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Quick Tip - ESXi 8.0 Update 2b resolves not detecting Apple NVMe

02.29.2024 by William Lam // 26 Comments

There was an issue that was reported last November where ESXi 8.0 Update 2 was not detecting the onboard Apple NVMe device during an upgrade and I am happy to share the mentioned fix will be available as part of the pending release of ESXi 8.0 Update 2b release, which is schedule for today (02/29/24)!

Release day! 🙌

(Pending) vSphere 8.0 Update 2b release is currently being staged to CDN ... just logged into my vCenter Server & you can see breadcrumbs. Give it till PST evening for bits/RN to be available

vCenter 📒: https://t.co/wV6OTFq1dA

ESXi 📒: https://t.co/yD5tD9qThk pic.twitter.com/64G7a8PP5K

— William Lam (@lamw.bsky.social | @*protected email*) (@lamw) February 29, 2024


When you boot into the ESXi 8.0 Update 2b installer, you should now see the Apple NVMe device, which may also contain your ESXi installation and you will be able to select it and upgrade!


Disclaimer: Support for ESXi on Apple Hardware (Mac Pro and Mac Mini) has officially concluded with ESXi 7.x, so this is purely for informational and/or for homelab use purposes.

Categories // Apple, ESXi Tags // apple, NVMe

ESXi 8.0 Update 2 not detecting Apple NVMe on Apple Mac Mini 2018

11.28.2023 by William Lam // 4 Comments

While official support for running ESXi on Apple Hardware (Mac Pro and Mac Mini) has concluded with ESXi 7.x, it certainly has not discourage users from experimenting with newer ESXi releases. In fact, ESXi 8.x still runs like a champ on most x86 Apple Hardware platforms including the vintage Apple Mac Mini 7,1 (2014) and to the most recent Apple Mac Mini 8,1 (2018)!

For those with an Apple Mac Mini 8,1 (2018), the onboard Apple NVMe storage device can not be used out of the box with ESXi, without the use of the Community NVMe Driver for ESXi Fling. Surprisingly, the Community NVMe Driver for ESXI Fling is still functional even with the latest ESXi 8.x release, even though it was only created and supported during ESXi 7.x timeframe.


From the recent reports from the VMware Community, the Apple NVMe device can be detected up until ESXi 8.0 Update 1c (Build 22088125) but after upgrading to ESXi 8.0 Update 2 (22380479), it was no longer showing up.

[Read more...]

Categories // Apple, ESXi, vSphere 8.0 Tags // 4KN, apple, mac mini, NVMe

vSphere 8 on Apple Mac Hardware

10.10.2022 by William Lam // 53 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 (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)✅

[Read more...]

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

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William is Distinguished Platform Engineering Architect in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Division at Broadcom. His primary focus is helping customers and partners build, run and operate a modern Private Cloud using the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform.

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  • Automating the vSAN Data Migration Pre-check using vSAN API 06/04/2025
  • VCF 9.0 Hardware Considerations 05/30/2025
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