Mac OS X Snow Leopard,Lion,Mountain Lion on VMWare Fusion 7 Pro in a Mac Pro server machine having Yosemite

VMware interpreted Snow Leopard's original end-user license to NOT allow Snow Leopard non-server Mac OS X to be run in a virtual machine. ONLY the Snow Leopard Server license explicitly allowed it to be run in a virtual machine.

So VMware Fusion knows you are not trying to run the server, and VMware is refusing to do it. It is not a technical problem, just a business decision on the part of VMware. Parallels and VirtualBox took the same position back when Snow Leopard was the current Mac OS X.

It should still be possible to get the Snow Leopard server DVD. VMware Fusion will install and run that without complaint

With the release of Lion, the end-user non-server license explicitly allowed running in a virtual machine, and so does Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite. I'll assume El Captain does as well, but it is unreleased software at the moment.

Is there any latest official statement from Apple or VMWare (not community forums) which allows/decline 10.6.3 on Fusion.

We are NOT Apple, we are just Mac users, like yourself, so we are not in a position to give official statements. But if you consider that every commercial virtual machine software vendor refused to load non-server Snow Leopard clients, that their lawyers looked at this very closely and decided it was not worth a law suite with Apple. Again a business decision, not a technical decision.

Otherwise How to do the installation.

Since it is assumed running non-server Snow Leopard in a virtual machine is against the license, it would be a violation of the forum rules to give out instructions, if we knew them.

FWIW, I purchased the server disc directly from Apple Store Sales (its online store's telesales agents: 1-800-692-7753 on 8 DEC 14. If no go there, try Customer Service and Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775. It's important to have the product name and number so you get the correct thing. AFAIK, it's still available, even if you have to jump through many hidden hoops.

Prod Name: MAC OS X 10.6.3 SLSVR UNLCL SING LIC-INT

Prod Number: MC588Z/A

Price: $19.99

27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10.4), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

OS X 10.7 and 10.8 are NOT licensed to run in a virtual machine when a different OS X version (i.e. 10.10) is the host. Virtual machines of anything after 10.6 must be run on a host Mac running the same version of OS X (10.7 may only be run on a 10.7 host, 10.8 on a 10.8 host, etc). The respective license agreements are very clear about this.

It doesn't matter whether the virtual machine software supports 10.7 or 10.8 on a 10.10 host. The virtual machine companies are not in the business of enforcing end user license agreements between Apple and its end users. Apple has always relied on the ethics and moral character of its end users to enforce end user license agreements.

Get OS X 10.6 Server if you want to run that in a virtual machine, like baltwo says. If your Mac supports directly booting 10.7 and 10.8, you can install them on external hard drives and boot up into them when you need to. If your Mac cannot run these natively, you will need to find a used older Mac that can run them.

BobHarris wrote:

VMware interpreted Snow Leopard's original end-user license to NOT allow Snow Leopard non-server Mac OS X to be run in a virtual machine. ONLY the Snow Leopard Server license explicitly allowed it to be run in a virtual machine.

The VM companies did not consider the end user license agreement. That's not their business. They only consider the license agreements between themselves and Apple. If the VM companies were in the business of enforcing end user license agreements, they would disallow installing 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 virtual machines on a 10.10 host. Doing that is a violation of the respective end user license agreements, but again, the virtual machines are not in that business.

Since it is assumed running non-server Snow Leopard in a virtual machine is against the license, it would be a violation of the forum rules to give out instructions, if we knew them.

Running non-server Snow Leopard in a virtual machine is not an end user license violation. That is oft cited (and incorrect) reason speculated and given why the VM companies don't support it. The reason they don't support it is unknown because it has never been made public, but it's pretty clear to me that Apple, in exchange for licensing them the boot ROM code, insisted that they do not support it. Any such agreement is between Apple and the VM companies only; we the end users are not bound by it.

So we can (and have many times) talk freely here on Apple Discussions about installing non-Server Snow Leopard into a virtual machine. But there's little need to any more since Apple dropped the price of the fully supported Snow Leopard Server from $500 to $20. It's just not worth the hoop jumping to trick the VM software into installing the non-server version to save $20.

If the VM companies were in the business of enforcing end user license agreements, they would disallow installing 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 virtual machines on a 10.10 host. Doing that is a violation of the respective end user license agreements, but again, the virtual machines are not in that business.

Mavericks license does explicitly allow virtual machine usage. And I am fairly sure similar language was put into the Lion, Mountain Lion and Yosemite licenses, but I did not bother to look.

<https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/OSX109.pdf>

...you are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:

...

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple

Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own

or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software

development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d)

personal, non-commercial use.

I do like you suggestion that VMware (and others) do not allow Snow Leopard non-server use based on a contractual agreement. That actually makes a lot of sense. But for me that would still be just a guess. And while I have friends that work for VMware, they are software types, and were not part of any business discussions.

BobHarris wrote:

<https://www.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/OSX109.pdf>

...you are granted a limited, non-transferable, non-exclusive license:

...

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple

Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own

or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software

development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d)

personal, non-commercial use.

I highlighted the pertinent part. In order to runthe Apple Software in a virtual machine, the computer has to be already running the Apple Software.

"The Apple Software" does not mean any software that Apple has ever or will ever release. It has a specific legal meaning (it means the software accompanying the license not any other software) and is defined right at the beginning of the license agreement: