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You are here: Home / Apple / vSphere 8 on Apple Mac Hardware

vSphere 8 on Apple Mac Hardware

10.10.2022 by William Lam // 31 Comments

While vSphere 7.x is the last vSphere release to officially support Apple MacOS Virtualization running on ESXi, my own curiosity got the best of me and I was just curious if ESXi 8.0 could still run on recent Apple Mac Hardware ...

Disclaimer: VMware does NOT officially support running ESXi 8.0 on Apple Hardware nor Apple MacOS Virtualization using vSphere 8, this is purely for educational and informational purposes. Please use at your own risk.

Attempting to boot the ESXi 8.0 installer on an Apple Mac Mini 8,1 (2018) will halt the installer and result in the following exception.

UPDATE (10/11/22) - Thanks to user psm (MacAdmins Slack Group) for sharing ESXi 8.0 works on Apple Mac Mini 7,1 (2014)✅ and reader Jon (left comment) that ESXi 8.0 works on Apple Mac Pro 7,1 (2019)✅

I was about to give up but I figure I might as well share this internally in case Engineering might know why this is occurring and maybe even have a workaround. From the error, this could be related to a firmware bug but given ESXi 8.0 is not officially supported, there has been no testing or validation and issues like these can and will occur.

With the help of one of our Engineers, a bypass workaround was suggested as a last resort and to our surprise, it allowed me to successfully boot and install ESXi 8.0 on an Apple Mac Mini 8,1 (2018) ✅.

If you do run into this issue, you will need to update the ESXi 8.0 installer boot.cfg which is located under EFI/boot/boot.cfg (typically after you have created the bootable ESXi installer on USB) and you will need to add a new line at the very bottom with the following:

norts=1

Once you have updated the boot.cfg, you can then boot the ESXi 8.0 installer and be able to bypass the issue mentioned above and continue with the installation. Once the installation has completed, you will also need to update the boot.cfg under the /bootbank partition (before you reboot ESXi host, ALT+F1 to get into ESXi Shell) with this same configuration to ensure ESXi host can boot after you restart. Alternatively, you can also unplug the USB device (assuming you are booting off of USB) and manually updating the EFI/boot/boot.cfg using your local desktop system with USB device mounted.

With 2018 Apple Mac Mini running ESXi 8.0, I was also curious about my old 2011 Apple Mac Mini (5,3) 🤔 To my complete surprise, I was able to successfully boot and install ESXi 8.0 without any workarounds or issues! ESXi 8.0 now running on an Apple Mac Mini 5,3 (2011) ✅


Note: The built-in onboard 1GbE network adapter is no longer supported with ESXi and you will need to either use a USB-based network adapter or use Thunderbolt 2 to Ethernet Adapter which is recognized by ESXi 8.0 installer.

While I did not have access to an Apple Mac Pro 7,1 (2019), I would expect ESXi 8.0 to also have a similiar or better experience than the 2018 Mac Mini. If someone does get a chance to try ESXi 8.0 when it is available on the 2019 Mac Pro, be sure to share your experience and I will update the blog post with those details.

More from my site

  • How to bootstrap vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) on unsupported hardware?
  • Nested ESXi installation using HTTPS boot over VirtualEFI in vSphere 8
  • ACPI motherboard layout requires EFI - Considerations for switching VM firmware in vSphere 8 
  • USB Network Native Driver for ESXi Fling now supports vSphere 8!
  • Quick Tip - Changes to building custom ESXi images in vSphere 8

Categories // Apple, vSphere 8.0 Tags // apple, ESXi 8.0, mac mini, vSphere 8.0

Comments

  1. Jon says

    10/10/2022 at 6:29 am

    I would be happy to try as my 2019 MAC Pro is a VERY expensive paperweight right now but I do not have access to ESXi 8.0. When are we expecting a release that we can get to (or did I miss it somewhere)?

    Reply
    • jmhalder says

      10/10/2022 at 7:48 am

      It was announced last week that there will be a IA (Initial availability) release prior to GA (General availability). I believe it will be available on the 11th (tomorrow as of now). At least that was the guidance I saw that I can no longer seem to find. It was supposed to be released last month, but was pushed back due to QA. It's clear that VMware wants this to be a release with very little surprises.

      Reply
      • William Lam says

        10/10/2022 at 9:05 am

        See https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2022/10/new-release-model-for-vsphere-8.html

        Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/11/2022 at 6:21 am

      vSphere 8 IA is now available, please give it a go on 2019 Mac Pro https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/8_0

      Reply
      • Jon says

        10/11/2022 at 8:27 am

        YES, I can get it to install and work on the 2019 Mac Pro. It sees the storage adapter (did not try to capture the disks) and the NICs and seems to be good. I have struggled to get a MAC vm to NOT go into the boot loop but I'm not sure if its my process, my media, or the ESXi itself causing the issue. If anyone has a methodology that works, I would be happy to try it.

        Reply
        • Jon says

          10/11/2022 at 11:13 am

          Just created a new Monterey installation ISO from a running macbook and created a new VM and still get the boot loop just trying to boot from the ISO....

          Reply
          • Hubert Farnsworth says

            10/12/2022 at 9:12 am

            Try adding the reflect host = true switch to the config if you have not.

  2. Adam Gardner says

    10/11/2022 at 5:50 am

    I’m going to assume a Mac mini 2014 should work with v8 then based on the above. Looking forward to seeing what VMware Explore Europe has to offer even more now!

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/11/2022 at 6:18 am

      Hopefully! If you do have a chance to test it out, do let me know. Also, vSphere 8 IA just went live https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/8_0

      Reply
  3. Reuben Farrelly says

    10/12/2022 at 4:06 am

    ESXi-8 clean install PSOD'd for me a short while ago in the inbox atlantic driver with a QNA-10GT. This was on Intel NUC10 hardware under no load ... I hope it works better on a Mac!

