Category: vm

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Alternatives to ESX(i) on Mac OS X

VMWare ESX(i) does not support Mac OS X. The hardware does not match, and the license is in conflict.

VMWare has a solution for Mac OS X that is compatible with ESX VMs under the name of Fusion. However, this is a client application and the headless mode has been disabled in its latest release. It means one has to start a client-session and in there start the server…. As such, for running a server, VMWare has no viable solution.

Leaves us with investigating other alternatives.

  • Installing ESX on a Mac PRO.
  • Installing VirtualBOX headless.
  • Installing Parallels headless.

For running Virtual BOX headless, we will need to set Virtual BOX in the launchd (yes, Mac OS X has no init.d), and figure out how to get it working on different versions. 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 seem to be slightly different.
Secondly, we will need to get RDP connections to these VMs.
Thirdle, we will need to convert back and forward machines from ESX and/or Parallels into Virtual BOX.

A good article for furhter reading.