Installing Kali Linux in a VMware ESXi Virtual Machine

Last updated: Jun 28, 2025

There are many hypervisors compatible with Kali Linux, as shown on the official Kali Linux download page.

Surprisingly, no official ESXi-native image is provided. While the Virtual Machines section includes a VMware image of Kali Linux, it is only designed for VMware Workstation, which is not directly compatible with VMware ESXi.

This guide details a method to import the VMware Workstation image into a VMware ESXi host.

Configuration:
- VMware ESXi version: 8
- Kali Linux release: 2024.3

Download Kali Linux

Start by visiting the Kali Linux official download page.

Then, click on the Virtual Machines tab to access pre-built VM images:

Kali Linux official website showing the Virtual Machines download option highlighted for VMware and VirtualBox

Select your preferred download method (Torrent or direct download):

Kali Linux Virtual Machines download page highlighting the VMware 64-bit option with file size and download methods

Once downloaded, you should have a 7zip archive file:

Compressed file kali-linux-2022.2-vmware-amd64.7z representing the downloaded Kali Linux VMware image

Next, extract the contents using a GNU/Linux shell. The following command extracts the files into a KALI directory:

user@host:~$ mkdir KALI && 7z e ./kali-linux-2022.2-vmware-amd64.7z -o./KALI/

Import a Kali Linux Virtual Machine to VMware ESXi

Import to ESXi host

Note: Before proceeding, connect to the ESXi host web interface and accept the HTTPS certificate. Otherwise, file uploads from vCSA may fail.

Open the Datastore menu, select the target storage for your Kali Linux virtual machine, and click the «UPLOAD FOLDER» button:

VMware ESXi interface highlighting the Upload Folder option in the datastore view

Once downloaded, open the KALI folder, select the file kali-linux-2024.3-vmware-amd64.vmx, and click the «REGISTER VM» link.

VMware ESXi interface showing the Register VM option highlighted for the Kali Linux VMX file

In the main menu, right-click on the virtual machine named kali-linux-2024.3-vmware-amd64, then select Upgrade VM Compatibility.

VMware ESXi menu showing the Upgrade VM Compatibility option for Kali Linux virtual machine

Enable SSH and convert the VMDK disk

From the vCSA web console, go to Configure > Services and start the SSH service:

VMware ESXi interface highlighting the SSH service with the Start button in the Services section

Then, connect to your ESXi host via SSH:

user@host:~$ ssh root@ESXi_IP

To list the available datastores on your system, use the following command:

[root@localhost:~] df -h
	Filesystem   Size   Used Available Use% Mounted on
	VMFS-6     465.0G 286.4G    178.6G  62% /vmfs/volumes/500G
	VMFS-L     119.8G   3.9G    115.9G   3% /vmfs/volumes/OSDATA-0269c4cb-fe6feb41-f534-d4be32a1d43e
	vfat         4.0G 203.8M      3.8G   5% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK1
	vfat         4.0G  64.0K      4.0G   0% /vmfs/volumes/BOOTBANK2

Navigate to the KALI directory:

[root@localhost:~] cd /vmfs/volumes/500G/KALI

Rename the original vmdk file:

[root@localhost:~] mv kali-linux-2024.3-vmware-amd64.vmdk OLD.vmdk

Convert the vmdk file to ESXi-compatible format:

[root@localhost:~] vmkfstools -i OLD.vmdk kali-linux-2024.3-vmware-amd64.vmdk

You should now be able to start the Kali Linux Virtual Machine.
Default login/password: kali / kali 🙂