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Workaround for sorry this product can not be installed inside of a virtual machine for early VMware Hypervisors

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While continuing my exploration trip down memory lane with early VMware Hypervisors such as VMware GSX Server, VMware Server and VMware Workstation, I came across the following error message when attempting to install these hypervisors within a Windows VM:

Sorry this product can not be installed inside of a virtual machine

I guess this would make sense given the ability to run a Hypervisor (Nested Virtualization) within a VM would not be possible for many more years later and this check seemed like a good way to prevent users from having a bad user experience, however it prevent me from continuing.


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How to install all versions of ESX and ESXi in VM?

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Thanks goodness for Virtualization and the ability to easily install ANY operating system inside of a vSphere Virtual Machine including the very first release of ESX 1.0, which is more than 22 years old now.


While going through the process of installing each of the major VMware ESX and ESXi releases, I had made notes for each of the VM configurations that I had used and any other issues I may have ran into. Figured I share this information in case anyone might be interested and this would also provide an online searchable reference in case I ever need to do this again for my future-self šŸ˜€

In addition to recording each installation, which you can watch via the Youtube playlists below, I also had some fun putting together this short compilation that summarizes all the VMware ESX and ESXi releases over the past 22 years. Definitely recommend checking it out and be sure to ???

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VirtualCenter 1.0 - Trip down memory lane

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With my recent trip down memory lane and gettingĀ  to install ESX 1.0 for the very first time, I figured it would not be complete without also exploring the very first release of VMware VirtualCenter 1.0 released back in 2003!


As mentioned in the previous article, I started working with both ESX 2.5 and VirtualCenter 2.0, so I have not had the chance to experience versions prior at least until recently. For those that can recall, VirtualCenter and subsequent vCenter Server releases until vSphere 5.0, was still a Windows application and that meant I needed to find a version of Windows that would be compatible and ideally have all required library dependencies.

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