Comments on: Installing macOS 12 Monterey on VMware ESXi 7 Update 3

By: Compaq

Compaq — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 11:10:50 +0000

Hi, folks

Is there any other way you can actually use a ESXi-homed MacOS install other then via host management interface?
You can RDP to a Windows system and work in a full desktop environment feeling like home.
Working in an Web Console or Remote Console of a ESXi host is really a pain (well, it’s sure better than nothing, but still…)

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:02:28 +0000

In reply to chris. Did you ever get this working on this hardware?

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 20:19:31 +0000

In reply to Kevin.

Thanks Kevin for your suggestion. I’m not sure which specific bootloop issue you ran into that these steps helped to resolve, but for everyone’s awareness the boot issue I’m having (see link below), which happens during upgrade of Monterey to Ventura, unfortunately the steps didn’t resolve my issue. I updated the NIC to VMXNET3 and have the latest VMWare Tools installed and Monterey continues to work fine like this but the upgrade fails.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210901

By: Merlin

Merlin — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 12:03:10 +0000

In reply to Kevin.

This, is a great tip. Thank you!

Got it working on ESXi 8.0 U1. Used the settings as described here (so I applied the patch which was originally intended for version 7). During configuring the VM I used the ESXi 7.0 U2 ‘profile’ so to say. I’m running the OS form an NVMe so I also used the virtual NVMe controller.

The only missing piece was changint the e1000 something network driver to vmxnet3.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 17:44:23 +0000

Hey all, just wanted to give back, if you’re stuck in bootloop on Ventura, set the NIC to VMXNET3.

This worked for me and seems to work fine on Monterey too. May require vmware tools before you have network connectivity (I changed Monterey VM after tools install), but def. works for Ventura with this single change.

Lastly, this site has links to apple to download Ventura: https://osxdaily.com/where-download-macos-installers/

Cheers

By: Jmarc

Jmarc — Tue, 23 May 2023 06:44:04 +0000

Thanks! I’ve used unlocker v3.0.2 on ESXi 7.0.3 and I’ve got both MacOS 12 and 13 VMs successfully running. Only hiccup is Safari: in both VMs, Safari would display a blank page on certain (most) web sites when it’s on the foreground but if I bring Finder on the foreground, then the content in Safari will “magically” appear. The web content is actually loaded but not rendered properly. Chrome works fine. Anyone else experiencing this? Try http://www.smh.com.au

By: chris

chris — Thu, 18 May 2023 21:13:55 +0000

Cannot get this working using ESXi 8.0 + Macpro6,1 (late 2013) hardware; gives a new definition to ‘infinite loop’

By: Jmarc

Jmarc — Mon, 01 May 2023 10:36:59 +0000

In reply to Brad Wallace.

Same here Brad. I did a clean install of Monterey a couple of days ago with no issue. Then I did an in place upgrade to Ventura and experienced cycle booting. Luckily I read your post and made a snapshot before the upgrade so I was able to revert back … strange …

By: Jmarc

Jmarc — Sun, 30 Apr 2023 05:39:32 +0000

In reply to James Little. I tried v4.0.6 but then I couldn't start any VM. Not good. So I removed and used v3.0.2 and it's working perfectly well, all VMs start, including Monterey.

By: Erick Dimalanta

Erick Dimalanta — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 21:37:57 +0000

In reply to AlphaTech. No special magic when I installed. It showed up as intended. Try powering off, then remove and re-add the HDD for the VM.