VMware ESXi on Apple MacPro

[nanonuke]

I installed the ESXi and everything looks fine until I start to download the VI Client and the link gets me a zero byte file. Also I keep getting error that the disk has GPT signatures and primary GPT table is corrupt. gpt disk labels do not support extended partitions. I have only one disk SATA disk in the entire system with no OS except this install on it. Any ideas how I can get this up & running. Also everytime I reboot the partition disappears.

[RParker]

I don't think this is going to work. You can put VM Workstation and put ESX in a VM for testing, but with 1 SATA, ESX doesn't support SATA for VM. Not to mention EFI isn't compatible with many products, Apple may be x86 architecture, but that's a completely different implementation, it's custom designed for Apple software.

[nanonuke]

What a bummer. This is the closest to a Server I have and I'm surprised that this would not be supported. Thanks for your quick reply.

[Jasemccarty]

Here's a post where you can run ESX/ESXi on Fusion:

http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/virtual_geek/2008/07/running-esx-on.html

If you are just wanting to become familiar with it, this is a good start.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

_{Please consider awarding points if this post was helpful or correct}

[nanonuke]

Thanks for all you help. I have given up using my Mac and I'm now using a windows custom built pc and hopefully I can get this up & running

[ChristopherB001]

Hi,

I just read your post. I got VMware ESXi to work on my Mac Pro (early 2008 model, 4 cores, 6GB RAM and three drives). I also had the error where the link to the vm-client had a length of zero and also the alerts regarding not being able to write on a GPT partitioned hard drive.

To fix both issues, I simply rebooted into Mac OS X and from Disk Utilities, chose to repartition the drive using the MS DOS FAT partition type on the drive. I then reinstalled ESXi and surprise, surprise, I could download the client. I have since installed Windows Server 2008 as a guest on it and it runs really well. It seems to go faster than Fusion. Only downside is that I can't run Mac OS X at the same time on it which is a big pain for me...

[javella]

Wow, I can't believe ESXi works on a Mac Pro!

I've gotta try that on mine at work, maybe I'll use a USB stick to boot. That's just nutz.

-Joaquin

[Tonygz]

ChristopherB001:

I see that you have gotten this to work on the mac pro... i would like to try this on a fairly new macbook pro.... but i guess i got a little confused on just exactly what the steps where that you took. Could you let me know what exactly what you did, in a kinda step by step? that would be great!....

couple things i tried... I created a bootcamp partition, put in the burned iso disc, went straight to the installer, rebooted, started the install process, and fails some time into it. next trial was to create the bootcamp partition, quit the installer, used disk utility to format the drive MS DOS (per your suggestion, which i think i may be reading wrong), reboot (option key to get bootcamp menu in which i do not see the DOS drive... just the mac drive and the esxi install cd), ran the installer..... and FAILED. again, i think i may have simply read your instructions wrong, but if you could elaborate just a bit more on the steps, that would be GREAT!... thanks!

[ChristopherB001]

Hi Tonygz

Hmm... Okay, just to make sure I'm getting this straight, you want to install VMware ESXi on a MacBOOK pro? Not sure that'll work. Firstly, VMware ESXi is designed for professional server grade hardware which the Mac Pro has and the MacBook Pro doesn't have (I'm referring to the motherboard chipset, and CPU type specifically). Also, the latest MacBooks have a recent NVidia chipset which is probably not supported by ESXi as VMware doesn't typically support and code for non-server hardware as far as I know. Also, it will not run IN a bootcamp partition, because when it finishes booting, it will reformat at the drive level, not the partition level (which is why I physically removed all of my other drives during the install as a precaution). So just to be clear, you can't dual boot into it if you only have one physical drive which is the case in most Apple laptops (unless you replace the DVD drive by a second HD). Also, you won't be able to use the Mac as a "terminal". All hosted servers must be accessed from another system.

Assuming that you do want to wipe all of your MBP's drive and give it a go, boot from the Mac OS X installer CD and partition it as one big FAT (MS-DOS) partition and format the partition also as MS-DOS. It should then be visible for the installation. The rest of the install should be fairly intuitive as you really don't get all that many options during the installation process. As to whether the rest of your hardware is supported, I really have no clue but doubt it (which will make the installer freeze/fail). I was able to get it to run fine on a Mac Pro. but it failed on an original MacBook white as well as on a C2D Macmini. In the latter case, the version of the Core 2 duo was not supported.

Unfortunately, I can't be of much more help, as I did the install a long time ago and wiped it a week later as I can't use my main production machine as a VM-host. That is what I wanted to use the mini for and why I switched to Xenserver which is supported on the Macmini (and may well work on your MacBook Pro, though you may have to patch the kernel to get support for your network adaptor (information is available on the web for this step should you need it)).

Anyhow, mostly out of curiosity, let me know if it works for you on your MBP.

Regards,

Christopher