macOS Hypervisors that use Apple's Hypervisor Framework on Apple Silicon Macs

[Yebubbleman]

At this point there seem to be a ton of them out there. I've tried VirtualBuddy, UTM, virtualOS, and some others. The functionality (in terms of being able to customize virtual network interfaces, USB device pass-thru, and other virtual machine elements) appears to be very limited compared to the kinds of things that you'd get out of VMware Fusion or even Parallels. At least on the ones that I've tried and at least with regards to spinning up a macOS virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac host. I know that, as far as virtualizing macOS, we're in entirely different territory and that the capabilities and lack thereof are going to be quite different than virtualizing macOS on an Intel Mac host.

Are there any others that enable greater control? Or are all of these tools more or less stuck with whatever Apple allows in their hypervisor framework?

These things are fun to play with, but I'd love to create a virtual lab of VMs that I can spin up, have users use, and even be able to be migrated elsewhere. I know that Apple has a two-VMs-per-physical-box licensing rule when virtualizing macOS in this fashion. But even still, that would enable someone to run two M2 Max caliber VMs on a single M1 Ultra Mac or two M2 caliber Macs on a single M2 Max caliber Mac.

One issue that I've run into in testing on VirtualBuddy (and I'd imagine that this is no different anywhere else) is that one cannot sign into an Apple ID anywhere on a VM. You get "This Action could not be completed" type errors. I've heard that this is due to the Mac not having a real serial number. Not sure if anyone else has encountered that and/or has more to say on that. On the bright side, you can manually enroll these VMs into an MDM and get Mac App Store apps pushed out to them that way.

But yeah, would love to hear from anyone that has explored macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon further!

 

[Rnd-chars]

The Apple ID is a known issue when using Apple’s Virtualization framework.

I haven’t played around with the network stack much, but it looks like it has at least a few options for customization that could be exposed through a GUI.

If you want to read more about Apple’s implementation, you might want to check out this site which has a lovely walkthrough of its capabilities, including a post on its limitations.

 

[Yebubbleman]

The Apple ID is a known issue when using Apple’s Virtualization framework.

Again, I recall hearing that this was due to the serial number of the VM not being valid. Not sure if that is the culprit here, but I suspect that one would have this problem on an x86 VM running x86 macOS too. Will have to look into that further!

I haven’t played around with the network stack much, but it looks like it has at least a few options for customization that could be exposed through a GUI.

I can't imagine that functionality doesn't exist, especially with your link here. I thought it odd that VirtualBuddy didn't really give me much options other than NAT vs. Bridged. What if I don't want a 192.168.64.xxx subnet, y'know?

If you want to read more about Apple’s implementation, you might want to check out this site which has a lovely walkthrough of its capabilities, including a post on its limitations.

I LOVE Howard Oakley's site! I only saw one of his articles. I had no idea he wrote more on the topic. I will definitely do more perusing! In the meantime, thank you muchly for the direction!

 

[bobcomer]

Again, I recall hearing that this was due to the serial number of the VM not being valid. Not sure if that is the culprit here, but I suspect that one would have this problem on an x86 VM running x86 macOS too. Will have to look into that further!

I believe that's the case, but I'll try it to make sure. It has something to do with the identification of the Mac, but I don't know if it's as simple as the serial number.

 

[bobcomer]

I can't imagine that functionality doesn't exist, especially with your link here. I thought it odd that VirtualBuddy didn't really give me much options other than NAT vs. Bridged. What if I don't want a 192.168.64.xxx subnet, y'know?

It can exist, whether it does at this stage or not, I don't know, but I do know it's very rudimentary right now -- it'll get better.

 

[bobcomer]

I was wrong, parallels somehow gets around the problem on intel Mac's, so VM's can sign into iCloud with the same ID as the host. Now I'm spinng up a new Mac OS 13 on my Mini to see if it's been solved for Parallels on the M2 Pro. I know an Old VM I had with MacOS 12 still couldn't sign into iCloud.

 

[bobcomer]

No, The Mini M2 Pro still can't have a VM that signs into the same Apple ID.

 

[altaic]

I was wrong, parallels somehow gets around the problem on intel Mac's, so VM's can sign into iCloud with the same ID as the host. Now I'm spinng up a new Mac OS 13 on my Mini to see if it's been solved for Parallels on the M2 Pro. I know an Old VM I had with MacOS 12 still couldn't sign into iCloud.

I’m curious, can you turn Find My on in the VM? If so, is it shown in the Find My app as a separate device or does Parallels sync the setting with the host? Also, which Intel Mac?

 

[Zshrc]

I’m more curious about the ability to make host-only network interfaces. I know Parallels offers this with the Pro edition, but I wonder if a program exists or if there’s an Apple API that can easily create these.

 

[bobcomer]

I’m curious, can you turn Find My on in the VM? If so, is it shown in the Find My app as a separate device or does Parallels sync the setting with the host? Also, which Intel Mac?

FindMy defaulted to on when I signed in, and yes, the findmy website kind of sees it but says no location available.

The intel Mac I'm using is a 2020 27" iMac running Ventura 13.4.1 (22F82).