We have a use case (training) where we need to run an emulated Android Virtual Device within a Windows VM running atop either VMware ESXi or in Azure (effectively a nested hypervisor). I have this working in multiple ways, and whilst Android Studio complains that nested hypervisor and I expected some slowdown, things are pretty unusable. For example, booting an OOTB Pixel 3a image takes an hour.
I want to know if anyone has this working reasonably and what setup they might use.
FWIW, I have tried the following type 1 hypervisor and Windows OS:
ESXi:
- Windows 2019
- Windows 2022
- Windows 11
Azure (using Standard_D4s_v4 instance)
- Windows 2022 Datacentre
Further, none of the Type 1 hypervisors have access to GPU acceleration. I thought I might get this from Azure, but the ‘N’ series instances (with GPUs) do not support nested virtualisation. I have set the config.ini for the AVDs to use:
hw.gpu.enabled = yes
hw.gpu.mode = software
I have also tried a combination of hardware acceleration within the VMs:
- AEHD (takes over an hour to boot an image – gave up)
- WHPX (takes over an hour to boot an image – gave up)
- HAXM (this seems to be the best option, albeit it is now deprecated, and you see errors within the AVD saying things like “System UI isn’t responding”)
I completely get the nested hypervisors are suboptimal. However, they do serve a purpose, but I haven’t seen any nested application perform quite so poorly as an AVD. Am I simply expecting too much?
If I am missing anything, I would be grateful for your input.