Installation of VMware ESXi 5 inside of VMware Workstation 8 - ESX Virtualization

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Installation of VMware ESXi 5 inside of VMware Workstation 8

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My video showing the installation steps on how to install VMware ESXi 5 inside of VMware Workstation 8. Why would one want to run nested ESXi 5? Because of the flexibility of such a solution. You can add more NICs to your “virtual ESXi”, more storage (just add another hard disk…), and more. For testing this solution is one of the most common, because you can use the desktop for anything else than just running a VMware Workstation and couple of VMs….

The process is very straightforward since in Workstation 7 the option of the direct selection of the hypervisor from a dropdown menu is present. As you can see on the screenshot below, there is a possibility to run virtual ESXi 5 and ESX(i) 4. Through the assistant of creating new VM just select the latest hardware version 8, which has been introduced in vSphere 5 and which brings new performance options and enhancements over earlier version which was a version 7. Some of them are the 2TB virtual disks, 8 vCPU or 64 Gigs of RAM….

You can actually over 600 different OS inside of VMware Workstation 8.

Installation of VMware ESXi 5 inside of VMware Workstation 8 - excellent way to test the new ESXi 5

VMware Workstation 8 is a very flexible tool for that.  Just make sure that you bridge the Network adapter, otherwise you won't be able to ping that server on your network.

Here is the video…

Enjoy…-:)

I think that the sound loop is a bit annoying at the end…

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About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x16, Veeam Vanguard x9, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

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Comments

  1. Chris says

    Hi vladan. I’m fan of your website. Do you try to run esxi 4.1 inside vmware workstation 8. Does vmware workstation 8 support esx 4.1 and run nested 64 bit VM? Well, i’ve run ESXi 4.1 inside vmware workstation 8 but can’t get the NIC working at all. Not sure you have the same experience. Do you care to share? Thanks again.

  2. Chris says

    Anyway, i’ve put some time to troubleshoot the matter. Go to the virtual network editor in vmware workstation 8 and changed the vmnet0 to bridged to connect it to physical NIC (Realtec NIC in my case). By default, it’s set to Automatic. Don’t have issues in the past, but for some reason, it’s not working in vmware workstation 8.

    Also if u plan to install Win XP as a VM, make sure u run vmware workstation 8 as an administrator and run this program in compatibility mode for windows xp service pack 3. 🙂

  3. Peter says

    Hi,
    I have VT enabled for my CPU in the bios but during my install of esxi 5 it says VT is not enabled. Do you know why this is?
    I noticed that during your installation video the same message appeared. Did you have VT enabled also? Is this a flaw with vm wkstn 8?
    thanks and regards, peter

  4. DAvid says

    Chris, ESXi 4.1 does work on vmware worktation 8. I just installed today and works like a charm!

  5. Mike says

    Hi Vladan, I have prepared lab inside workstation 8.0, I just want to deploy vMA inside the workstation but when deploy it will show up license agreement which I am not able to accept