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acsMike
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Fusion 2.0: Mac OSX as a guest?

Hi,

Using Fusion 2.0, why can't I install Mac OSX as a guest? Out of the 60 advertised guest OS', why couldn't Mac OSX be one of them? It would seem Parallels Desktops can't support this either? Is there something underlying difficulty with OSX?

(Fusion 2.0 has experimental support for OSX servers, but those aren't the ones I need...)

Thanks, Michael

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TomHowarth
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Because Apple will not allow it. their EULA states that OSx Desktop can only be insttaled on Apple Hardware, A virtual machine is not Apple Hardware. aslo there is a restriction for OSx Server, is that it can only be run and or virtualised on Apple Servers.

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TomHowarth
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Because Apple will not allow it. their EULA states that OSx Desktop can only be insttaled on Apple Hardware, A virtual machine is not Apple Hardware. aslo there is a restriction for OSx Server, is that it can only be run and or virtualised on Apple Servers.

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points

Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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acsMike
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I see. I suspected that.

Can it not be assumed that Vmware Fusion is in fact always run on Mac itself? That would always make the hardware "Apple hardware" ...?

Disallowing virtualization of the Mac OS is immensely inhibiting. One would imagine Apple would understand that.

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aslo there is a restriction for OSx Server, is that it can only be run and or virtualised on Apple Servers.

That's actually not the restriction - you can run Leopard Server on Leopard Client, and it doesn't have to be an XServe (any Mac is fine). For technical reasons, Fusion requires a 64-bit host for OS X guests.

acsMike: Leopard Server's EULA specifically allows running in a virtual environment; Leopard Client has no such provision. Complain to Apple.

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acsMike
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...Leopard Client has no such provision. Complain to Apple.

Smiley Wink If there was a chance that Apple would care, I would complain.

I'm a developer and need to do compatibility checks and tests on (you name it) number of OS versions, and I refuse to buy heaps of computers. Partitioning the computer only helps that much.

Oh well, thanks guys.

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RDPetruska
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Can it not be assumed that Vmware Fusion is in fact always run on Mac itself? That would always make the hardware "Apple hardware" ...?

Don't forget that virtual machines are portable across hosts. That is one of the major benefits! So, an OSX guest could in theory be run on a Windows or Linux host using VMware Workstation, Server, or Player. In all of those cases, it would be technically possible, but a violation of Apple's licensing.

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acsMike
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Can it not be assumed that Vmware Fusion is in fact always run on Mac itself? That would always make the hardware "Apple hardware" ...?

Don't forget that virtual machines are portable across hosts. That is one of the major benefits! So, an OSX guest could in theory be run on a Windows or Linux host using VMware Workstation, Server, or Player. In all of those cases, it would be technically possible, but a violation of Apple's licensing.

I forgot that Fusion machines are compatible with Workstation & Server . (They are, right?)

I'm used to Server on Linux and Workstation on Windows. The Fusion program is new to me.

Although, if the possibility of moving the machine to a PC was the only legal obstacle, the responsibility could either be put on the end user, or the machine could be forced to require a real Mac underneath, i.e Fusion-only.

Just an idea, but I guess you have talked to Apples atterneys enough about this...

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I forgot that Fusion machines are compatible with Workstation & Server . (They are, right?)

They generally are, though this doesn't guarantee that all virtual machines will run on all platforms - there are some corner cases which are not portable. Examples include OS X Server virtual machines (which only Fusion supports) or the OVF format (which Fusion does not understand, though ovf->vmx converters exist).

Although, if the possibility of moving the machine to a PC was the only legal obstacle, the responsibility could either be put on the end user, or the machine could be forced to require a real Mac underneath, i.e Fusion-only.

Mobility is not Apple's issue. AFAIK it's not harder to move a Leopard Server virtual machine to Workstation than it is to move a Leopard Client virtual machine, so it wouldn't make sense to restrict one but not the other Smiley Happy

I don't really want to get into the technical details for obvious reasons, but suffice it to say that simply moving a Fusion-created Leopard Server virtual machine over to a non-Fusion environment won't work.

Just an idea, but I guess you have talked to Apples atterneys enough about this...

Yep.

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