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We're currently trying to find creative ways for launching mac VMs on top of our Vcenter cluster.
Traditionally, we've been using Xserve mac servers, but these have become outdated and can no longer support the macOS versions we need for our VMs.

We've managed to successfully connect a mac mini to the cluster, running ESXI and hosting a VM running macOS Catalina. The problem is - it's very low on resources and we need something more robust in order to successfully utilise these VMs.

We have a lot of macbook pros lying around the office, most of them with much better specs than the mac mini we've been using. I've read this article which suggests these machines can become and ESXI host, but it only covers the case of running it as a host for VMware Fusion.

Would these instructions hold for creating an ESXI host for Vcenter as well?

Yaron Idan
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Please refer to VMware's HCL; here are the results for running ESXi on Apple hardware:

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=server&details=1&partner=269&page=1&display_interval=10&sortColumn=Partner&sortOrder=Asc

Massimo
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  • Thanks @Massimo, I understand that it's not officially supported by vmware. My question remains, however, whether a macbook pro configured to act as an esxi host can join a vcenter cluster. – Yaron Idan Oct 20 '20 at 12:35
  • @YaronIdan Did you actually open the link? Some MacMini and MacPro are indeed supported. – Massimo Oct 20 '20 at 14:01
  • BTW, *any* ESXi host can join a VCenter cluster, regardless of the hardware; support aside, if you can manage to get ESXi to run on a computer, it can be managed by a vCenter. – Massimo Oct 20 '20 at 14:02
  • Thanks @Massimo, that clears up what I was trying to understand. Just to clarify - I was asking about MacBookPro, not MacPro, which are not present in the link you've sent me. Your latest comment answers my question perfectly. – Yaron Idan Oct 20 '20 at 15:18