Nested Virtualization

Nested virtualization allows workloads running on Namespace compute instances to use hardware-assisted virtualization (for example through /dev/kvm on Linux).

This is commonly used for Android emulator workloads and other virtualization-based CI tasks.

Linux

Nested virtualization support on Linux depends on architecture and machine family:

| Linux platform | Nested virtualization support | | --- | --- | | linux/amd64 | Supported | | linux/arm64 | Not supported on all machine families |

For linux/arm64, support is currently available on Linux instances backed by Apple Virtualization. It is not yet available across every Linux ARM64 machine family.

macOS

Nested virtualization is not currently available on macOS instances. This is limited by Apple's Virtualization Framework and its nested virtualization constraints.

Windows

Nested virtualization is not currently available on Windows instances.

Android emulators

Android emulator hardware acceleration on Namespace currently requires linux/amd64. For setup guidance, see Android Emulators.