My I.T infrastructure at home has 4 ESXi 4.1 servers which host a number of VMs that are used for home and work purposes. However, my organically grown infrastructure has now reached the point where it needs re-organising. As part of that I’m installing new A/D controllers and decided to use Server 2012.
And then found that ESXi 4.1 doesn’t support it. Try it and you’ll get the Server 2012 sad face appearing. I don’t have time just now to update to ESX5.X on my servers, so I hunted around the Internet to see if there was a workaround.
I found these set of instructions ( really don’t do this for a production environment )
- Create a new VM over the vSphere Client.
- As “Guest Operating System” use Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)”
- After VM has been created but before first power on, download the following bios file and upload it to your ESXi datastore into the folder of the VM
- Now open the .vmx file of the new VM and add the follwing lines
bios440.filename = "bios.440.rom" mce.enable = TRUE cpuid.hypervisor.v0 = FALSE vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE
- Power on VM and Server 2012 will install and run
Jon Giffard's Blog 
Right now I prefer Windows 2008 R2 from an admin PoV. Think Server 2012 will have to wait until R2, then I’ll come back to it.
worked fine.. Thanks
Got it. Thanks
Thanks! Works perfectly, even the VMWare Tools install fine.
Work
Thanks………..
worked fine.. Thanks!!!
Juhu, this was very helpful for me, thank you very much.
Work on a esx 4.0 too. Thanks
Thnx! works also for Windows 2012 R2.
Thanks, seems to work for esx 4.1 and Windows 2012 R2 also
Thanks for the work around!
For ESX 4.1 and Server 2012 R2 Build 9600 this did not work.
Before applying the fix, I got a blue screen almost instandly after setup started. After applying the fix I ran into a CRITICAL_STRUCTURE_CORRUPTION bluescreen after a couple of minutes (during the setup wizard or even while copying the files). In addition to the fix I had to follow the instructions in http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2060019
You sir, are a legend! 🙂
Many thanks. Working with ESXi 4.1.0 build 988178!
You save my life…May God bless you all the way forever!
Thank you So much worked like magic.
Thanks! so useful!!!
This also worked for me for Server 2012R2 and ESXi 4.0 build 1682696. Thanks 🙂
thanks its an awesome way to fix it..it works
That worked perfectly! Installed Windows Server 2012 R2 on VMWare 4.1. Thanks for the info!!
I’m running ESXi 4.1.0 – 348481. Has anyone got it working for this particular version. I run through the steps outlined above…
1. Create VM
2. Add ROM file to VM directory
3. Edit .vmx file and add variables
I think attach my ISO and boot. I then get an error saying the VM must reboot and it repeats this process over and over again 😦
Any help anyone can offer would be appreciated.
Kind regards
Paul
Thanks a lot. This helped more than you know. Greatly appreciated.
Work for me, thank’s
Good job! Works perfect!
wow its awesome, even able to upgrade to win2012. Thanq..
Great! Works also for 2012 R2. Thanks!
Thanks you so much Its worked charm
Thank you. This saved me when I really needed. One of my coworker pointed out that a datastore migration may not move the bios file with the other files. Something to keep in mind.
I need to move my VM environment to 5.0 anything special I need to do to a server 2012 vm with this fix before/after the move?
Just noting that the comment in the instructions “but before first power on”, isn’t critical. I had powered on a few times during testing what might work and your process still rendered a fully functional server. Thank you for taking the time to post this help.
Worked great for me – thanks for posting!
Hi, This works for me on esxi 4.1. Server 2012R STD installed perfect. Next year, we will migrate to new server hardware, and new vsphere 6.0. For now, our SAN (Datacore V8) is limiting us to upgrade vsphere right now. When we migrate to esxi 5.5 or 6, do I need change the vmx back to the Original setting? Or will there be no problems when upgrading VMWare tools?
thanks.
This worked perfectly, do it just as he wrote. No problems. THANK YOU! -Bob
Works fine, even wit W2K12R2. Just for a bunch of test servers, saves the hassle of upgrading ESXi for now.. Great!
Seems to work (Currently installing). Thanks alot
You are the MAN! that worked. Don’t forget to mention you should use notepad++ to edit the vmx file.
Many thanks for this trick !! Work like a charm ! 😉
Thank you Jon & Ed!, is working perfect!
Very good. If not enough (error code 0x0000005d), verify bios settings no-execute memory protection: http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000618
Master, thank you very much…
Saved me hours of messing around with ESXi upgrades. Worked exactly as described with Server 2012 R2. Also worth note that I applied this to a converted VM after trying to boot the VM a number of times on the ESXi host first. Applied the fix, worked first try. Perfect!
Excelente…!! funciona
thanks for the information, we have installed windows server 2012 in ESX4.1, but now we are migrating windows server 2012 virtual machine form esx4.1 to esxi6.5, after migration virtual machine is not powering on.
Please suggest.
Edit the vmx and remove the line with the BIOS.ROM reference.