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Jon8177
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

VMware ESXi compatible hardware for installing on Apple Mac hardware

Hello,

I am trying to install VMware ESXi on Apple mac hardware. This is my requirement.

I've read all the installation videos from VMware link and understood.

Free VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Free Virtualization (ESXi)

My requirement is, I must to use Apple mac to install ESXi and then install OS X (EL capitan) and virtualize the machine. I know that if we install ESXi, it will wipe out OS.

I have the following questions, please clarify.

1. When I am checking the Apple Mac hardware compatibility from this link, VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

I found that there are 4 supported Apple Mac hardware displayed. Please see the picture below. My question is, Is this a correct list of Hardware compatibility to install ESXi on Mac hardware.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 12.12.37 AM.png

2. What is the cost of VMware ESXi product? I couldn't find anywhere. I only see free trial download option.

3. To get license for VMware vSphere Hypervisor I need to Register for the product. Getting this license is free or paid?

4. Just for testing purpose, Can I install vSphere client also in the Apple mac hardware where I installed ESXi? Why I am asking this is, According to documentation, vSphere client can be installed on the client machine and ESXi can be installed on the server machine. So, there are 2 machines here. But for testing purpose, Can I install both on the same Apple mac hardware and test? Is it possible?


thanks

4 Replies
vHaridas
Expert
Expert

1. Yes, Displayed Apple Hardware list is correct. based on your requirement you can select which Apple MacPro system you need.

2/3 - You can register at VMware site and download ESXi for free and use it in Evaluation mode for 60 days. During Evaluation period you can use and test all features of ESXi. I am not sure the cost but you can get 'Buy' option on VMware site.

4. You need to install VMware ESXi on MacPro system and Install VMware vSphere Client on any remote/network Windows System.

Complete IP setup on ESXi server and then Using vSphere Client connect to ESXi serve to create and manage VMs.

You need two Systems One for ESXi and then you can have windows system for vSphere Client.

Please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" replies. Thanks....!!! https://vprhlabs.blogspot.in/
Jon8177
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thank you for your reply.

- If I understand correctly, you are mentioning "ESXi" is not completely free after trial is complete?

- "VMware vSphere Client" is also similar to the above?

- If we both above are having trial versions and we need to buy once trial period is over, How can purchase this products? Do I need to buy entire "vSphere suite" or Can I buy these both, "ESXi" and "VMware vSphere Client" separately?

- I want to try both the combinations, "ESXi" + "VMware vSphere Client"  and also "ESXi" + "VMware vCenter server" as we have an enterprise level environment.

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NorCalTechSuppo
Contributor
Contributor

Unless something has changed ESXi 6 and below is free.  I have many ESXi 5.5 and 5.1 hosts so not 100% sure.

vSphere Client is free and downloaded by accessing your ESXi host with a web browser.

VMware vCenter server is cool and I run mine on an older server class piece of hardware.  VMware vCenter server is a very powerful hypervisor that takes care of 3 (concurrent) host servers.  The vSphere Web Client is just as the name says.  Anyone new should concentrate on the vSphere Web Client that requires the vCenter Server and Single Sign On.  the software vCenter Client is easy to use for most uses such as running backup or creating or cloning new VMs.  The power is in the vSphere Web Client for things like enabling PCI cards.


Your Mac Pro will be your ESXi host and probably boot from an SSD.  Your Windows or Ubuntu type hosts are most often stored on external iSCSI HD shares.  With a little work some have gotten Thunderbolt HDD arrays to be used as Datastores for ESXi.  For first round consider FreeNAS Mini with 4X6TB HDD and a single GB NIC will do but an upgrade to 10GB might be worth it.


By the way a dual drive Mac mini with 16GB RAM will easily run 2 or 3 VMs concurrently.  The Mac mini is not supported by VMware but they do quiet well in a test environment. 


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MattiasN81
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I have setup a couple of VMware sites with MacPros as hosts before.

1. Yes, these are supported BUT VMware changed the SATA controller driver in ESXi 6 so you need to get an unofficial SATA driver and inject it to the ESXi ISO file before installation, otherwise the installation wont be able to detect the SSD/HDD.

Here is a link with an howto and more info on the issue

Heads up: ESXi 5.x & 6.0 unable to detect newer Apple Mac Pro 6,1 local SSD Device | virtuallyGhetto

2. The worst place to ask for pricing is here, you will get a ton of different prices Smiley Happy, mostly because licenses is delivered and sold by partners with their own kickback plans and not VMware directly so pricing will differ alot between partners and countries. and of course what features you want.


There are a couple of packages offered by VMware depending on your demands.


* VMware Hypervisor edition, this is a free solution but is limited to single host, you can use the same free license key on several hosts but you cant cluster them at all

* vSphere Essentials/Essentials plus, this is a paid solution with vCenter and a host cap of three hosts, you will get features like HA, vMotion and so on

* vSphere Enterprise/Enterprise plus, this is for SMBs to large enterprises with more than 3 hosts and the need for distributed switches, flash read cache, DRS/storage DRS and so on, a quite expensive solution


3. Yes, you register on Myvmware to get a free license key for the hypervisor edition


4. Yes, the latest version of ESXi is bundled with a WEB UI called ESXi Host Client, no need to install anything, you can still use the old C# Sharp client for Windows if you like

.

VMware Certified Professional 6 - DCV VMware VTSP Software Defined Storage Dell Blade Server Solutions - EMEA Certified Dell PowerEdge Server Solutions - EMEA Certfied Dell Certified Storage Deployment Professional Dell EMC Proven Professional If you found my answers useful please consider marking them as Helpful or Correct
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