MacOS Big Sur Setup freeze at the end on vmWare ESXi

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Level 1

8 points

MacOS Big Sur Setup freeze at the end on vmWare ESXi

Hello. This is my first question here.

I works on an IT Company and we develop many web and mobile apps, so we use Mac (iMac and Macbook) for iOS development and web app test on Safari.

With the pandemic, we were forced to hire freelancers from all over the world, many of then without access to a Mac devices, so they can't test or develop for Mac or iOS.

To solve this problem, we decided to take advantage of our HP servers with vmWare ESXi 6.7 to install a virtual machine with MacOS Big Sur (downloaded from one of our iMac). The idea is to provide remote access to freelancers to that VM.

We were able to go through the setup process without problems, until it reaches a point where it says "Less than a minute left" and it freezes there (we have waited more than 24 hours but nothing happen).

Somebody know how to complete the process?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Feb 11, 2021 4:55 AM

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Answer 1

DiegoCalvo Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 11, 2021 5:08 AM in response to dialabrain

They say that we must upgrade vmWare to ESXi 7.0 before get tech support about Big Sur. They don't test 6.7 with this version of MacOS. Apply ESXi 7.0 in our servers it's not easy for us, and even less if we do not have a guarantee it works.

Some members of the vmWare community say the problem is that Big Sur only runs on Apple hardware, but I don't know if that's true.

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Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

135,719 points

Feb 11, 2021 5:12 AM in response to DiegoCalvo

DiegoCalvo wrote:

Some members of the vmWare community say the problem is that Big Sur only runs on Apple hardware, but I don't know if that's true.

It would violate Apple's SLA to run any version of macOS on non-Apple hardware.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,206 points

Feb 11, 2021 7:45 AM in response to DiegoCalvo

Because VMWare ESXi (or was it VSphere) at one time was installable on Mac Pro and Mac mini server hardware, and launching macOS guests under those hardware configurations did not violate Apple's licensing of macOS which has stipulated Mac-only hardware for years.

It would not surprise me that somewhere, VMware has a disclaimer that ESXi should not provide macOS guests if not installed on Apple hardware — just to protect them legally.

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