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ESXi 6.0 works OOTB for Apple Mac Mini & Mac Pro

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Over the years, there have been various Apple issues that have required different hacks/tweaks to get a stock ESXi image to install on an Apple Mac Mini. Even though the only officially supported Apple platform for ESXi is the Apple Mac Pro, VMware Engineering, CPD and Hardware QE have been working hard to back porting as many of these "fixes/tweaks" to provide the best user experience possible for installing ESXi on non-supported Apple hardware. As you can imagine, the amount of work required to manage hardware on the official VMware HCL is no small task and then trying to back port non-supported platforms is even more challenging from a support standpoint.

The release of ESXi 6.0 is a significant release in my opinion as it contains the final few fixes that have plagued earlier version of the Mac Mini platform, especially starting with the Mac Mini 6,2 and greater models. I am please to announce that the stock ESXi 6.0 image now works on all Mac Mini platforms starting from 5,1 and newer as well as Mac Pro 6,1 platform and newer. There are no additional tweaks or custom ISOs that will be required for a fully functional ESXi installation with proper networking enabled. In fact, if you have a Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter connected to either a Mac Mini or Mac Pro, you will also notice that it is automatically recognized without any additional driver or tweaks to the driver map files.

Disclaimer: Running ESXi on an Apple Mac Mini is not officially supported by VMware, please use at your own risk

One caveat that I would like to highlight is for the recent 2014 Mac Mini 7,1 or newer models where the SATA HDD is not automatically detected due to a change in the disk model made by Apple. Unfortunately, due to the late release of the 2014 Mac Mini, the required PCI ID to recognize the drive could not be added to the stock image of ESXi 6.0. Luckily, the resolution is quite easy and you can download and apply this custom VIB to get the SATA HDD recognized. I have been told that the plan is to get this fix in the next update/patch release so hopefully in the near future, no additional tweaks are required ... unless Apple decides to change something on us again 🙂

Here are screenshots of running ESXi 6.0 on both the Apple Mac Mini and Mac Pro:

mac-min-vsphere-6
mac-pro-vsphere-6

Handy new vSphere 6.0 APIs to be aware of

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The number of new platform capabilities and features in vSphere 6.0 is by far the largest that I have seen in awhile. One of the things I like to do with each new vSphere release is review all the new APIs that are now available to be consumed. Here are some of the new vSphere APIs that I think are interesting from an Automation point of view for vSphere 6 that I think folks should be aware of. I know for myself, there are several new vSphere APIs that I have personally been waiting for quite some time and I am glad to finally see them available for our customers, developers and partners. Depending on my free time, I may go into more details on how some of these new APIs work and provide some sample codes.

If you would like to see the complete list of new vSphere 6.0 APIs, be sure to check out the vSphere 6.0 API Reference Guide (available when vSphere 6.0 GA's which is Q1 of 2015) which has a "What's New" section on all the new Managed Objects, Methods, Properties, etc.

CertificateManager - API to deploy and refresh VMCA (VMware Certificate Authority) SSL Certificates for ESXi hosts

  • CertMgrRefreshCACertificatesAndCRLs_Task
  • CertMgrRefreshCertificates_Task
  • CertMgrRevokeCertificates_Task

ClusterEVCManager - API to finally manage and configure EVC (Enhanced vMotion Compatibility) for a vSphere Cluster

  • CheckAddHostEvc_Task
  • CheckConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • ConfigureEvcMode_Task
  • DisableEvcMode_Task

IoFilterManager - API to manage the new IO Filter capability

  • InstallIoFilter_Task
  • QueryDisksUsingFilter
  • QueryIoFilterInfo
  • QueryIoFilterIssues
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnCluster_Task
  • ResolveInstallationErrorsOnHost_Task
  • UninstallIoFilter_Task
  • UpgradeIoFilter_Task

ClusterComputeResource - API to quickly lookup all the affinity and anti-affinity rules for a VM

