How to install esx 4.0 on workstation 6.5.2

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How to Install ESX 4.0 on Workstation 6.5.2 as a VM
Title: Author(s): Target Audience: Current Revision: First Published: Product(s): UID: How to Install ESX 4.0 on Workstation 6.5.2 as a VM Xtravirt (Paul Buckle) Technical - Novice 1.2 (December 2009) June 2009 VMware ESX 4.0, Workstation 6.5.2 XD10089

Content Overview: • Step by step install guide for VMware ESX 4.0 as a virtual machine within VMware Workstation 6.5.2 • Why this is useful as a portable demo or training environment

1.0 Introduction
Being able to run VMware ESX 4.0 under VMware Workstation as a VM gives users and professionals in the IT community great flexibility when it comes to learning, experimenting or even demonstrating the product. Needless to say, this is not an officially supported deployment. The approach is fundamentally no different to that previously devised for VMware ESX 3.5, the main difference simply being the change in minimum hardware requirements. The following software is required: • VMware Workstation 6.5.2 (Build 156735) – presumed to already be installed • VMware ESX Server 4.0 (Build 164009) ISO image This installation was tested on a Lenovo T60 laptop computer with the following specification: • Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83GHz CPU • 2GB RAM • Intel PRO/1000PL Ethernet NIC • Windows XP Professional with SP3 • VMware Workstation 6.5.2 (Build 156735)
Note: The VMware ESX 4.0 installer will abort if it detects less than 2GB RAM, so the machine running VMware Workstation must have a minimum of this amount of RAM installed. If, as in this example, 2GB RAM is all that is installed, it will also be necessary to configure VMware Workstation to allow most of the VM’s RAM requirements to be swapped out to disk. See section 2.1 below.

2.0 Pre-Requisites
The minimum hardware requirements for the machine running VMware Workstation are: • 2GB RAM • A 64-bit x86 Intel VT-x or AMD-V capable processor (with the feature enabled in the BIOS) • 1 Ethernet NIC