Running VMWare ESXi on Apple Xserve

virtualizationvmware-serverxserve

So we're running VMWare Server running on Windows Server 2008 which we administer via the web interface. However it turns out the machine we're running it on has serious hardware limitations, most importantly it's restricted to 4gb of ram.

We've since inherited a much more powerful server. The problem being the new server is an Apple (intel based) server running, I believe, Snow Leopard Server.

My question is, can I run VMWare ESXi on Xserve, or an equivalent?

I'm done some hardcore Googling and the best that I can find is that it's not supported, but it might work, but there are no guarantees (this has been stated many times on the VMWare forums by the VMWare support staff). But all these search results are years old, so I can't find any recent answers regarding this.

I'm aware I can run each VM in an instance of Fusion, but this is undesirable and there is now remote web based administration interface as far as I know.

Has anyone accomplished this?

Best Answer

The VMWare you have running on Windows 2008 is probably the VMWare Server 1.0 or 2.0 host-based product. ESXi runs directly on the server hardware without a host operating system.

As for the Apple Xserve, attempting to run ESXi may not be worth it. A quick check on Google seems to indicate that it is not possible.

However, Parallels has a bare-metal hypervisor that runs on the Xserve hardware.
http://www.parallels.com/products/server/mac/audience/it-xserves-linux/

Related Solutions

Is it possible to run Windows Server on Apple Xserve hardware

Boot Camp is not supported on Xserves: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3307

VMWare Fusion: Bridged Network Using a Bonded NIC

Try the Tokamak Networking Scripts for VMware Fusion, they provide advanced networking setup and might possibly do what you're looking for...

WARNING: If you have a Home Directory protected by FileVault, DO NOT INSTALL FROM WITHIN THAT DIRECTORY! It will mess up FileVault (happeend to me once)

EDIT: You might also try this thread on the VMware community forums. An exerpt for you:

After seeing this post by powervm: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/151384?tstart=0

I was able to get bonded nics/link aggregates to work.

edit /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/boot.sh and look for the vmnet-bridge section and edit accordingly.

vmnet-bridge puts itself in background (daemon mode)
Bridge to host network interface 'en0'.
"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 en0
Bridge to host network interface 'en1'
"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet2.pid vmnet2 en1
#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet3.pid vmnet3 bond0
Bridge to the primary host network interface (which can change over time).
#"$LIBDIR/vmnet-bridge" -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-vmnet0.pid vmnet0 ''

Edit the vmx file for your virtual machine and change 

ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.vnet = "/dev/vmnet0"

to

ethernet0.connectionType = "custom"
ethernet0.vnet = "/dev/vmnet0"

make sure fusion isnt running and restart it with

sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh --restart 

Im not certain what speed im getting on the link in the VM, as task manager states it running at 10mb/s as does the driver. But I have network connectivity, which is all I wanted.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Is it possible to run Windows Server on Apple Xserve hardware

VMWare Fusion: Bridged Network Using a Bonded NIC

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