Today we're talking about virtualisation and Apple Sillicon. At the last WWDC, Apple announced an update to its virtualisation framework with Big Sur. This framework provides a new high-level API for creating and managing virtual machines on Apple Sillicon and Intel Mac computers.
In this article, we'll look at how you can take advantage of Apple's virtualisation framework to test the new features of macOS Ventura.
Obtain Xcode Beta
To obtain the new capabilities of the virtualization framework from Apple, you have to download the last version of Xcode-beta. With your managed AppleID, you need to request access to Apple Seed for IT (ask your Apple Business administrator to create your’s if needed) and donwload the lastest version of Xcode-beta 14 here.
Once the installation is done, launch Xcode-beta one time to initialize the new feature provided by Xcode-beta 14.
Download macOS Ventura IPSW file
To test the lastest macOS Ventura functionalites, you have to donwload the last IPSW file on the Mr. Macintosh blog for example : https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/
IPSW files are very useful to reinstall any macOS version on your Apple Sillicon computer with Apple Configurator in less than 10 minutes.
Install and Create a VM with UTM
UTM is a free and Open-Source software. It can virtualize ARM64 operating systems on Apple Sillicon. With the virtualization framework provided by Apple, UTM can virtualize OS with performance close to the native experience. You can also emulate x86/64 operating systems.
You can download the application here or in the Mac App Store to support the developper and drop it to your applications folder to begin. You can also contribute to the project on GitHub https://github.com/utmapp/UTM
Once the various prerequisites have been implemented, we can start the journey of the VM creation.
Choose “Create a New Virtual Machine”
Choose “Virtualize”.
And “macOS 12+”.
Browse your finder and select the IPSW file downloaded.
You can customize the hardware configuration (Ram and Storage) but the default configuration is enough for testing purpose.
The last step of customization let you rename the VM, and select Open VM Settings to customize the network part.
Browse “Network” tab
Under “Network Mode” dropdown menu select “Bridged”. I noticed that network performance was better with this mode than the default Shared mode.
You are now ready to initialize your VM.
Launch your VM and click “OK”.
Take a break for the next five minutes, during the installation of macOS (depend on your hardware host configuration).
After all this step, you land on the Setup Assistant with macOS Ventura color theme.
Now, you can enjoy your new VM with the last macOS Ventura beta and take advantage of the new System Settings panel
You can browse the dedicated webpage on Apple website, to learn more about macOS Ventura: https://www.apple.com/macos/macos-ventura-preview/ and test it on your brand new VM.
About limitation
If you were using virtualization with a Intel Mac computer, you have to deal with some limitation like using snapshot to save the state of your VM or to set the serial number of your VM to show Apple ADE features.
There are good hopes that Apple will evolve the virtualization framework to add new features.
On the other hand, it is possible to enroll this VM in Workspace one UEM in order to test enrollment workflow, business applications or script!
This article is the first of a series about new functionality coming up with macOS Ventura, keep in touch soon!
