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ESXi 5.x on new Apple Mac Mini 6,2 Late 2012 *NOT* working

Hello!

I bought one of the new MacMinis, which were presented yesteraday, plugged two 8GiB DD3-1600 modules in (OsX reported 16GiB of memory, as the models before) and tried to install ESXi 5.1 Build 799733. It started promising:

Initializing chipset...

Initializing timing...

Initializing scheduler...

Initializing processors...

Initializing ACPI...

*BANG*

Pink screen! Smiley Sad

NOT_REACHED bora/vmkernel/hardware/intel/vtd.c:3638

cr0=0x8001003d cr2=0x0 cr3=0x449ad500 cr4=0x12c

*PCPU0:4096/bootstrap

PCPU  0: SISISISISISISIS

Code start: 0x41800c600000 VMK uptime: 0:00:00:04.301

and a stackdump.

macmini.png

I tried instalkling 5.0 and 5.0 U1 also, but with the same result.

It is the regular MacMini with an i7 4C 2.3GHz and one 1TB SATA drive (http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD388LL/A with no extras), not the MacMini Server.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

PS1: I was unable to boot the ESXi setup from USB key! Since other USB keys (OsX setup for example) didn't work either, I suspect that there's some EFI boot problem from the new USB3 ports. Booting from CD worked, however.

PS2: on the earlies models we had the problem, that the Alt key wasn't recognized after powering on, when there is an USB hub between the keyboard and the Mac (a KVM switch for example). That seems to be fixed now: whenever I press the Alt key at the powerup chime, I get the Apple "boot menu", even with our KVM switch in between.

338 Replies
sirozha1
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Contributor

You are right. Too much work today.

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MacSS
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I have a question for those of you who are running VMs on a quad-core Mac Mini running OSX:

When you go throught the initial VM creation, at the CPUs screen, how many virtual sockets do you select ( 1 or 2 ), and how many cores do you create per virtual socket ( 1 to 8 )?

I set up my test machine with 1 virtual socket, and 1 core per virtual socket. My logic was that there are 4 cores, so each vm gets 1 core. Is this the right way to think about it? What have you chosen to get the best performance?

Thanks,

Gian

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elchubi
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I received a second macmini 6.2 for which I won't be installing ESXi... I didn't have internet connection available when setting it up, how can I associate my account to Mountain Lion and iLife now it's on-line?

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HPReg
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

> When you go throught the initial VM creation, at the CPUs screen, how many virtual sockets do you select ( 1 or 2 ), and how many cores do you create per virtual socket ( 1 to 8 )?

All physical Macs which support Lion and up have at least 2 cores.

So while in theory, Mac OS is still supposed to run on a single core computer, in practice it is largely untested.

For that reason, I recommend using at least 2 cores for your Mac OS VMs. I.e. in Fusion use 2 virtual CPUs, and in ESXi use 1 virtual socket and 2 virtual cores per virtual socket.

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Yalvarez
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thank you i didn't know that

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sirozha1
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Launch the App store and you should get a prompt to associate the installed software with an Apple ID.

Sent from my iPhone

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elchubi
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no, it didn't

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appxjoe
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elchubi, from the app store, click on Purchases.

--

joe

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franto
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Hi there,

i have read this thread from beginning, now I got my new mac mini 6.2 yesterday.

as i want to preserve my os x i installed esxi on an usb stick from which i boot. i installed the smc iso.

my problem now is, when i am typing this in the shell (connected with ssh to the esxi): esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE and do a reboot after, i got the pinkish screen. seems it don´t save the settings. (when i type at the boot option iovDisableIR=TRUE all goes well).

also another problem, i cannot save my network settings permanent. maybe this is because I installed on an usb stick (4 GB)? do you have another idea or got the same problem before?

my mac mini is a 2,6 ghz with 16 gb ram (no server modell).

regards, tom

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BreeeZe
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franto wrote:

Hi there,

i have read this thread from beginning, now I got my new mac mini 6.2 yesterday.

as i want to preserve my os x i installed esxi on an usb stick from which i boot. i installed the smc iso.

my problem now is, when i am typing this in the shell (connected with ssh to the esxi): esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE and do a reboot after, i got the pinkish screen. seems it don´t save the settings. (when i type at the boot option iovDisableIR=TRUE all goes well).

also another problem, i cannot save my network settings permanent. maybe this is because I installed on an usb stick (4 GB)? do you have another idea or got the same problem before?

my mac mini is a 2,6 ghz with 16 gb ram (no server modell).

regards, tom

Did you add the option "iovDisableIR=TRUE" at startup and left all that was already there in tact, or did you clear the existing line and type "iovDisableIR=TRUE" ?

