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Eudmin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Install Mojave VM on ESXi 6.5U2 (Apple hardware)

I've installed 6.5U2 on a Mac Mini and have added it to my vCenter as an ESXi server for running MacOS virtual machines. My understanding is that this doesn't violate any licenses.

I made a Mojave install USB drive from another Mac, and it works to install on a physical Mac Mini.  I then used Rufus to turn it into a VHD file and converted it into a VMDK file with VBoxManage. 

I added that VMDK as a second hard drive to a new MacOS virtual machine and powered it on.  It tries to boot, but then gives me the circle with a line through it. 

I've read various help sites for installing MacOS on ESXi, but most of them are not Mojave specific because they're older.  None of them that I've found have helped me get it done.

Has anyone successfully done it and, if so, how?

Thanks.

Screenshot proving I actually have it on a Mac below.

esxi_on_mac.PNG

3 Replies
daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

According to the HCL, Mojave is supported of 6.5 U2, but I've heard from multiple people that they've only been able to get it working on 6.7.

Eudmin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

OK.  Thanks.  I'm not quite ready to upgrade to 6.7.  I'll look around.

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Eudmin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the pointer to the HCL.  I went and looked it up and saw that IDE drives weren't supported. 

That proved to be the key for me getting it working.  I now have a working Mojave VM on 6.5U2.

I've been through a few KB articles to get it to work. 

This one helped me realize that my installer VMDK file needed to be imported in order to work in ESXi:

VMware Knowledge Base

Then once it was imported I added it to the MacOS VM and it gave me the circle with line again.

Then I read the HCL and saw that the IDE driver isn't supported in MacOS virtual machines on 6.5U2, but SATA is, so I changed the controller from the default of IDE to SATA, and it just worked. 

It booted from the install media, gave me the option to "Erase" the VMware SATA drive (which is Apple-speak for formatting the empty hard drive), and installed Mojave just fine on it.  I shut down and removed the second hard drive, which was my install image, and booted again, and it seems to work fine.

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