Running Windows Server 2012 under ESX 4.1

By admin, December 4, 2012 1:10 pm

I just saw this post, seemed someone got it working finally, I haven’t got time to try, if you did make it running, pls drop back a line, thanks.

Re: How to install windows 8 on esxi 4.1 ?

If you’d like to give it a shot, download the attached file and add the following options to your configuration file:

bios440.filename = “<full path to rom image>”
mce.enable = TRUE
cpuid.hypervisor.v0 = FALSE
vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE

Attachments:
bios.440.rom (512.0 K)

Solution:

Stop error 0×109: CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION on a VMWare virtual machine

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2060019?sliceId=1&dialogID=158133794&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&stateId=0+0+158145165

To work around this issue, manually create a CPUID mask for the affected virtual machines:

To manually create a CPUID mask for the affected virtual machines:
  1. Power off the virtual machine.
  2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
  3. Click the Options tab.
  4. Select CPUID Mask under Advanced.
  5. Click Advanced.
    • For Intel:
      • Under the Register column, locate the edx register under Level 80000001.
      • Paste this into the value field:—-:0—:—-:—-:—-:—-:—-:—-For example:

        cpuid.80000001.edx = —-:0—:—-:—-:—-:—-:—-:—-

categories Equallogic & VMWare (虛擬化技術)

4 Responses to “Running Windows Server 2012 under ESX 4.1”

  1. George says:
    December 19, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    Yes, it works.
    VMware tool works in Windows Server 2012 but it doesn’t work for Windows 8 32bit and 64bit.

    Reply
  2. admin says:
    December 19, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    George,

    Could you let me know the details for installing W2K12 under ESX4.1 pls?

    Did you select Windows 7 (64 bits) as OS?

    and you added all 3 in the configuration files right?

    mce.enable = TRUE
    cpuid.hypervisor.v0 = FALSE
    vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE

    Reply
  3. George says:
    December 20, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    For installing Windows 8, Windows 7 is selected as OS, both 32bit and 64bit work.
    For installing Windows 2012, Windows 2008 R2 is selected.
    I just followed the guide to include
    bios440.filename = “”
    mce.enable = TRUE
    cpuid.hypervisor.v0 = FALSE
    vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE

    Reply
  4. admin says:
    January 4, 2013 at 10:56 pm

    I’ve finally got time to test out W2K12, I found you only need to use the correct BIOS SLIC 2.2, OEM Certs and SLP Keys to successfully install and activate OEM W2K12 on ESX 4.1. All the extra parameters (mce.enable/cpuid.hypervisor.v0/vmGenCounter.enable) ARE NOT REQUIRED at all. (Update, yes, you still need to modify the CPUID)

    VMware Tools was installed correctly, but console mouse motion is quite lagging, tried to use WDDM method as in W2K8R2, but the whole screen turned into blank. Therefore, don’t update the video drive, use RDP instead. (Update: Download the latest VMware Tools for x64)

    So why bother upgrading to the buggy ESX 5.1 after all when we can happily runs Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 in ESX 4.1? I don’t see any point of it really.

    I also tried Windows 8, it worked perfectly, except VMware Tools will turn the screen into blank as well, you can solve this by install VMware Tools and select Custom or Modify in the VMware Tools installation wizard, then deselect the SVGA (XPDM) driver.

    Reply

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