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sirozha1
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Good question. I'd like to know if its possible to run ESXi on the 2012 Mac Mini from a USB flash drive or even from an SD card.

Since ESXi doesn't support software RAID, using the internal Mac Mini's HD for the data store is asking for trouble in  the future, and wasting a 1TB HD on the ESXi itself is ... well, it's a waste. I'd rather boot ESXi from an SD card (or USB 3 flash drive) since I'm already using external storage (iSCSI) as the data store.

I could utilize the 1TB HD that came with the Mac Mini elsewhere. For example, I could use it in a Thunderbolt-based Drobo Mini, which I could use as the external storage for my ESXi data store.

Any thoughts?

Edit: SanDisk Extreme Pro 8 GB Class 10 UHS-1 can be read from at 95 MB/s and costs $25 on Amazon. This would be a perfect SD card to be used in a 2012 Mac Mini for ESXi.

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dburkland
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I was able to install vSphere 5.1 to a USB drive connected to my Mac Mini without any issues. The only annoyance is that each time I reboot I have to hold down the "option" key and tell the Mac to the USB drive. I'll have to do some more research, I'm sure there is a way to make this setting permament in the EFI

Regards,


Dan

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HPReg
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Boot Mac OS on the box, insert the USB drive, run "bless" on the USB drive volume. Or go to System Preferences > Startup Disk, and select the USB drive volume. This should set the proper boot order variables in EFI's NVRAM, and it shgould automatically boot your USB drive at the next reboot of the box.

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Try holding down the Control key when choosing the boot device at the boot picker screen... I've never tried it with a USB boot device before, but I believe holding Control will make the selection "stick" for HDDs at least.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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sirozha1
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Did you install it on a 2012 Mac Mini? Did you have to do anything special for ESXi settings to survive a reboot? I seem to recall someone else mentioning they could not get any settings applied via the vSphere Client to survive an ESXi reboot when ESXi was installed on a USB flash drive.

Has anyone tried to install ESXi on an SD card? I think the SD card is the best option because the SD card is recessed inside the body of the Mac Mini, so it's like having a special dedicated drive for ESXi and no risk of the USB drive accidentally coming loose.

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vSean
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I don't have a 2012 mini yet, but on my 2011 mini you can boot esx from the SD card.  However the ESXi kernel does not write config changes back to the card, presumably a driver problem.  In that model, it looked like the card reader function was part of the nic chipset, but its been a while since I looked into it.  Perhaps the drivers have matured.

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Yalvarez
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Guys today i got my mac mini. I registered ilife and mountain lion as you guys suggest. I had created 2 sucefully VMs and then i needed to reboot and when it came back online all the settings were gone can you guys please assit me with that?

thanks a lot :smileygrin:

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franto
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franto wrote:

Hi there,

i have read this thread from beginning, now I got my new mac mini 6.2 yesterday.

as i want to preserve my os x i installed esxi on an usb stick from which i boot. i installed the smc iso.

my problem now is, when i am typing this in the shell (connected with ssh to the esxi): esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE and do a reboot after, i got the pinkish screen. seems it don´t save  the settings. (when i type at the boot option iovDisableIR=TRUE all goes  well).

also  another problem, i cannot save my network settings permanent. maybe  this is because I installed on an usb stick (4 GB)? do you have another  idea or got the same problem before?

my mac mini is a 2,6 ghz with 16 gb ram (no server modell).

regards, tom

Did you add

the  option "iovDisableIR=TRUE" at startup and left all that was already  there in tact, or did you clear the existing line and type  "iovDisableIR=T

YES, I did!

As I saidbefore, I was able to boot with this "add" but I was not able to boot permanently with this.

At Bootup I always have to press the "alt" key and choose to boot from EFI, that is not my problem, the problem is, that my settings, which i do in esxi (when it is booted), not store permanently: my ip adress and that i shouldn´t do the "iovDisableIR=TRUE" in the "shift-o" menu.

you said here that i can override the "iovDisableIR=TRUE" in the "shift-o" menu, when i ssh to esxi and type: esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE


but next time i do a reboot (at which I have to add "iovDisableIR=TRUE" in the "shift-o" menu manually, otherwise I get the pinkish screen), this settings are false again. i checked it with:

esxcli system settings kernel list -o iovDisableIR

Name          Type  Description                              Configured  Runtime  Default
------------  ----  ---------------------------------------  ----------  -------  -------
iovDisableIR  Bool  Disable Interrrupt Routing in the IOMMU  FALSE        FALSE    FALSE

I do another test, when my usb harddisk arrive (i will do ccc image from os x to external disk) and install then esxi to internal disk.

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Yalvarez
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never mine is working now idk what happen

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Yalvarez
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Guys this thing is running like a charm thank you so much!!!!!!!

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