Finally, success! I was able to get vSphere 5.0 Update 1 loaded on a current Mac Mini (5,3) and patched to the latest bundle from July.
While there are many websites that document the process for installing ESXi onto the Mac Mini, I ran into a few problems along the way so will use the next couple blog posts to document the process that worked for me.
For this post, I’ll capture the various websites that I used for the info to get me started:
Christopher Wells on vsamurai.com
The first two links really planted the seed for this project. Working with virtual appliances, the idea of having a small/quiet ESX form factor was appealing for many reasons. I think it was AngryCiscoGuy’s blog that I saw first, but then vsamurai provided the step by step process that he had followed to get me going down this route on my own.
Along the way, I also ended referencing the following:
A couple of tidbits for this introductory post. While several of the blogs referenced above go to great detail to document the process they used to get ESX up and running, not all of the steps appear to still be valid. For instance, I was unable to get the Mini to boot from the the ESXi installers I downloaded from VMware … the only way I was able to get ESX to boot for install was to boot from a USB drive.
I’ll get the steps I used documented and also ensure that the solution is stable on the current patch bundles. I’ve also got a Thunderbolt GigE adapter I want to try out in order to get dual NICs running so I can separate storage and VM traffic across different links.