How to Install macOS High Sierra on VMware ESXi 6.7 (6.7U2)

Quick Insight

VMware ESXi lets you run macOS High Sierra on a PC without owning a Mac. First, upload the Unlocker tool and macOS ISO to your ESXi datastore. Connect to ESXi via SSH using PuTTY, then unzip and run the Unlocker install commands. Reboot your ESXi server after the install finishes. Create a new VM and pick Apple Mac OS X 10.12 (64-bit) as the guest OS. Attach the macOS ISO to the VM and boot it. Open Disk Utility, erase the virtual disk, then close it. Select Install macOS and pick that disk as the target. Complete the setup wizard with your language, location, and user account. Install VMware Tools from the darwin.iso to get full screen and mouse support.

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Category:VMware ESXi
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In this article, we’ll examine how to build macOS High Sierra on a virtual machine using the VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi server.

Installing macOS with ESXi

How to Run macOS High Sierra on VMware ESXi

It is simple to install macOS High Sierra on a PC or Laptop with virtualization programs without a Mac computer.

In our previous articles, we installed the Sierra and High Sierra on Windows 10 using VMware Workstation and Oracle VM VirtualBox. In this article, we will build the High Sierra 10.13.4 with the virtual machine on the VM ESXi server.

  • How to Setup macOS System with VirtualBo
  • How to Setup macOS System with VMware

Before installing macOS with VMware ESXi, you need to prepare the virtual machine for macOS. We were using VMware Unlocker to run macOS systems on the VM Workstation. Likewise, we also need to use VM Unlocker to run macOS on VM ESXi.

First, download the VMware Unlocker 2.1.1 to your computer and upload it to the ESXi datastore. Then, follow the steps below to set up macOS High Sierra on vSphere ESXi.

How to Setup macOS High Sierra on vSphere 6.5/6.7U2

If this is your first time installing ESXi, check out How to Install vSphere. After you have installed the ESXi, download the macOS ISO files using the following links.

  • Download Mac OS 10.12 ISO
  • Download Mac OS 10.13.4 ISO

Upload the macOS ISO and VMware Unlocker.zip files to Datastore on VMware ESXi. Then, download the Putty program to make an SSH connection.

To set up Mac OS on VMware ESXi, follow the instructions below.

Step 1

After you copy the VMware Unlocker211.zip file in Datastore, open Putty.

VMware Unlocker211.zip

Step 2

On Putty, type in the IP address of the ESXi server in the Hostname section and 22 in the Port section. Once you are sure that you have selected the SSH connection on Putty, click on the Open button.

Type your username and root password for the SSH connection.

Connecting to ESXi Server using SSH

Step 3

On the console screen, go to vmfs/volumes/datastore1.

vmfs/volumes/datastore1

Step 4

Execute the unzip VMwareUnlocker211.zip command to extract the VMwareUnlocker211.zip file.

unzip VMwareUnlocker211.zip

Using the unzip VMwareUnlocker211.zip command

Step 5

After extracting the VMware Unlocker.zip file, please enter it in the folder and execute the following commands to build VMware Unlocker on VMware ESXi.

cd VMUnlocker211/
ls
cd esxi
ls
chmod +x esxi-install.sh
./esxi-install.sh
reboot

After setting up VMware Unlocker on VMware ESXi, restart your VMware ESXi server using the reboot command.

./esxi-install.sh

Step 6

Restarting VMware ESXi.

Restarting ESXi Server

Step 7

After VMware ESXi is powered on, create a new virtual machine. In the macOS virtual machine, select Apple Mac OS X 10.12 (64-bit) in the Guest OS Version section.

Apple Mac OS X 10.12 (64-bit)

Step 8

Add the ISO file to the virtual PC and run the virtual machine. After starting the VM, the installation will begin as in the image below.

Starting macOS High Sierra

Step 9

On the macOS setup screen, select your system language and continue.

Selecting System Language

Step 10

Open the Disk Utility program in the macOS Utilities window.

macOS Utilities

Step 11

Format the virtual disk as you need to prepaitisk before installing macOS. Once you have formatted the macOS hard disk, close the Disk Utility window.

Formatting macOS Disk

Step 12

Select Install macOS in the macOS Utilities window and click the Continue button.

Install macOS

Step 13

Click on the Continue area to start the setup on vSphere ESXi.

Continue to installing macOS

Step 14

Accept the Apple OS license agreement.

Accepting License Agreement

Step 15

Select the disk you want to install and click the Continue button.

Selecting the Disk

Step 16

Once the installation files have been copied, the virtual machine will restart.

Installing macOS

Step 17

Please select where you live and click the Continue button.

Select Region

Step 18

Choose your keyboard layout and continue with the setup.

Keyboard Layout

Step 19

To proceed, please click on Continue in the Data & Privacy window.

Data and Privacy

Step 20

For clean installation, select Don’t transfer any information now and click Continue.

Transfer Information to This Mac

Step 21

Click Set Up Later to configure your Apple ID account later.

Set Up Later

Step 22

Accept the macOS software license agreement.

Terms and Conditions

Step 23

Configure your user account information and click Continue.

Create a New Username

Step 24

Click on Customize Settings to configure Apple’s map, location, and data-sending properties.

Express Set Up

Step 25

If you want to enable location services, select Enable Location Services on this Mac and click Continue.

Enable Location Services

Step 26

Select your time zone and click Continue.