    Reply
  4. bishoy adly says

    10/12/2022 at 11:31 am

    i'm trying to install it on mac min 2018 but i'm getting the error as per your screenshot can you please let me know how i can update the boot.cfg under the /bootbank ?

    Thanks.

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/12/2022 at 12:02 pm

      Did you read blog post, it literally outlines instructions!

      Reply
      • bishoy says

        10/12/2022 at 2:11 pm

        Yes, i found the way but it didn't work with me. i upgraded from 7.0u3 to 8 but even with the boot.cfg changes still not booting

        Reply
  5. Nikolaus says

    10/28/2022 at 5:13 am

    Tried to run the ESXi 8 Installer on a Late 2012 MacMini Server (MacMini 6.2) but unfortunately I got the message "CPU_SUPPORT ERROR: The CPU in this host is not supported by ESXi 8.0.0"
    Is there any way to circumvent the issue or am I stuck on ESXi 7 in my HomeLab?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      10/28/2022 at 6:32 am

      Yes, add ESXi boot option to by-pass. See https://williamlam.com/2022/09/homelab-considerations-for-vsphere-8.html

      Reply
    • exilevent says

      11/08/2022 at 2:17 pm

      Mac mini 6,2 (late 2012 Mac mini server) requirements for upgrade:
      1. Edit boot.cfg in BOTH bootbank partition folders with "allowLegacyCPU=true" and "norts=1"

      Reply
      • exilevent says

        11/08/2022 at 2:27 pm

        2. Then continue upgrade installation via command line

        Reply
  6. Jeffrey de Bosscher says

    11/02/2022 at 8:35 am

    Hi William, I'm trying to install ESXi 8.0 on a Mac mini 2018, still need to use TB3 NVME enclosure to install? The custom build with Community NVMe Driver for ESXi v1.2 does not seems to work.

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      11/02/2022 at 12:05 pm

      This is expected as a new driver would need to be built for ESXi 8.0, however due to https://williamlam.com/2022/10/vsphere-8-on-apple-mac-hardware.html, there is no plans to add support for ESXi 8.0 for the Fling

      Reply
      • Jeffrey de Bosscher says

        11/02/2022 at 1:12 pm

        Ok, was expected. Will revert when done with NVMe enclosure. I can confirm my upgrade on an Intel NUC8iHVK from ESXi 7.0 to 8.0 went fine with no issues.

        Reply
  7. exilevent says

    11/08/2022 at 2:12 pm

    - late 2012 Mac mini server (Mac 6,2)
    - bare metal
    - ESXi/vSphere 8.0.0 install via USB flash
    - Required commands @ efi/boot.cfg:
      1. allowLegacyCPU=true
    2. norts=1

    Onboard GbE works. Will try thunderbolt adapter soon (fingers crossed).

    Reply
  8. Stefan Neacsu says

    11/15/2022 at 6:44 am

    I have installed ESXi 8.0 on a 2019 MacPro, but I had to add a PCIE NVMe card with a 1TB NVMe card as storage. The internal storage is not seen by the installer or by the installed system, only the storage controller is seen. I also ran the following commands:
    esxcli storage core adapter list
    HBA Name Driver Link State UID Capabilities Description
    -------- --------- ---------- ----------- ------------ -----------
    vmhba0 vmw_ahci link-n/a sata.vmhba0 (0000:00:17.0) Intel Corporation Lewisburg SATA AHCI Controller
    vmhba1 nvme_pcie link-n/a pcie.e00 (0000:0e:00.0) Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB

    Any idea if there has been any progress on getting the internal storage working?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      11/15/2022 at 7:27 am

      No, there are no plans. Please re-read https://williamlam.com/2022/08/vsphere-esxi-7-x-will-be-last-version-to-officially-support-apple-macos-virtualization.html if you've not already

      Reply
  9. amnesia says

    11/20/2022 at 9:46 am

    The built-in onboard network card works just fine after upgrading to v8.

    Reply
  10. Kyle Ericson says

    12/10/2022 at 4:50 pm

    I was able to install ESXI 8 on a Mac Pro 2013. Seems there is an issue with the network where after one successful connection to the web console it disables the network. Only way I could get it to fix was a router reboot. Any ideas?

    Reply
  11. Rob Zeegers says

    01/14/2023 at 4:01 am

    After new install of esxi 8.0 the thunderbolt adaptors don't show up in the networks adapters. Did anyone get this working on a mac mini 2014?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      01/14/2023 at 5:37 am

      Is this Apple Thunderbolt Ethernet or something else? If, see https://williamlam.com/2020/11/quick-tip-how-to-use-apple-thunderbolt-2-ethernet-adapter-with-esxi-7-0-or-greater.html

      Reply
      • Rob Zeegers says

        01/14/2023 at 7:29 am

        Its the same as mentioned in that article. Any fix for this?

        Reply
  12. Rob Zeegers says

    01/14/2023 at 10:11 am

    I have a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter directly plugged into the ports of the mac mini 2014. No Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adaptor makes this a difference?

    Reply
    • William Lam says

      01/14/2023 at 10:27 am

      If it’s not Apples which is broadcom device, then your device may no longer be supported as drivers are needed to load either network or storage devices

      Reply
      • Rob Zeegers says

        01/14/2023 at 10:29 am

        device id from apple is MD463ZM/A.

        Reply

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William Lam is a Senior Staff Solution Architect working in the VMware Cloud team within the Cloud Infrastructure Business Group (CIBG) at VMware. He focuses on Cloud Native technologies, Automation, Integration and Operation for the VMware Cloud based Software Defined Datacenters (SDDC)

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