Install PhyOS on VMware

Overview

This guide walks you through running PhyOS 5 as a virtual machine on VMware. PhyOS ships as a ready-made OVA, so there is no installer to run and no media to write - you import the appliance and power it on.

The guide covers four deployment targets: vCenter, a standalone ESXi host, VMware Workstation, and VMware Fusion.

Prerequisites

For PhyOS installation

One of: vSphere 7 or later, a standalone ESXi 7 or later host, VMware Workstation 17, or VMware Fusion 13 on an Intel Mac
Host capacity for 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, and a 64 GB disk
About 4 GB of free disk space on the machine you download to
A port group or virtual network that provides DHCP and outbound internet access
ovftool if you are deploying to a standalone ESXi host
Internet connection
Access to the PhyStack console

Install PhyOS

Deploy the OVA on whichever VMware product you run, then power the virtual machine on.

Download the PhyOS OVA

Download the latest PhyOS OVA
Let the download finish completely before deploying - a truncated OVA fails the manifest check
Put the file on a machine that can reach your VMware host

Deploy with vCenter

In the vSphere Client, right-click the target host, cluster, or resource pool and select Deploy OVF Template
Select Local file, click Upload Files, and choose the .ova
Enter a name for the virtual machine and pick an inventory folder
Select a compute resource
On the storage page, choose a datastore and set the disk format to Thin Provision
On the networks page, map the OVA’s VM Network adapter to a port group that has DHCP and internet access
Click Finish and wait for the import task to complete

Deploy to a standalone ESXi host

Deploy directly with ovftool:

ovftool --acceptAllEulas --noSSLVerify --datastore=DATASTORE --diskMode=thin phyos.ova vi://root@ESXI-HOST/

Or unpack the OVA first:
Terminal window
```
tar -xvf phyos.ova
```
Then, in the VMware Host Client, right-click Host and select Create/Register VM
Select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file and click Next
Enter a name, then select the extracted .ovf and .vmdk files together
Choose a datastore, set the disk format to Thin Provision, map the network, and finish the wizard

Deploy with VMware Workstation

Select File > Open and choose the .ova
Accept the name and storage path, then click Import
Open Edit virtual machine settings and set the network adapter to a bridged or NAT network with internet access

Deploy with VMware Fusion

Select File > Import and choose the .ova
Click Continue, pick a save location, and click Save
Click Finish when the import completes

Power on the virtual machine

Power on the virtual machine
Open the virtual machine console - PhyOS boots to the connection screen

Connect device to PhyStack

After PhyOS boots:

You should see the PhyOS splash screen
The device will display a connection screen
Note the Serial Number displayed in the top-left corner of the screen
In the PhyStack portal, navigate to the device connection section
Enter the Serial Number in the Device Serial field
Click the Connect device button
The device will appear under Installations → Devices

Troubleshooting

VMware deployment issues

Upload fails or the browser stops responding on an ESXi host

The host client’s browser upload is limited to about 1 GB
Deploy with ovftool, or unpack the OVA and register the .ovf and .vmdk files

Deployment fails validation

Download the OVA again - a truncated file fails the manifest check
Confirm the whole file transferred before retrying

The virtual machine has no network

The OVA’s VM Network adapter was not mapped to a real port group
Edit the virtual machine settings and select a port group that provides DHCP

The virtual machine does not appear in the PhyStack console

Confirm the virtual machine has an IP address and outbound internet access
Re-check the serial number you entered in the Device Serial field

The virtual machine will not start on an Apple silicon Mac

Fusion on Apple silicon runs arm64 guests only
Use an Intel Mac, or deploy to vSphere, ESXi, or Workstation

Device-specific notes

Virtual hardware

The OVA declares 4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, a 64 GB disk, EFI firmware, a vmxnet3 network adapter, and a pvscsi storage controller. These settings survive import and do not need changing.

Storage

Choose Thin Provision so the 64 GB disk allocates space as it is used.

Networking

The OVA ships an adapter named VM Network. Map it to one of your port groups during deployment.

Display output

Use the hypervisor console to view the screen. No physical display is involved.

Important notes

Attach the virtual machine to a network that provides DHCP and outbound internet access
Deploy thin-provisioned unless your storage policy says otherwise
Leave the firmware set to EFI
Keep the downloaded OVA if you plan to deploy more devices