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vSphere 8 on Apple Mac Hardware

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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 (07/26/23) - ESXi 8.0 Update 1a installs fine on an Apple Mac Mini 5,3 (2011), but you will need to ensure you have Apple Thunderbolt 2 network adapter as ESXi no longer supports the onboard adapter. You also will need to append an additional ESXi boot option (SHIFT+O) allowLegacyCPU=true to by pass the CPU check.

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)✅

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ESXi on Intel NUC 12 Pro (Wall Street Canyon)

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Many in the VMware Community, including myself, started with the classic 4x4 Intel NUC for running a VMware homelab. Over the years, this powerful little Intel NUC continues to enable a wide variety of new VMware use cases from running vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Tanzu and even vRealize (now Aria). It felt like it was just yesterday that I had switched from using an Apple Mac Mini to the latest Intel NUC (6th Generation) to build my new vSphere/vSAN Homelab, which was more than 6 years ago! 😲

While Intel continues to expand and grow their "NUC" portfolio to include many other form factors, the classic 4x4 design still has a special place for many people in the VMware community. The classic Intel NUC is not only small, portable but also extremely capable, especially with last few releases which makes this an ideal kit for those just getting started with a new VMware Homelab.

If you are in the market for an upgrade this year, definitely check out the latest refresh of this classic 4x4 design with Intel's recent launch of the Intel NUC 12 Pro, formally known as the Wall Street Canyon NUC.

Let's take a closer look at this new Intel NUC 😀

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ESXi on Intel NUC 12 Extreme (Dragon Canyon)

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As teased back in January, Intel has been working on a new Intel NUC ...

Today, Intel has officially launched one of their new 12th generation Intel NUCs called the Intel NUC 12 Extreme formally code named Dragon Canyon. Some may also notice that the Intel NUC 12 Extreme looks very similiar to last years Intel NUC 11 Extreme (Beast Canyon), but there are definitely a number of differences both internally and externally.

Here is your first look at the new Intel NUC 12 Extreme and what it means for those interested in using it for a VMware Homelab.

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