Running ESX(i) within Parallels

C

Chefe

Bit poster
Hi,

i'm working with two Virtualization environments.
The first one is a Bare-Only ESXi Server, the second Parallels on Mac.

Now would it be fine, to run the ESXi Server within Parallels. I dont need any other VMs within ESXi. It only need the host. Is it possible?

When i try to start the ESXi CD i get an "not implented" Purple Screen of Dead.
 
Chefe,

Please, describe your use-case with some more details, so we can provide you relevant advice.
What VMs are you running within ESXi, which VMs are you using within Parallels Desktop (btw, are you running Parallels Desktop or Server ?).

In general, running one virtualization solution inside another works, but overall performance of double virtualization is not a good thing. Though it will be very interesting to understand your question in more details.

Regards,
Max
 
Hi Max,

thanks for the fast reply.

In ESXi i dont use any VMs. I use the host only server to do some programming (API calls).
I use Parallels Desktop on Mac (4.0 Build 3540).

Here are some details for the using:

I program shell scripts within Windows (Powershell). For this i use ESXi at home for testing purposes. There are no other VMs running inside the ESXi host. Only testing purposes.
 
I understand now.

It seems to me that you'll be able to run ESXi under
Parallels Desktop without technical problems, since you don't run any VMs inside of it.

But the truth is that we didn't ever verify ESXi as a guest, which
means that you may have problems.

Where is your ESXi installed (is it flash on physical HDD partition?)
and which version do you use?

BTW, maybe the easiest way could be to install ESXi to the physical
partition on your Mac (like Boot Camp) and run that physical
partition under Parallels Desktop.

You will need to select guest OS type Linux - since its kernel is
the closest one to the ESX family.
 
The thing is i want a fresh install within Parallels.

So i make the following settings:

2 x CPUS
1 GB Ram
OS System: Redhat Enterprise Linux
Paravirtualized System
1 GB HD

The ESXi Screen boots up but i receive an Error with not implemented (i can post log files later this day).
 
ESXi is VERY picky, even on real hardware, on its requirements. Their HCL is very strict and I am almost certain that is the problem. I just built a real server (Dell T105) and went through all that to make sure the server was compatible with ESXi, especially the storage controller.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 I am certain it will work as it does have a much broader HCL. Another thing to try is XenServer 5.0, now that it is free and comparable in a way to ESXi.
Another thing to mention when I installed ESXi, with 512MB it did not even install (I would get the same purple screen you described). Maybe that is still the case with 1GB. You may need to allocate more memory. If that does not work, the issue is really the lack of support for the 'hardware' seen by ESXi.

CR
 
I dont think it’s because of the limited HCL (not only).
VMware and XenServer support ESXi within their hypervisor. So i think its because of my non 64-bit CPU. ESXi need some instructions from a special CPU.
 
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