  • FindRulesForVm

VSAN 6.0 / VVOL / NFS v4.1 APIs - Please take a look here

HostStorageSystem 

  • Marking a Disk device as either Local or Remote
    • MarkAsLocal_Task
    • MarkAsNonLocal_Task
  • Marking a Disk device as either an SSD or Magnetic Disk
    • MarkAsNonSsd_Task
    • MarkAsSsd_Task
  • Turn On of Off the LED on supported Disk device
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOn_Task
    • TurnDiskLocatorLedOff_Task
  • VMFS UNMAP operation
    • UnmapVmfsVolumeEx_Task

HostCertificateManager - API to manage and update custom CA signed SSL Certificates on ESXi hosts

  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequest
  • GenerateCertificateSigningRequestByDn
  • InstallServerCertificate
  • ListCACertificateRevocationLists
  • ListCACertificates
  • ReplaceCACertificatesAndCRLs

HostActiveDirectoryAuthentication - API to manage Smart Card Authentication on ESXi hosts

  • DisableSmartCardAuthentication
  • EnableSmartCardAuthentication
  • InstallSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • ListSmartCardTrustAnchors
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchor
  • RemoveSmartCardTrustAnchorByFingerprint
  • ReplaceSmartCardTrustAnchors

HostAccessManager - API to manage new Lockdown Mode capabilities and modify System Users

  • ChangeAccessMode
  • ChangeLockdownMode
  • QueryLockdownExceptions
  • QuerySystemUsers
  • RetrieveHostAccessControlEntries
  • UpdateLockdownExceptions
  • UpdateSystemUsers

VirtualMachine

  • Enable SMP-FT for VM
    • CreateSecondaryVMEx_Task
  • Send NMI (Non-Masking Interrupt) request to VM
    • SendNMI

GuestWindowsRegistryManager - API to manage registry keys for Windows Guest OSes

  • CreateRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryKeyInGuest
  • DeleteRegistryValueInGuest
  • ListRegistryKeysInGuest
  • ListRegistryValuesInGuest
  • SetRegistryValueInGuest

New vSphere 6.0 APIs for VSAN, VVOLs, NFS v4.1 & more!

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vSphere 6.0 includes a number of new storage platform capabilities and new features which includes VSAN 6.0, VVOLS and NFS v4.1 to just name a few. For those of you who are interested in consuming these new capabilities programmatically for Automation, here are some of the new vSphere 6.0 APIs to be aware of from a Storage stand point.

Generic Storage Sub-System

  • HostStorageSystem (Existing Managed Object)
    • Methods to manage and configure NFS v4.1
      • ChangeNFSUserPassword
      • ClearNFSUser
      • QueryNFSUser
      • SetNFSUser
    • Methods to mark a Disk device either Local or Remote
      • MarkAsLocal_Task
      • MarkAsNonLocal_Task
    • Methods to mark a Disk device as either an SSD or Magnetic Disk
      • MarkAsNonSsd_Task
      • MarkAsSsd_Task
    • Methods to turn On or Off the LED for supported Disk devices
      • TurnDiskLocatorLedOn_Task
      • TurnDiskLocatorLedOff_Task
    • Method to issue VAAI UNMAP operation
      • UnmapVmfsVolumeEx_Task
VSAN 6.0
  • VsanUpgradeSystem (New Managed Object) - Methods to upgrade to the new VSAN 6.0 on-disk format
    • PerformVsanUpgrade_Task
    • PerformVsanUpgradePreflightCheck
    • QueryVsanUpgradeStatus
  • HostVsanInternalSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to query & upgrade VSAN Objects
    • QueryVsanObjectUuidsByFilter
    • UpgradeVsanObjects
  • HostVsanSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to manage VSAN Node and disks
    • EvacuateVsanNode_Task
    • RecommissionVsanNode_Task
    • UnmountDiskMapping_Task
  • ComputeResource (Existing Managed Object)
    • faultDomainInfo - New Property to configure Fault Domains
VVOL
  • HostDatastoreSystem (Existing Managed Object) - Methods to create and delete VVOL Datastores
    • CreateVvolDatastore
    • RemoveDatastoreEx_Task