VMwareFusion - zollak/pentest-notes GitHub Wiki

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VMware Fusion 8 Pro - works with High Sierra and below

Moving VMs in VMware Fusion

Move the VMs from the local hard drive to an external drive (link of howto)

VMware tools

Image file location on Mac:

MacBook-Pro:~ zollak$ ls -la /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/*.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    3403776 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/darwin.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel    3006464 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/darwinPre15.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   58564608 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/linux.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   54939648 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/linuxPreGlibc25.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel     540672 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/netware.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   16912384 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/solaris.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   14090240 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/winPre2k.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel   87752704 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/winPreVista.iso
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  143325184 Mar 20 02:34 /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/isoimages/windows.iso

Note: install VMware tools howto located on the linux section.

Boot from External Physical Hard Drive in VMware Fusion

Detailed howto

Find the USB with diskutil list:

MacBook-Pro:~ zollak$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         1.0 TB     disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +1.0 TB     disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            622.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 50.5 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.5 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *16.1 GB    disk2
   1:             Windows_FAT_32 MULTIBOOT               16.1 GB    disk2s1

Note: our case it is /dev/disk2

In VMware Fusion create a new linux VM (~/vms/Ubuntu\ 64-bit.vmwarevm):

-we need to stop VM, when start automatically
-we can remove the vmdk from Fusion settings: Hard Disks -> Advanced -> Remove Hard Disk

OK, when the VM creation is complete, now you have to actually use the physical hard drive as shown below

Create a RawDisk VMDK in the newly created VM that will point to the USB external hard drive

MacBook-Pro:~ zollak$ 
/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk2 fullDevice ~/vms/Ubuntu\ 64-bit.vmwarevm/usb-ext-hdd ide

Note: set your correct device path accordingly

Add the disk to your VM configuration (.vmx file)

MacBook-Pro:~ zollak$ cat <<EOF > ~/vms/Ubuntu\ 64-bit.vmwarevm/Ubuntu\ 64-bit.vmx
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "usb-ext-hdd.vmdk"
EOF

Power on your VM and voila! you should see your VM booting from the USB external hard drive