Here’s a quick-how to I wrote a few months back when I ran into trouble trying to install the cDOT simulator in an ESXi environment. This was done on 5.1 but should work for 5.0 and 5.5 as well.

1. Load the vmware multiextent module “/sbin/vmkload_mod multiextent” (Add this to /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh so it gets loaded on boot going forward. This used to be loaded by default but that changed in VMWare 4.1, more here.)
2. Create a new vSwitch to use for the Cluster Network.
3. Download the 8.2 cDOT VMDK here.
4. Untar and ungzip the vsim_esx-cm.tgz and copy it to your datastore.
5. Using vCentre, browse the directory on your datastore that contains the unarchived files above.
6. Locate DataONTAP.vmx, right-click and choose “Add to Inventory.”
7. Give it a name (cDOT 8.2 Cluster node 1), choose a host, click Finish. DO NOT POWER IT ON YET.
8. Edit the properties of this newly created VM and make sure that the first two NICs (e0a and e0b) are on the cluster vSwitch.
9. Power on the vm and open the console.
10. Hit CTRL-C to enter the Boot Menu.
11. Choose option 4, type “yes” to the two questions and wait for your disks to zero.
12. Run through the cluster setup script, entering the licenses required (available here) when prompted. The only required one is the Cluster License itself, the rest can be added later.
13. Repeat steps 4-8 from above, choosing a different name in step 7 (cDOT 8.2 Cluster node 2). You MUST repeat step 4, do NOT leverage cloning, it will NOT work.
14. When you power up this VM, it is VERY important to not let it boot, so open up the console right away and hit any key other than Enter for the VLOADER prompt.
15. Set and verify the SYS_SERIAL_NUM and bootarg.nvram.sysid as described on page 32, steps 10 and 11 in the Simulate ONTAP 8.2 Installation and Setup Guide.
16. Type boot at the VLOADER prompt to boot the node.
17. Repeat steps 10-13 from above, choosing to join an existing cluster and using the second set of licenses located in the text file linked to in step 12. ONTAP 8.2 introduced node-locked licensing so it is important to use the right keys.

You should now have a functioning, simulated two node cluster.