Restored VMware Mac OS X Virtual Machine is not Booting Up

SUMMARY

Restored VMware Mac OS X Virtual Machine is not Booting Up

ISSUE

Purpose

To let customers know that a Restored Mac OS X VMware Virtual Machine (VM) may not boot up correctly or may boot infinitely.

Description

A VMware VM running Mac OS X guest was Backed up from an ESX Server using Unitrends’ vprotect mechanism (i.e., without an agent). When it is Restored back to an ESX Server, the Restore is shown as ‘SUCCESSFUL’ on the Unitrends User Interface. But, when the VM is booted up on the vSphere Client, it is stuck at the boot screen (showing the Apple logo). When trying to boot it in Safe Mode, similar results are seen.

Cause

This happens because Mac OS VMs have a non-generic property. This property is only for Mac OS VMs. After Restoring the VM, if this property is not found, then, the VM wouldn’t boot up.

Resolution

To boot up the Mac OS X VM successfully, following steps must be followed on the vSphere Client –

1. Power OFF the restored VM.
2. Right click the VM and click on ‘Edit Settings’.
3. Click on ‘Options’ tab on top.
4. Click on ‘General’ under ‘Advanced’.
5. Click on the ‘Configuration Parameters...’ button seen on right. A new window will pop up with various parameters.
6. Click on ‘Name’ and everything will be sorted alphabetically. Look if ‘smc.present’ is already there.
7. If it is present and its value is ‘false’, then, change it to ‘true’.
8. If ‘smc.present’ is completely missing, then add it -

     - Click on ‘Add Row’ and add the following values

     - In the ‘Name’ column, type - smc.present

     - In the ‘Value’ column, type - true
     - Click on ‘OK’

      9. Power ON the VM

Third-Party Sources

Please note, the above article content does not condone or imply Unitrends or Kaseya support for OS X in esxi.   Per Apple EULA this is not a licensed deployment option.  Per VMWare documentation linked here, OS X is only supported on VMWare Fusion running on Apple hardware.  VMWare itself does not officially support OS X on ESXi.  https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1000131 https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1032440  
Unitrends Supports OS in VMs that are supported by the VM Platform vendor for that edition, and which are properly licensed by their OS vendor.  Unitrends Support can render no official support to the scenario described in this article as OS X on esxi even on apple hardware is not a licensed or supported configuration.