  ],
  "minCpuPlatform": "Intel Haswell",
  "advancedMachineFeatures": {
    "enableNestedVirtualization": true
  },
  ...
}

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID: the project ID
ZONE: the zone to create the VM in
VM_NAME: the name of the VM

Use the gcloud compute ssh command to connect to the VM. If you have trouble connecting to the VM, try resetting the VM or modifying the firewall rules.
```
gcloud compute ssh VM_NAME
```
Replace VM_NAME with the name of the VM to connect to.

Update the VM and install the necessary packages:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install uml-utilities qemu-kvm bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients -y

Start the default network that comes with the libvirt package:
```
sudo virsh net-start default
```
Run the following command to check that you have the virbr0 bridge:
```
user@nested-vm:~$ ip addr
```

Verify output similar to the following:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1460 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 42:01:0a:80:00:15 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.128.0.21/32 brd 10.128.0.21 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::4001:aff:fe80:15/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: virbr0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:8c:a6:a1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.122.1/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global virbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master virbr0 state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:8c:a6:a1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Create a tap interface to go from the L1 VM to the L2 VM:
```
sudo tunctl -t tap0
sudo ifconfig tap0 up
```
Bond the tap interface to the private bridge:
```
sudo brctl addif virbr0 tap0
```
Run the following command to verify the setup of the bridge network:
```
sudo brctl show
```

Verify output similar to the following:

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
virbr0          8000.5254008ca6a1       yes             tap0
                                                        virbr0-nic

Download a QEMU-compatible OS image to use for the L2 VM.
Run screen, and press Enter at the welcome prompt:
```
screen
```
Use the following command to start the nested VM. When prompted, login in with user: root, password: root.
```
sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -hda IMAGE_NAME -m 512 -net nic -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no -curses
```
Replace IMAGE_NAME with the name of the QEMU-compatible OS image to use for the L2 VM.
On the L2 VM, run ip addr to confirm that the L2 VM has an address in the virbr0 space, such as 192.168.122.89:
```
user@nested-vm:~$ ip addr
```
Start a placeholder web server on port 8000:
```
user@nested-vm:~$ python -m http.server
```
Detach from the screen session with Ctrl+A, Ctrl+D.
Test that your L1 VM can ping the L2 VM, replace the IP address below with the IP address of the L2 VM:
```
curl 192.168.122.89:8000
```

Verify that the response from the L2 VM is similar to the following:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html>
<title>Directory listing for /</title>
<body>
<h2>Directory listing for /</h2>
<hr>
<ol>
<li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a>
<li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a>
<li><a href=".profile">.profile</a>
</ol>
<hr>
</body>
</html>

On the L1 VM, set up iptables to allow forwarding from the L1 VM to the L2 VM. For the L2 OS image used in these instructions, you must flush the IP tables:
```
sudo iptables -F
```
Determine the L1 VM's alias IP:
```
ip route show table local
```

Verify that the output is similar to the following. For this example, there are two IP addresses associated with the L2 VM's eth0 ethernet device. The first, 10.128.0.2, is the L2 VM's primary IP address, which is returned by sudo ifconfig -a. The second, 10.128.0.13, is the L2 VM's alias IP address.

local 10.128.0.2 dev eth0 proto kernel scope host src 10.128.0.2
broadcast 10.128.0.2 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 10.128.0.2
local 10.128.0.13/30 dev eth0 proto 66 scope host
broadcast 127.0.0.0 dev lo proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1
local 127.0.0.0/8 dev lo proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1
local 127.0.0.1 dev lo proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1
broadcast 127.255.255.255 dev lo proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1
broadcast 192.168.122.0 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src
192.168.122.1 linkdown
local 192.168.122.1 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope host src 192.168.122.1
broadcast 192.168.122.255 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src
192.168.122.1 linkdown

Run the following commands to forward traffic from the 10.128.0.13 example alias IP to the 192.168.122.89 example IP for the L2 VM:

echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -d 10.128.0.13 -j DNAT --to-destination 192.168.122.89
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.122.89 -j MASQUERADE
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A OUTPUT -p tcp -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp -j ACCEPT

For information about troubleshooting iptables, see iptables not forwarding traffic.

Verify L2 VM access from outside the L1 VM by logging onto another VM that is on the same network as the L1 VM, and making a curl request to the alias IP, replacing the IP address below with the L2 VM's alias IP:
```
user@another-vm:~$ curl 10.128.0.13:8000
```

Verify that the curl response is similar to the following:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"><html>
<title>Directory listing for /</title>
<body>
<h2>Directory listing for /</h2>
<hr>
<ol>
<li><a href=".aptitude/">.aptitude/</a>
<li><a href=".bashrc">.bashrc</a>
<li><a href=".profile">.profile</a>
</ol>
<hr>
</body>
</html>

What's next

Troubleshoot nested virtualization

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Last updated 2026-06-09 UTC.

Create nested VMs Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Before you begin

gcloud

REST

Creating an L2 VM with external network access

Creating an L2 VM with a private network bridge to the L1 VM

Creating an L2 VM with network access from outside the L1 VM

Permissions required for this task

gcloud

REST

What's next