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Installing Snow Leopard Server in vmware?

L

lloyd709

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 10, 2008
312
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I have a real need for continuing to use Rosetta but also will need to upgrade to Lion at some point soon.

I've heard that it's possible to install Snow Leopard Lion Server under vmware under lion but I can't find much information on it on the web.

Has anyone one done it and have any advice/comments?

Does Snow Leopard Server run everything Snow Leopard does?

Many thanks
 
You will need the install media or you can make a DMG of the install. Its super duper easy. Create a new VM, mount the DMG, and go. Just like that. The SL Server is essentially the same as SL just with added services (which you can disable.) I used to do this in order to package software and it worked great.
 
I've got Snow Leopard Server installed in a VMware 4.1 virtual machine on Mountain Lion. This is so I can run a single PPC application.

It seems to work fine except for a couple of things.

1. There is no sound. There are no devices visible in the Sound system preference. (I have installed the VMware tools.)

2. It is a bit sluggish at times. I have given it 2GB of RAM, and activity monitor shows it using less than 1GB.

3. It seems rather limited in its sharing capabilities. It would be nice to be able to locate a folder from the Mac anywhere in the Virtual Machine, so as to be able to use a single folder on both machines. However, they all appear as part of a network disk on the desktop.

Further, they do not seem to automatically update. If I add a file to a shared folder after the VM is running, the new file never appears unless I restart the virtual machine. :-(

I wonder if Parallels is any better with Snow Leopard?
 
davidmorr said:
I've got Snow Leopard Server installed in a VMware 4.1 virtual machine on Mountain Lion. This is so I can run a single PPC application.

It seems to work fine except for a couple of things.

1. There is no sound. There are no devices visible in the Sound system preference. (I have installed the VMware tools.)

2. It is a bit sluggish at times. I have given it 2GB of RAM, and activity monitor shows it using less than 1GB.

3. It seems rather limited in its sharing capabilities. It would be nice to be able to locate a folder from the Mac anywhere in the Virtual Machine, so as to be able to use a single folder on both machines. However, they all appear as part of a network disk on the desktop.

Further, they do not seem to automatically update. If I add a file to a shared folder after the VM is running, the new file never appears unless I restart the virtual machine. :-(

I wonder if Parallels is any better with Snow Leopard?
Click to expand...

Good to hear someone has actually done it - I was starting to thing it was just a theoretical possibility!! Doesn't sound that good though! I was hoping it would be a litter smother than the experience you seem to be having. I wonder if VMware V5 is any better?

I've actually just managed to source a copy of Snow Leopard server so will be trying it myself at some point soon. It's a bit of work for me though because I'm still on Snow Leopard and will need to duplicate my disk before I upgrade to Mountain Lion to test it. But I'm definitely going to try it soonish and will report back - I'm going to be trying it on VMware V5.
 
Have you considered installing Snow Leopard on a separate partition? That way you'll get all the speed you need as well as access to all the hardware.
 
durija said:
Have you considered installing Snow Leopard on a separate partition? That way you'll get all the speed you need as well as access to all the hardware.
Click to expand...

Two issues with that. First, you won't be able to have access to both your snow leopard applications and your Lion applications at the same time. Second, Snow Leopard won't run natively on new hardware (that use Ivy Bride and USB3) so you can't do if you want to use new hardware.
 
Installing Snow Leopard client (with Rosetta) into Parallels

Full instructions here

[click on images to enlarge]
 

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Last edited:
MichaelLAX said:
Really the choice is yours:

Snow Leopard Server - $399 and follow Parallels installation instructions; or

Snow Leopard Client - $19 and follow my installation instructions!

14 day free Trial of Parallels
Click to expand...
You can generally buy a much cheaper copy of Snow Leopard Server on ebay (I just bought a sealed copy for $60! - I think I was lucky though)
 
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How does Apple handle the serial number for Snow Leopard Server?

Does it come in the manual, on a separate sheet or some other method of distribution?
 
MichaelLAX said:
How does Apple handle the serial number for Snow Leopard Server?

Does it come in the manual, on a separate sheet or some other method of distribution?
Click to expand...

I'm away for the next week but I'll take a look when I get back. I haven't opened it yet but I'm sure it's somewhere in the package!

I did a bit of research though when I was looking out for a copy because there are quite a few opened copies being sold online. Apparently, you can use the serial number as many times as you like - as there is no online activation or anything like that. The only thing you can't do is install two copies on the same network - apparently it spots that!!
 
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