Select Your Time Zone

Step 27

If you want to send Mac data analysis to Apple developers, select Share Mac Analytics with Apple.

Analytics

Step 28

You are setting up your Mac virtual machine.

Setting Up Your Mac

Step 29

We have successfully installed the Mac operating system using VM ESXi!

Checking macOS Version

How to Install VMware Tools for macOS Virtual Machine

It is important to install VMware Tools for your macOS High Sierra virtual computer. So, I suggest adding the darwin.iso file to your VM and using it to set up the guest drivers.

FAQ About Installing High Sierra on ESXi

What happens if I do not apply the Unlocker patch before installing macOS High Sierra on ESXi?

If you do not apply the patch, you will not see the Apple Mac OS X option in the virtual machine creation wizard. VMware hides this option by default due to license issues.
If you skip the patch and try your luck by picking another operating system profile, the result is disappointment. The installation media opens but gets stuck on the disk format screen.
Connecting to the server via SSH and running the esxi-install.sh script removes this wall. Once it is done, ESXi starts to present itself as Apple hardware.

Why do I get a ‘Connection Refused’ error when connecting via SSH with Putty?

This error usually means the SSH service is turned off on ESXi. VMware keeps this service passive in factory settings for security reasons.
You need to enter the server’s web interface, go to the Host menu, and click the Services tab. Find the TSM-SSH line in the list and click the Start button under Actions.
It also helps to check the firewall rules. Once you are sure the SSH port is open for incoming connections, you can connect with Putty without any problems.

My virtual disk does not show up on the Disk Utility screen. How do I format it?

The reason for this annoying situation is that the disk is not yet ready for the Apple file system. Click the View menu at the top left corner of the Disk Utility window.
Select the Show All Devices option from the list. This move makes the VMware virtual disk visible at the main controller level.
Now select the VMware Virtual SATA Hard Drive text and click the Erase button from the top menu. Set the format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and choose the GUID Partition Map scheme. Your disk will be ready to use in seconds.

The virtual machine keeps restarting during installation. What is the reason?

This is a very common timing problem on ESXi 6.7 and later. Apple’s kernel misreads the virtual hardware clock and puts itself into a shutdown loop.
Turn off the virtual machine and go to Edit Settings. Expand the VM Options tab and go down to the Boot Options section.
Change the Firmware setting from BIOS to EFI. Also, under Advanced, fix the cpuid.coresPerSocket value to 1. These two small fixes break the endless restart loop.

Why should I still install High Sierra when there are newer versions?

High Sierra offers golden stability, especially on servers with old Intel Xeon processors. Mojave and Catalina forced a switch to the Metal graphics API, so they lose performance in a virtual setup.
Also, many old production software and build setups work without problems only on this version. Support for 32-bit apps was completely dropped with Mojave.
So if you are setting up a development or test environment, High Sierra is still one of the smartest choices. Thanks to its light kernel, it gets the job done with low resource use.

I followed all the steps correctly, but the system is very slow. What do you suggest?

First, check the amount of memory you gave to the virtual machine. High Sierra needs at least 4 GB of RAM to breathe easily.
Second, set the number of CPU cores to more than one, but do not go overboard. A setup of 2 cores on a single socket gives the best balance.
The last and most critical point is VMware Tools installation. Without this package, graphics tasks are faked by software and the system crawls. The moment you mount the Darwin.iso file and install the drivers, the performance gets visibly better.

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Tolga Bagci

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Computer Expert System Networking Virtualization

Hi, I'm Tolga, a computer expert with 20 years of experience. I help fix computer issues with things like hardware, systems, networks, virtualization, servers, and operating systems. Check out my website for helpful info, and feel free to ask me anything. Keep yourself in the loop about the newest technologies!

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9 People Shared Their Experience

  1. Works like a charm with your method of installation!~~
    Unfortunately I encounter problem with no sound, and sometimes white noise occurs.
    Do you happen to know how to make the sound work?

    1. Thanks for your comment.

      Can you check the audio device of your virtual machine?

  2. i have tried installing 10.13.6 and 10.14 but both keep rebooting in a loop

    im installing in ESXi 6.7

    could i be missing something on ESXi?

    1. Install this Unlocker for ESXi 6.7.

      1. meet the same problem even after install the specified Unlocker.

  3. Same here! On ESXi 6.5 and Unlocker Version 3. Any suggestions?

  4. It worked for me. Chose “Apple Mac OSX 10.13” in ESXi.
    I chose Unlocker 2.11. So I had to change “esxi-install.sh” in vi to check for version 6.7.0 instead of 6.5.0 because I was running 6.7.0.
    Then after I formatted the drive under install it would not boot from iso. Said it was corrupt. So I had to start up the terminal, navigate to Install Mac OS X High Sierra/MacOS -folder. Then execute command”./InstallAssistant”.
    Everything has worked smoothly since then.

  5. I had to do the same workaround with 10.14 under the installation process. To clarify:
    1. Start up the terminal after preparing the disk.
    2. Go down to root folder. (3 x “cd ..”)
    3. Go into folder “Install macOS Mojave.app”. Go into folder “Contents”. Go into folder “MacOS”.
    4. Execute command: “./InstallAssistant”.
    5. Continue installation per instructions in article above.

  6. If anything just passthrough a usb soundcard on the host machine and connect headphones/speaker to it

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