Can I run a second server on a Virtual Machine on my original physical server, or do I need to run 2 Virtual Machines to have 2 servers?

The company I work for has a File Share server running on an server that is running Windows Server 2022. Its a simple setup that just uses Workgroups rather than a domain controller. They use a CAD software called Microvellum that requires an SQL server to host all of their data. The Microvellum website recommends having a dedicated server for the SQL that is only used for Microvellum, no other applications. I know that the recommended way to setup the new workflow would be to have 2 virtual machines, 1 running the file share (and probably a domain controller in the future) and another running the SQL server. But, am I able to keep the file share server on the original install of Windows Server, and run the SQL server on a Virtual Machine? I've never seen anyone just run a single virtual machine, so I'm unsure how it affects performance.