Creating a virtual machine running Mac OS X Server

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article explains the restrictions on creating a virtual machine running Mac OS X Server.

Environment

VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware Fusion 1.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x

Resolution

You can create a Mac OS X Server virtual machine, with these restrictions:

• Due to Apple licensing restrictions, you may only create and run this virtual machine on Apple-labeled hardware. For more information, see Apple's Hardware & Software Product Agreements.
  
  Note: The preceding link was correct as of March 12, 2015. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
   
• You cannot create a Mac OS X Client virtual machine for OS X 10.6 and earlier. Apple does not allow these Client OSes to be virtualized. With Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, Apple has changed their licensing agreement in regards to virtualization.
   
  • For more information on creating a Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) virtual machine, see Installing Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) as a virtual machine in Fusion 4 and later (2005334).
  • For more information on creating a Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) virtual machine, see Installing Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion (2033778).
  • For more information on creating a Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) virtual machine, see Installing OS X 10.9 Mavericks as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion (2056603)
  • For more information on creating a Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) virtual machine, see Installing OS X 10.10 Yosemite as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion (2082109)
     
• You can only create a virtual machine using a retail Mac OS X Server disk or image. Virtual machine creation fails when using a disk that came with an Xserve or a Mac Mini Server. Those disks are hardware-specific, and can only be used to install the OS on the physical hardware with which they were shipped. They cannot be used on virtualized hardware.For more information, see Installing Mac OS X Server on a virtual machine fails with the error: Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer (1032864).

For more information, see Creating a Mac OS X Server Virtual Machine in VMware Fusion in the VMware Fusion Help.

Additional Information

To create a virtual machine using a Mac OS X Server DVD or a disc image, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide.

Installing Mac OS X Server on a virtual machine fails with the error: Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer
Installing Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) as a virtual machine in Fusion 4 and later
Installing Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion
Installing OS X 10.9 Mavericks as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion
创建运行 Mac OS X Server 的虚拟机
Installing OS X 10.10 Yosemite as a guest operating system in VMware Fusion
Mac OS X Server を実行する仮想マシンの作成