diff --git a/inventory/group_vars/openqa b/inventory/group_vars/openqa
index 32aef9a5fa..ffc08d0ee1 100644
--- a/inventory/group_vars/openqa
+++ b/inventory/group_vars/openqa
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# this is to enable nested virt, which we need for disk image creation
+virt_install_command: "{{ virt_install_command_one_nic }} --cpu=host-passthrough,+vmx"
+
 external_hostname: openqa.fedoraproject.org
 
 openqa_hostname: localhost
diff --git a/inventory/group_vars/openqa-stg b/inventory/group_vars/openqa-stg
index 3f2ef46345..e6ba67b269 100644
--- a/inventory/group_vars/openqa-stg
+++ b/inventory/group_vars/openqa-stg
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # This setup is a bit out of the ordinary for a staging system. As the openqa
-# scheduler needs up-to-date information from the wiki and koji, it doens't
+# scheduler needs up-to-date information from the wiki and koji, it doesn't
 # work well as a proper staging host.
 #
 # We decided to keep it a pseudo-staging host that will get new versions of
@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@
 # it should still be using the stg proxies and the external hostname will still
 # be stg.fedoraproject.org
 
+# this is to enable nested virt, which we need for disk image creation
+virt_install_command: "{{ virt_install_command_one_nic }} --cpu=host-passthrough,+vmx"
+
 external_hostname: openqa.stg.fedoraproject.org
 
 openqa_hostname: localhost