Learning: Loading VMWare ESX on a VMWare Fusion VM, in the Virtualization + Server-Based Computing forum on BrianMadden.com

I have a Mac Pro 2.8 GHz dual quad core with 4GB ram:

Try not to laugh :) This may sound totally insane, but I want to load an eval copy of VMWare ESX in order to learn as much as I can about it. I learned that it was a Linux 2.4 kernel so I thought I'd try choosing that as the OS when creating my Fusion VM. So it boots up and says I have no hard drives and asks me to choose a driver. I try choosing the USB mass storage device driver for Linux, hoping that my Lacie drive works (it's firewire though so probably not). It detects and then moves on to the wizard, hitting next it reboots saying it can't find any network devices.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to get this to work? If it isn't possible that's fine and if not are there any suggestions on how I can learn as much as I can about it without having to have an HP DL580 or something in order to do it? Bootcamp only supports Windows.

I did this once a while back when I learned how to run a VM within a VM which from what I understand you're trying to do. Their was a technical document written up that I followed that talked about how to run ESX within VMware workstation. Of course VM workstation is not the same as VMware Fusion, but it was close enough and I was able to make it work. Here is the article that I read in Redmond Mag that inspired me to make it work in Fusion: http://redmondmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=2314 (note: I'm Mr. Anonymous - from 11/2/07 in the comments).

Here is a a quick overview of the steps I did to get it working:

Create a new custom virtual machine. Set the OS as Linux, and the version as Red Hat Linux.
-Continue-
Give your ESX server a name
-Continue-
Pick your Virtual Hard Disk, and configure the disk size
-Continue-
Uncheck start the VM and install now.
-Finish-
Close the VM window once launched. Close Fusion.

Browse to your VM, Right-click show package contents
See here for more info: http://screencast.com/t/5X8733EM

Right click on your .vmx file and open in TextEdit / TextWrangler / etc.

add
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = TRUE
monitor_control.vt32 = TRUE
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsilogic"
numvcpus = "2"
change
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
memsize = "512"

Save the .vmx file, close your text editor.
Here's a screenshot of my final config: http://screencast.com/t/wyBoEvsiE

Close your VM package

open Fusion and lunch your ESX VM. You should get a LSI Logic error like this:
http://screencast.com/t/H5dsX3xF
Choose No (honestly I'm not sure what this is for or what it means)

Continue on with the xtravirt instructions starting at page 16, step 23 From here: http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=75&func=startdown&id=11

Let me know if you have any problems.

Wow!! Thanks I'll try that!

No problem. I did my testing about six months ago using Tiger and whatever was the newest Fusion was at the time. I've upgraded to Leopard, and I think two or three newer versions of Fusion since then, but I would be surprised if it didn't work. I also noticed that it was a little sluggish on my computer, but then again I'm running the first Intel Gen 24" iMac, so it was nearly as powerful as yours. I'm curious how your performance is. I also found I got better performance if I closed Firefox, and only used Safari with a minimal amount of tabs open to cut back on the computers memory usage.

I thought it was funny a little after was testing this I went to a DOD / Federal event from VMware. When I asked him about the support for VMware ACE on a Mac, they kind of just said that their only Mac focus currently is Fusion. He then asked the crowd how much interest in the crowd was there for VMware's support for Mac. There was a large number of hands. They then asked out of the crowd how many of us had 100 or more Macs in the network....everyone lowered their hands. That's what they thought. I asked them about running VMware ACE within a VM running on Fusion, and they said they could imagine that it's possible, but that it's definitely not supported. I never told them that I was running ESX within Fusion, but I was tempted.

I will probably installing ESX in Fusion in the near future once again to further my knowledge / training of the product. Brian Madden mentioned that Ron Oglesby's new ESX book just went to the publisher last Friday, so I will be picking that up once available and hopefully I can become a ESX guru.

I'd like to report success so far following this recipe to run ESX 3.5 under Fusion 2.0.1. I did, however, have to add one additional vmx setting (or else booting was exceedingly slow and ultimately panicked with "pcpu0 didn't have a heartbeat for __ seconds"): monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware" Some more advice on settings for ESX 3.5 is available here (though it is talking about running under VMware Workstation 6.5): http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/470-ESX-3.5-is-running-on-Workstation-6.5-Build-91182-!!!.html

Craig,

This worked well even for loading VI 4.0 on Fusion 2.x (newest).  Have you tried this as well?  I am wondering what issues I am going to run into when I try to load vcenter in this environment...

 

Dan O