Installing VMware ESX Server in a virtual machine

[tipsy01]

I wonder if anybody can help with my request.

I am running Workstation 6 on my laptop and I am trying to install VMware ESX server 3.x in a virtual machine. The installation process always completes successfully, however whenever ESX starts to boot up it hangs. Has anyone managed to install and run an ESX server virtual machine? Can anybody offer any advice please?

I know it can be done - I have seen it running in a VM.

[oreeh]

Check the following thread

[tipsy01]

Thanks for your help, I hadn't seen that article.

However that suggest it is not possible. Do you think converting a live ESX server might work using VMware convertor?

[oreeh]

Do you think converting a live ESX server might work using VMware convertor?

This is not possible.

You have to install and reconfigure from scratch.

[asatoran · Accepted solution]

I wonder if anybody can help with my request.

I am running Workstation 6 on my laptop and I am trying to install VMware ESX server 3.x in a virtual machine. The installation process always completes successfully, however whenever ESX starts to boot up it hangs. Has anyone managed to install and run an ESX server virtual machine? Can anybody offer any advice please?

I know it can be done - I have seen it running in a VM.

It is probably still running. The first time I tried to do this, ESX took a several hours to load. (I got distracted and forgot that I had the VM still running. When I came back, the screen showed that ESX loading had continued. For fun, I decided to let it run overnight and it continued, but still hadn't finished loading.) Basically wrong settings and wrong hardware. Had to do this again on another machine before I got this working.

You can try reading these white papers.