AWS EC2 Adds Nested Virtualization: A Game Changer?

Unlocking Deeper Virtualization on EC2

AWS's introduction of nested virtualization on EC2 instances, supporting KVM and Hyper-V on specific instance types (C8i, M8i, and R8i), is a substantial advancement that addresses a critical gap for many developers and enterprises. The ability to run virtual machines within virtual machines on cloud instances has been a persistent demand, enabling use cases like mobile app emulation, hardware simulation, and more efficient use of cloud resources for development and testing environments. The Nitro System's capability to expose processor virtualization extensions to the L1 guest is a key technical enabler, abstracting the complexity of the underlying physical infrastructure. The community's reaction, as highlighted by the quotes from Meta and Google engineers, underscores the long-standing nature of this request and the relief its arrival brings. This feature democratizes access to nested virtualization, which was previously only reliably achievable on expensive bare-metal instances, making it more accessible for a broader range of use cases and budgets. Furthermore, the potential to run microVMs like Firecracker within EC2 instances, as alluded to by AWS architects, opens up exciting possibilities for isolation, serverless-style runtimes, and performance comparisons with containers, potentially reducing reliance on bare-metal for such workloads.

Key Points

• AWS has introduced nested virtualization support for EC2 instances.
• This feature allows running virtual machines (L2) inside an EC2 instance (L1).
• Supported hypervisors (L1) are KVM and Hyper-V.
• Supported instance types are C8i, M8i, and R8i.
• This addresses a long-standing community request and enables use cases like app emulation and hardware simulation.
• Previously, bare-metal instances or EC2 Mac instances were often used as workarounds.
• AWS still recommends bare-metal for performance-sensitive or low-latency workloads.
• Graviton instances are not currently supported.

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📖 Source: AWS Introduces Nested Virtualization on EC2 Instances